Wednesday July 16, 2008

Today is a much better day. They were right about the 48 hours – it gives time for the harsh medication to wear off and the body to recover. Evie was awake this morning and not upset – so Mom and Dad got to hold her. She did have some bradycardia spells (slowed heartrate) last night with or without apnea, and she still seemed rather pale this morning. But it’s probably just from the medication. We talked to the Doctor and her lungs look much better today, but we’ll keep her cannula pressure up. She did get a loading dose of caffeine yesterday when she was extubated to help with the breathing – but that with the Epo had her wired yesterday. Dad also held Evie while Mom fed Maggie for the 2nd time at 2pm. Then, we put Evie into bed with Maggie – reunited (can’t get the song out of my head).

It was bath day for Maggie. The strangest part is that it was so easy! We didn’t have to have an oxygen tank or anything – we just disconnected her leads and carried her off to the sink. I’m pretty sure we didn’t have any nurse assistance – I even put on the new leads and turned on the monitor, we are such self-sufficient parents! Then I wasn’t sure she would eat again after her bath, but she did. Dad didn’t think she needed any supplemental fast food, so we just put her back to bed. Nurse Martha said she’d watch her and see if she gets hungry before her 5pm feeding. So, if Maggie loses weight tonight it’s Dad’s fault.

Clean Maggie!

At the 5 pm checkup we had amazing news – Evie didn’t need supplemental oxygen. Nurse Martha started weaning her down because she was satting high – and she kept lowering the pressure from .5 all the way to 0. Amazing – as Evie was still on oxygen before the surgery – Decadron and caffeine must do fabulous stuff. Evie was still off of it at 9pm, although she did need a little boost during her care. I expect that she’ll need a little bit once the high wears off, but we’ll take what we can get! Oh, and Maggie didn’t take any fast food before her 5pm feeding – so we must be getting pretty good at practice.