We're Out!

Praise God!

Getting Closer

We are getting much closer to going home!

Sierra had a good night. They are gradually weaning her from the medication that was causing the withdrawels.

She is now completely off of oxygen. She still has a feeding tube down her nose, but they are decreasing those feeds as I increase the amount that I give her by bottle.

It is so good to be able to hold her again! We went two weeks without being able to hold her. She is happy about being held too. :-)

Thank you for your continued prayers. We could still use a lot of prayers. There are going to be lots of changes in our lives in the next year or so.

Cold Turkey

Yesterday, they stopped giving Sierra versed, one of the medications. They didn't wean her from it, but stopped cold turkey. Today (and last night) she was going through withdrawels. So they started giving her a little bit of it again and will wean her from it.

Today's nurse is very good. The night nurse usually gives Sierra a bath, but the bad nurse from the past two nights didn't. I asked today's nurse if we could give her a bath. He let us get her all cleaned up. She is feeling much better now.

What Now?

Sierra has been miserable since yesterday. She hasn't really slept at all since then. (Neither have I) She is breathing fast and making little groaning whimpering sounds.

My motherly intuition says something is not right. I hate seeing her so miserable. I am worried about my baby.

Please continue to pray for her. Also pray that we have a good night nurse. The nurse that we had for the past two nights has not been the best.

It's Out

Today the doctors took the ventilator out.

Sierra is doing well breathing on her own but she is pretty miserable. Poor baby is whimpering and complaining. They still have the feeding tube down her nose until she can resume feedings by bottle.

I tried giving her a bottle twice today but she wasn't really interested. They said that her throat is probably sore right now. Hopefully she will start feeling better soon.

Doing Better

Well, I think I figured out what happened yesterday. Sierra was doing really well yesterday until the evening. In the evening her oxygen saturation levels started dropping.

What happened was that around 4:30pm Sierra's nurse got another patient. The new patient rquired a lot of attention and so Sierra was pretty much neglected until the night nurses came on at 7:30.

Around 6:00 pm Sierra was coughing. I knew that she had to be suctioned. A different nurse came in, and I mentioned it. He would not suction her though because the notes said not to suction her (the notes were for when she was on the other ventilator because she wasn't suppossed to be suctioned while on it.).

Since she needed to be suctioned and was not, her saturation levels were dropping down to 90 and 89 (they are supposed to be above 95 the closer to 100 the better.)

When the night nurses came, I told them what was going on. They suctioned her and gave her TLC and within a few minutes her oxygen saturation levels jumped back up to 98 and have stayed between 98 and 100 since then.

Step forward, step backward....

Earlier today Sierra was doing really well, but this evening her numbers started dropping a bit. If they do not go back up soon the doctors will have to increase her oxygen levels.

Getting Better

Things are looking up. Sierra is doing well and they are continuing to wean her from the ventilator and the medications. Lord willing, she may be off of the ventilator by the end of this week.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers!

Update!

The doctors have been gradually weaning Sierra from the ventilator. This morning the doctor said that this morning's x-ray indicated one of two things. Either the settings on the ventilator needed to be bumped back up or else she was ready to go back on the other ventilator.

The doctor took the ventilator off of Sierra and manually bagged her so that she could feel how her lungs were doing and what steps needed to be taken. After doing that, they put her back on the first ventilator. The next 24-48 hours will be very important. If she doesn't do well she will have to be put back on the ossilating ventilator. If she does well she can stay on this ventilator and then gradually be weaned.

Please pray that she will do well on this ventilator.

Slowly but surely...

The last few days have been rather uneventful, which is a good thing. The doctors are in the process of very gradually weaning her from the vent. She will likely be on the current vetilator through the end of this week and then be put on the other ventilator.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.