The Mitchells: Ella's Birthday...and Mother's Day

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Ella's Birthday...and Mother's Day

Wow...it's really been 3 years. Ella was born at 3:43pm on May 10, 2006. She was perfectly healthy at birth, although the cord was wrapped just a little. We got to hold her for a short time before they took her to the nursery. By the time we got her back we were so exhausted. She fed great and was a perfect little newborn.

I feel like that day is such a special day, not only because it was the day she was born, but it was the only day we had her and she was perfectly healthy. None of the worries that we woke up to the next morning. I wish I could freeze the way that day felt. The innocence that we all had to the shortness of life and how fragile our children are, but also the fact that they are only ours on loan...they are permanently God's.

Thank you to everyone who has walked this journey with us. Stay tuned for our daily life in the NICU and how God has answered prayers every day since Ella was born.

Mother's Day and Ella's 3rd Birthday 2009:

1 comment:

Kristie said...: The one of Ella in the tunnel should be framed. Love it! :)

Happy Mother's Day! Ella and Will are the luckiest kids in the world to call you Mama!; 6:24 PM

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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.