January 9th, 2010

Morning

Tracy stayed home to go to a memorial service for the father of one of her friends, so I headed up to the hospital at around 8am. When I arrived, I was so happy to see Lily awake and alert. She was just staring around, looking at the flickering light on the ceiling, watching the big crows fly past her window, checking out the nurses. She definitely is nosey.

She was awake until 11:30am (until just before Tracy arrived...haha...sorry T).

After eating lunch, Tracy and I sat by Lily's bedside and wayched her sleep. As she was sleep, Dr. Caty visited again to check on Lily. He assured us that everything was going according to plan. He also said that he thinks that Lily should continue on fentonol to reduce her pain. He confirmed that Lily's chest tube is very uncomfortable and it would help her to have the edge taken off a little bit.

Afternoon

Oh God...Lynn, Lily's wonderful day nurse, was on lunch and Lily had an "episode." What happens is the secretions pool in her throat. If she is laying flat, it interferes a little with her breathing. The monitors start beeping and it shows us that her Oxygen levels are falling. 100 is a great number. Going down to 85 is ok, but not very desirable. Lily got down to 70. Her lips turned a little bit blue along with her eyelids. She was moving her head around, looking to try to clear her throat.

Since she was having such a difficult time, we asked the other nurse in the room to help. Well, she over reacted just a little bit. We asked her to help us prop Lily up a little (Lynn and Rebecca both say that "Gravity is Lily's friend -- during an episode, prop her up and she will clear the secretions in no time"). The substitute nurse did not choose to help her prop Lily up, instead she grabbed the Ambu Bag and started pumping the Oxygen into Lily. This is not something a parent wants to see. I was quietly freaking on the side, Tracy was keeping her cool and trying to calm Lily down. The nurse cranked up Lily's Oxygen and Tracy ended up propping her up a little bit. Lily let out a tiny cough, and almost immediately her Oxygen levels started to go up.

It was a bit scary, but luckily Tracy and I got through it with minimal nerve damage!!

Late Afternoon

Nice. The surgeons approved Lily getting some Tummy time. After coming back from a break, Lily was on her tummy sleeping. What a nice surprise. It was so cute! Plus she also really seemed to like this position. Her Oxygen levels stayed between 98 - 100 the whole time!

What a cutey! Lynn and Tracy put a giant hat on Lily. Poor little kid looked like Toad from Super Mario Brothers!!! About an hour after putting it on, Lily started crying. The good news is her Oxygen levels stayed high. Also, Lynn explained that crying for Lily is very good. Her right lung is still a little weak since the surgeons collapsed it during the surgery, and Lynn says the crying helps her lung to re-inflate all the way and get stronger.

The other good thing (and you will see this in the video) is that Lily has a strong instinct for feeding. The poor girl is SOOO hungry, all she has been getting is fluids with nutrition in it (fats, proteins, vitamins) and they have all been given to her through IV. Her poor tummy is empty, so she still feels those hunger pangs. But as you look at the video, you can see that when she is given the passifier, she shakes her head (rooting) and spits it out when she realizes that she isn't getting any food when she sucks.

Another few days, sweetie, and you can start eating!!

Evening

Sweet Silly Girl woke up about and hour before the night nurse came in.

Tracy is such a wonderful mommy. She already has the touch. She gently props Lily up and whispers gently in her ear. It calms her down almost immediately. They stayed in that position for about an hour.

Then Lynn told us that Lily's night nurse, Andrea, called out sick. We were actually pretty nervous because Andrea is so good with Lily. We thought that maybe we would get a new nurse that we didn't know (and worse, didn't know Lily ---we've already seen what happens when nurses don't know Lily's tendencies ---they over react and throw an Ambu Bag over her face!!). Luckily, Rebecca was here tonight too. Lynn told us that Rebecca requested to be Lily's Primary nurse when Andrea is not in....That makes us feel really good! There are 65 kids in the NICU right now and every nurse that has spent time with Lily has asked to be her Primary nurse. I sure hope there isn't an Ultimate Fight scheduled to see who wins the rights to be her Primary!! Although, I might pay money to see it if there was.