Ariella Christina Botts a source of inspiration, hope, joy and love. You can follow God's special little conqueror on this site. Learn about her trials, triumphs, victories and achievements.
According to Holy Scripture in the first book of Samuel chapter one, a woman named Hannah, who was unable to bare children prayed to the Lord and made a vow that if the Lord would bless her with a child she would commit the child's life to the Lord and raise him according to God's law. After a period of time the Lord did bless Hannah with a child, a boy, whom she named Samuel. When Samuel was of age, Hannah kept her promise and brought Samuel to the temple and presented him to the High Priest Eli. Samuel would now live out his days in the temple being raised to keep God's holy law and serve the Lord and the Lord's people. As Hannah did all those years ago we too fulfilled our vow to the Lord and yesterday before a host witnesses from our friends and family we committed our beautiful daughter's life to the Lord. We promised to raise our daughter according to God's Holy Word and to live a Godly life before her, one that honored our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that brings glory to His Name. We also charged our friends and family to hold us accountable; not to let us stray even in our darkest times. We also charged her Godparents; Troy Jackson Botts, Jessica Rodriguez Espejo, James and Earlene Daggs to ensure that Ariella is raised according to God's holy ordinance and that they stand in place if anything were to ever happen to Rachel or I.
We are so grateful for the love and support our friends and family have shown us and for your commitment to help us raise our daughter according to God's Word and His perfect will.
The baby had a good night last night into this morning, however this morning she had an elevated heart rate and her blood saturation, the amount of oxygen in her blood, was lower than normal. As a result of the discomfort she started to have some anxiety. The doctors administered some medication to help her reduce her anxiety and I got a chance to pray over her. Throughout the day she managed to rest a bit and this evening she has been bright eyed and even gave me a couple of smiles to let me know that she was doing much better. I got a chance to bathe her along with her nurse and she fell asleep about 30 minutes ago. She is resting very comfortably in her new clothes with her new bow. She also received a visit from her BFF Faith.
Ella had a tough night and the nurses did quite a bit of aggressive suctioning this morning. She is resting peaceably now and we are hopeful today that we will receive a new device that will help with her respiratory treatments it's called a Bipap. This device will continue to force air into her lungs so that the mucus breaks up and the bronchioles in her lungs can fill with air.
Ariella had a rough night last night the medication that the doctors have been giving her has been drying her up but she's so dry that she has very thick mucus this morning that is chocking her. The nursing staff is doing a great job of suctioning her to keep her clear and make her as comfortable as possible. She was getting her breast milk overnight but they have stopped feeding her milk and will increase her IV fluids to help balance out the amount of fluid she has flowing through her body and lungs, this will help her heart rate and hopefully loosen up mucus.
Rachel and I wanted to share the latest happenings concerning our dear Ella. I am sorry that we are not able to respond to every phone call and text message, we hope this way helps everyone feel included. We are so grateful for your interest, support and most of all prayers to God for our special little lady.
To bring you up to speed, Ella was born with very low muscle tone and as a result was never able to successfully feed through her mouth. Her body also develops more mucous and secretions than she is able to manage through swallowing. Over the last several months she has made some improvements in her development, she holds her heads up a bit, she can push herself up from a sqaut and she can even grab toys and move them back and forth between her left and right hands.
Ella is so strong and so determined. Through all of her developmental improvements we have contiued to search for answers. Last Friday Ella had a scheduled surgery where she was going to receive a Mic-key button,(an easier to manage feeding tube) we also scheduled her to receive a muscle biopsy that would hopefully gives us some answers. The surgery went well and she seemed to recover after a couple of hours of observation. I will say more about the amazing care she has received from the staff at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in a later posting - let me just say these folks are amazing blessings in their own right. We brought our baby back home Friday evening, however she did not sleep very well Friday night and never really settled down Saturday during the day. After several attempts to help our baby manage her new increase in mucous and secretions we took her to the CCMC emergency room.
The emergency department triaged Ella very quickly and had us placed in trama room 1 where we received treatment right away, it was there that Ella was diagnosed as being in respitory distress. They started her on oxygen right away and shortly thereafter started a respitory treatment called CPEP, which is meant to force air and pressure into her lungs, thereby inflating them which would hopefully clear up the mucous secretions that currently blocking the air sacks in her lungs.
From the emergency department we were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit, or PICU where Ella has remained since Saturday. She continues to receive respitory treatments as well as medication to dry up the extra mucous, she is also suctioned almost hourly. Suctioning is when a respitory therapist uses a small vacuum tube to forceably remove mucuous from her lungs and throat by inserting a small tube down her nose and throat, mom and I have our own suction machine and have done this on Ella many times in the past.
Her x-rays this morning showed that the upper portion of her right lung and lower portion of her left lung still have clogged air sacks. They are trying a new medication to loosing the mucous as well as increasing the frequency of her respitory treatments, which include PT or physical therapy. This is when the respitory therapist using a small recussion cup taps the baby's chest to loosen the mucous. It sounds worse than it acutally is, she loves it.
Continue to check the blog often for new information and stories of encouragement and inspiration. Through Christ Jesus Ariella is more than a conqueror and so are you.
According to Holy Scripture in the first book of Samuel chapter one, a woman named Hannah, who was unable to bare children prayed to the Lord and made a vow that if the Lord would bless her with a child she would commit the child's life to the Lord and raise him according to God's law. After a period of time the Lord did bless Hannah with a child, a boy, whom she named Samuel. When Samuel was of age, Hannah kept her promise and brought Samuel to the temple and presented him to the High Priest Eli. Samuel would now live out his days in the temple being raised to keep God's holy law and serve the Lord and the Lord's people. As Hannah did all those years ago we too fulfilled our vow to the Lord and yesterday before a host witnesses from our friends and family we committed our beautiful daughter's life to the Lord. We promised to raise our daughter according to God's Holy Word and to live a Godly life before her, one that honored our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that brings glory to His Name. We also charged our friends and family to hold us accountable; not to let us stray even in our darkest times. We also charged her Godparents; Troy Jackson Botts, Jessica Rodriguez Espejo, James and Earlene Daggs to ensure that Ariella is raised according to God's holy ordinance and that they stand in place if anything were to ever happen to Rachel or I. 
