Kidneys, Brain, and Development...oh my

Kidney Update:
We went to the pediatrician this morning. If you remember a few weeks ago Ella had a UTI (urinary track infection). Since this isn't "normal" in little girls at this age they were concerned about her kidneys. She also had a kidney test in the NICU that came back abnormal. So.......we now have to have a more extensive kidney test. They are going to do a sonogram of her kidneys to make sure everything is formed correctly, then they are going to inject dye in her bladder to see how everything flushes. They want to make sure her "flow" isn't going back up into the kidneys and everything flushes correctly. We'll keep you posted when we get a date for this test. Oh, and she weighted 14 lbs 9 oz...and growing daily!!

Brain/MRI Update:
We got the call back from the neurologist at about 11:30am today. Here is what was said: The good news is that there was no tumor (I didn't know we were looking for one). There isn't anything causing pressure on her brain any longer either. However, they did find something called a venous angioma (def: A venous angioma — also called venous malformation — of the brain is a small tangle of abnormal veins. Venous angiomas are the most common brain vascular malformation, occurring in approximately 2 percent to 3 percent of people. In most cases, venous angiomas cause no signs or symptoms. They are often found incidentally on brain imaging studies, such as computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), done for some other reason. Unlike many other vascular malformations, venous angiomas rarely bleed. Treatment such as surgical removal of the venous angioma usually isn't recommended because the lesions typically cause no problems and treatment may lead to complications such as stroke. Occasionally, venous malformations can be associated with other types of vascular malformations that may require treatment.) The brain bruises that she had before have evolved and gotten lesnoticeablele...the word he used was "absorbed" and made it sound like the bruising was also bleeding on the brain. According to the neurologist there isn't anything for us to do now, however they may want to rescan in the future. He did want us to make an appointment with the neurosurgeon, but honestly I'm not sure exactly why. I guess we'll find out more in the coming weeks. For now, I think it looks good. If you know anyone who (or if you can) explain this any further, please feel free to write in the comments so we can all feel a little more knowledgeable.

Developmental Update:
We are stilstrugglingng with holding our head up...okay, Ella struggles, but it feels like my head (and heart) get heavier every time she tries and doesn't succeed. We have physical therapy tomorrow and I'm hoping that she since improvements. Last week she asked us to paint Ella's toe nails dark so that she would begin to notice her feet and start to play with them...right now it just looks like I wanted to do it, with no reaction from Ella.....yet. I'll post pictures of her cute feet. So, we can't really progress with anything until she can gain some control of her head. She is doing much better keeping it in the middle, but as soon as she gets tired it goes straight for the right side. Her eye is still very obviously lazy, but it doesn't even matter right now...she's so dang cute!!

Thank you for the prayers, keep them up...our prayer warriors are amazing.