Well here she is Ellason Grace... but you can just call her Ella 8) .....

Here is a 15 second clip of Ella just 18 minutes old.

What a trooper Ella is being.

What we know so far:
Actually not much. We know the reason why she is in the NICU. When a baby is born, there are tests that are taken to ensure there is proper Oxygen levels in the blood. Referred to as SATS - Saturation Levels. For newborns the level needs to be between 95 and 100 percent. The first few hours after being born, her readings were high as 84 and as low as 78. To get a better score, she had to be put on oxygen. With the oxygen, her scores went back up to 98-100.

Room air has an oxygen reading of 21 percent. In order to get Ella up to 100 percent, the oxygen dome that you see has the oxygen level at 36 percent.

What causes this?
There are many things that can cause this. The doctors have chosen to go after the 4 main things and then rule things out from there. So they are trying to rule out infection - and immediately placed Ella on numerous antibiotics until the cultures have come back. Blood work - to make sure the chemical make up is correct and that she has the right levels in her blood. X-rays to make sure here heart and lungs are developed correctly and are continuing to develop. EKG- to test the strength of her heart.

How much interaction have we had with Ella?
Not much, we both held her a total of 5 minutes after she was born and she was taken away minutes after Stacey began feeding her Sunday morning, because she turned purple, and has not been back since. She is in the NICU, a very sterile environment, where she is monitored by a team of nurses and doctors, around the clock. And they are very knowledgeable!

She has yet to get to see her big sister and brother, and that is definitely tough on them. Ashlyn and Ty cannot see her because of the infection risk and probably won't see Ella till she comes home.

So when can she come home?
Right now it is probably going to be 10 days. The doctors need to figure out what is causing the problem. Once they do that, Ella will need to be able to breath and eat on her own for two days. All of which, she has yet to do.

Feel you want to do something. Only thing we ask for is:
Just your prayers. Just ask the "Great Physician" to give the doctors the wisdom to be able to diagnose what is wrong and what needs to be done to correct everything. That Ella can keep her SAT levels up to 100% at room level to get off the dome and to eat on her own.

James 5:16 "...The fervent prayer of a righteous heart availeth much."

Day 1 Update (Sunday):
All the test were ordered. It will take 48 hours at a minimum before they will find out if there is an infection.

Blood work was done. That will take time for the results

An EKG. So far her heart looks good

X-rays. Her heart and lungs look fine and developed. There is some stuff in her lungs that they are looking into. Possibly Ella may have pneumonia.

Still on oxygen. She is at 36%. Still a long way from 21%. She has yet to eat. They have her on a sugar-water mix for now for nutrition.

Day 2 Update (Monday):
Still waiting on the results from the blood work and cultures.

A second X-ray was taken and her lungs look better. The stuff in her lungs look to be going away. If she gets better, it was pneumonia.

This morning, at 6am they took her out of the dome and Stacey had a chance to hold her. The doctor rounds were being made to Stacey had to put her back.

We went back at 9am and she was back on oxygen. Her SAT levels went back down and she had to be placed on Oxygen. She is back up to 36%.

Noon - The doctors have decided to open up her umbilical cord and tap into the veins there. One to check and take blood. The other to give her the nutrition she will need.

Hopefully, they will take the needle out of her artery in her wrist because they have the vein in the umbilical cord.

Monday night and midnight. Not much to do, not much to pass the time. I asked Ella if she was up for anything. She wanted to wrestle. What is wrong with her? Ooh.. I guess she wanted to thumb wrestle with the only thing that wasn't hooked up to anything. Even in the NICU she was able to take on and beat her Daddy. Ella is one tough cookie.

Day 3 Update (Tuesday AM):
Not much so far as of 6am. She is at 25.2% for her oxygen. The X-rays show her lungs are getting clearer.

Hopefully we will hear some results from the blood work and cultures.

She has still yet to eat. From Stacey or through her umbilical cord.

Day 3 Update (Tuesday PM):
There still must be power in prayer. Above is a photo from 3:30pm. It has been over 4 hours and Ella has had the Oxygen Dome removed and she has been breathing room air.

The arterial line in the umbical cord has been removed. There still is a line in her umbical cord in case she does not keep her food down, and they will use that to feed her.

The doctors have fed her at 1pm and at 2pm for the first time 1/3 ounce and if she keeps it down she will try some milk from Stacey in a bottle.

We will keep you posted. For those of you who raised Ella's name in prayer, we all thank you. It looks like she is on the upswing. Maybe within the week she can come home.

Day 3 Update (Tuesday Late PM):
This evening Stacey was discharged from the hospital. Plans are to keep Ella there for at least 5 more days. Stacey was able to feed Ella a bottle of her milk around 7pm and if she kept that down they would let Stacey attempt to feed her directly.

Well 8:30pm came and Ella kept the bottle milk down so we attempted to see if she would eat for 10 minutes. Well 10 minutes turned into 20 minutes. So, Ella's next feeding, if she can keep everything down will be around midnight and then 3am.

So for all you prayer warriors out there, keep her in your prayers and we will keep you posted.

Day 4 Update (Wednesday AM):
Updates are going to be a little tougher because we no longer have a room and access to a phone. The night feedings all went well. Ella has been moved into a crib now, still in the NICU.

Her bloodwork has come back negative and that is good. The doctors are still not sure as to what has caused this. But as long as she keeps progressing, she may get to come home Friday. What a birthday present that will be for her Mommy.

I will try to get a picture of her by this evening posted. But she is doing very well. The doctors and nurses have been able to unhook Ella from all the monitoring equipment for her feedings. Maybe we can talk them into walking Ella over to the window so Ashlyn and Ty can see her for the first time.

Day 4 Update (Wednesday PM):
Things keep getting better. Just before we left for the night. The doctors thought it would be OK for Ashlyn and Ty to look at Ella through an office window in NICU. They still can't wait to be able to hold her, but at least this will hold them over.

The doctors and nurses still have no idea as to the cause but are amazed at the turn around and if she still continues like this she may get released after 5 days of antibiotics, with a nurse coming out to finish the course of shots from home. There are still more tests that need to done, before the hospital will think about releasing her, but we will take what we can.

Stacey has been spending the nights since being discharged at the hospital in a room in the NICU. Ashlyn, Ty and I get home around 10pm and leave the house by 7:30am to get back up to the hospital. Ashlyn and Ty just want to be with Mommy and as near to their little sister as possible. So if we haven't gotten back to any emails or phone calls, this is why.

Please keep Ella in yours prayers. We are convinced that this is the reason why things have taken the turn for the better.

Day 5 Update (Thursday PM):
This morning the doctors ordered Ella's Jaundice Test. The results came back with a score under 5 which is good, so this will not hinder the possible chances of her going home early.

As of 2pm, the doctors are still not sure as to the cause of all this.

Tonight at 9pm the doctor on charge told Stacey, that there is a good chance that Ella could go home on Friday. That is assuming, that during the doctor's rounds in the morning that nothing comes up. If they all agree it is ok. Then there is a chance that at 6pm, Ella will be released after her shot.

A nurse will still have to visit our house to finish off the 10 days worth of antibiotics. Which is fine by all of us. It will be nice to get in a home routine rather than the hospital routine. Well, we will keep you all posted.

Day 6 Update (Friday):
2pm Ella was finally released. Praise the Lord! The doctors still cannot explain what caused this. But everyone is happy to have Ella home.

Then again, I guess we were never looking for answers... we were looking for a miracle. Thank you to everyone for your prayers.