Day 12: Edmonton

Tuesday, February 26

We spent some time last night re-reading the comments left for us on this blog. It was humbling being reminded of all the support we have received from family, friends, and complete strangers. Thank you. There have been times where both of us have needed an extra encouraging word or a comforting verse and collectively you have been there at the right time. You have made us laugh, cry, and summon strength when needed. Your timing has been impeccable. Your prayers and thoughts throughout this journey have ensured that we have never felt alone. So again, thank you.

Well, enough sap...

Today was simply amazing. To think of how far we have come in eleven days is unbelievable. This morning all of Ellie's IV heart drugs were stopped, so she is only receiving one orally now, and her vitals are still perfectly stable. Her food intake is now being increased by 5 ml every three hours with the goal of removing her IV intake of nutrition supplements tomorrow.

Ellie's mood was great all morning as she seemed to be obsessing less over her food. With all of her improvements and the reduction of her IV's our nurse was able to convince her team of doctors that she needed a little fresh air. Yes that is right, we were able to take her for a stroller walk out of the NICU.   Of course we would be accompanied by our own entourage of nurses pushing various monitors behind us, but we were ready to take what ever we could get. I was taken aback by how emotional this simple activity actually made us both.  I suppose the normalcy of the moment was something that we never thought we would experience again... let alone so soon.

Tuckered out from our little adventure, Ellie fell promptly to sleep when we returned to the NICU. The success of this first foray into the great outdoors ensured that we would get another in the afternoon. Armed with this information we went for lunch to recharge ourselves.

The afternoon was much the same. Ellie's food intake continued  to increase. She was no longer able to swallow her food in a mere two gulps, it was taking her at least 30seconds now. Our afternoon walk was much longer and our entourage gave us significantly more space then they had in the morning. To anyone passing us we actually looked like a happy family out walking our little girl.

For the first time in days I did not feel like my shoulders were touching my ears. I think we were both starting to relax a bit and subsequently we were more tired than normal. Maybe tonight we will fall asleep instead of simply passing out.