Our MVP

Senior picture pose

This little girl misses her dad all week long. I know it may be hard to believe, but it's almost like she knows the second that he arrives on Friday night. It's evident in the numbers on her monitors and also in the way she responds to him. This is going to be a daddy-daughter relationship for the books. I cannot wait to watch their relationship blossom. I know it's so hard for Adam to leave us to go back to school. We are so proud of him. 

Yesterday I went to the hospital and the neonatologist had decided that they were not going to extubate Dalley yet. The settings on her ventilator were still showing that she was receiving more support than they wanted in order for her to be ready for the next breathing contraption. But there was still the problem of her ventilation tube being too small. The air leak was getting bigger and it sounded so laborious when she breathed out. The nurses describe it to me as though she were breathing through a straw. Our primary nurse Lisa was on yesterday and plead her case but they didn't feel she was ready yet. They didn't want to extubate her, only to intubate her with a new tube, then to extubate her again when they were going to try her on Nippv (the next contraption). I understood their logic, but it was so hard to listen to the loud rattle every time she would breathe out through the ventilation tube.

Adam and Dalley's creative interpretation of "The Creation"

Today we had another one of our primary nurses's, Jeanette. She too went to bat for little Dalley and they decided that they would extubate her today and give her a shot on the new breathing machine. The expectation was that she would be off the ventilator and on nippv until she got too tired to breath on her own. Most tiny babies like her don't last very long the first time they are extubated from the ventilator. The expectation set for me was that she would most likely be intubated again within a short period of time. We didn't really care because even if she gets re-intubated, she would have a tube that would fit her better.

Today at 11 A.M. they extubated her. I didn't want to watch the procedure. Some scenarios it's just best to keep the histerical mom away from. I waited an hour and a half before I called. I was expecting that when I called I would be informed that she was not able to maintain her oxygen saturations off of the ventilator and that she had been re-intubated. I was wrong.......

When IV's and monitors are repeatedly taped to your head... the result is the "balding" look hairdo. I think she's just trying to mimic her Grandpa Gilbert's style. 

Case in point. 

All of the tubes and tape were removed from her face before the new nippv nasal piece was placed. I got up to the hospital about 2 hours after she had been extubated and when I arrived, she was still going strong! Her oxygen was saturating and her CO2 levels weren't outrageously high. I think everyone was in shock, including myself.

Cool new head gear. 

As the day progressed I just kept watching the clock and counting the hours of how long she had been going strong. There were a few occassions where she would freak out and get really mad and cry. Her voice is so hoarse from having the tube down her throat that I still couldn't hear her actually cry. It just came out as as a faint whisper. In those moments I would just sit with my hands on her and softly sing to her until her heart rate came down and she stopped thrashing around.

I stayed as late as 10 PM and when I left she was still going strong. I just called up to the hospital to see how she was doing and it sounds like she's started to get a little tired and struggle a little more. Her little immature lungs and chest muscles have had quite the workout today and I'm sure she's feeling fatigued. I won't be surprised if in the morning she has been re-intubated, but Adam and I could not be more proud of this little girl. She has surprised even the professionals today with her level of stamina, grit, and fortitude.

Today.... we won.......and Dalley was our MVP.

"Stick 'em up!"