Written October 30, 2012 2:58pm

Ellen has been in the NICU for the past week. It has been a week of highs and lows and everything in between. The first concern for Ellen was her breathing. She was breathing on her own, but her respiratory rate was too high. She was able to resolve this within a day. However, by Thursday we knew that she was not keeping herself warm enough and that jaundice was a problem. She was put into an isolet (looks like an incubator) and under a photo therapy light to take care of both of the issues. By Sunday she was able to get rid of both and stay in an open air bassinet!

Currently her biggest issue is feeding. She is on an eating schedule of every three hours, but she is tube fed every other feeding because she doesn’t have the energy to bottle or breast feed every time. She is gaining weight slowly but surely, but we need to get her feeding on her own before we can think about taking her home.

In addition to feeding, she still has some episodes of apnea and brady events (she stops breathing or her heart stops beating). It’s pretty scary when that happens (especially when it happens during a feeding), but she is able to self resolve it. Dr. Winslow and the NICU nurses (possibly my favorite people in the world right now) all say that this is normal for a preemie and will pass. In order for her to come home, she needs to go 24 hours without an event.

Right now those are the basics. I figured I would just do a general catch up. As for Mike and me, we are doing pretty good. Mike has been fantastic throughout the entire process. I can’t imagine having to do this with anyone else. It is an emotional time for us, but the honest truth is that right now we don’t know any better than what we are experiencing right now. We are both very aware that we can’t give her the care that she needs right now, and until we can we want her to be where she gets everything she needs. It’s still hard, but I guess that the first lesson of being a parent is that it is no longer about you but what is best for your child. Her welfare is the only thing that matters right now. So we carry on and roll with whatever comes our way.

The other thing that you learn when you are a NICU parent (we actually have badges that say that to let us in the NICU) is that it could be much worse. As far as preemies go, she is doing fantastic. That is highlighted to us every day as we see what other issues she could have and are extremely thankful that she could stay in the womb for 34 weeks and not have major complications. We are so thankful for how she is doing and that she is in such capable hands. The NICU staff is amazing. We love them.

Ok – that is it for now. I’m not always fantastic at updating posts, but I will try to keep everyone in the know. We have been blown away by the love and support from everyone. We have pretty amazing friends and family.