The Mitchells: Late Night L&D Run

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Late Night L&D Run

Well, we've officially had our first visit to the hospital sans Doctor's Appointment. On Monday I felt pretty bad. Fairly sure I was having contractions during the day (called Braxton-Hicks) I called the nurse...she said as long as I wasn't having more than 2 an hour then I was okay, but needed to monitor them. The night progressed and started feeling worse. As of Tuesday I felt horrible all over and decided to stay home. Lounged most of the morning to keep from "over working" myself and then met with our "soon-to-be" pediatrician (whom I love, thanks Killingsworths). As of Tuesday night I was near tears bc my lower abdomen hurt so bad, but I kept thinking "it's just pregnancy pains, right?!" (thanks again to Eve for those). So, by 11pm we called the on-call doctor and she said to go to Labor and Delivery and just have them check me out. Well...we did...and we were there till 3am!! Poor Joe, even caught an hour of sleep on the floor!! They hooked me up to all kinds of monitors and did some blood work (and other tests you don't really want to know about). All in all everything is fine. They aren't real sure what was causing the pain and by the time we got settled into the hospital I was actually feeling better (of course, it ALWAYS happens that way). So, one crazy night down, hopefully no more for a while. They released us, gave me an Ambien (which is an amazing drug by the way) and ushered us off into the night. Took it REALLY easy yesterday and back at my temporary job today at the Dallas Museum of Art.

I kept thinking...I remember saying that I was ready for her to come out...but after Tuesday night I know God needs to work on us a few more weeks before she's ready. Just pray for health and sanity in these next 8 weeks...I'm so excited to see what God will do in all of our lives once our little "Hope" is here!!

Will also post pictures from the Courtnye/Issac wedding as soon as I have some...Ella was trying to steal the show (and did steal a couple of the shots!!).

Love you all,
Andrea and Joe

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Ella's Story

Elizabeth "Ella" Hope Mitchell was born on May 10, 2006 at 3:45pm...by 5am the following morning the whole world turned upside down. The doctors came in to inform us that while Ella had been resting in the Newborn Nursery, she began to have irregular breathing and seizures. It was touch and go for the next 3 days. We were told several times that she probably would not make it alive through the ordeal. She had contracted Group Beta Strep which had resulted in meningitis. Due to the seizures and the infection we had no idea what the long-term effects would be. After Ella spent a long and trying month in the NICU we came home to see where the effects of her illness had left us all.

A few months later, almost a year, we had an official long-term diagnosis...Ella has Cerebral Palsy. She is a happy and loving child. She struggles with physical delays, cognitive delays and all sorts of things that have come and go.

2-eye surgeries to correct lazy eye
3-EEG's to check for siezures
5-MRI/MRV/MRA to check actual brain damage
3-CT scans for brain stuff
1-G-button/feeding tube surgically put in (and then Ella removed herself)
10 (approx)-Swallow Studies
1-Scoliosis Study
2-Kidney Reflux tests
2-Upper GI tests
1-24 hr reflux test
8-hearing tests
countless UTI tests
seemingly a million developmental tests
a hand splint
bath chair
adaptive stroller/wheelchair
stander
gait trainer
AFO's

ha, not to mention all of the therapist...currently: OT 2X/week, PT 3X/week (2 land, 1 horse), ST 3X/week (2 oral motor, 1 speech), develomental 1X/week, vision 2x/month, and we are about to start ACCDAT camp.

As of 4/8/2009.