Off the ventilator!

We've reached a wonderful milestone! Amelia was taken off the ventilator. She was so uncomfortable by it. I forgot how hard it is to see her one the vent, even if she isn't in pain. It's hard to watch her just look around, but she can't coo or cry. I hate seeing those groggy, confused eyes. SO when her doctors felt comfortable taking her off of the vent, I was obviously excited! 

They removed the breathing tube yesterday morning and it's been a little rocky. She has LOOKED really good, her sats, blood pressure, pulses, and heart rate are all great, but she has a really loud strider. It basically sounds like she is struggling to breath. For hours, it was hard to tell if she was in pain, going through withdraws, or if the difficulty breathing was ticking her off. Since they took the breathing tube out, there is likely swelling, causing there to be a strider. Her strider goes away when she is positioned well and calm. The second she wakes up and starts crying, she gets angry. Poor thing. It is so incredibly frustrating to not know what is wrong or what you can do to fix it. The nurses kept giving her morphine to calm her down. I hate that my tiny baby has to have narcotics to calm her down. What the heck happened to simple tylenol? Not Amelia, she has so much pain, and probably withdraw, that she requires morphine. Poor sweet girl. 

Today is less frustrating. I got here this morning and she was upset and still had a strider. They were treating her with morphine every time she woke up, because she would wake up super angry. So the had ENT(ear, nose, throat) come and do a scope of her vocal cords and throat. That was no fun for her. I got to hold her for the first time during the scope. They stick this camera down her nose and look at her airway and vocal cords. It was pretty cool to be able to see that. It showed them that she is VERY swollen. Basically when she cries, her airway almost completely closes...which you can imagine is awful and frustrating for her. Now that we know this, we wait. Wait until the swelling goes down. So she is on a steroid to help her swelling, and morphine when ever she needs it. 

After the scope, I got to sit with her for a good while and rock her. She was out the second they were done. After a little while, she woke up and was angry, but I was able to console her, and then she was awake and happy. No crying! I love when she can be awake without crying. I have missed it. Her nurse got her a mobile and she was watching it and following it with her eyes! So sweet to see her do "normal" baby things. There is nothing normal about a baby having IV's and open heart surgeries. 

Thank you, everyone, for the prayers. She is doing SO WELL! Doctors are so happy with her. It's a much lighter atmosphere when a doctor walks in. We're not all on edge or nervous all the time. It's a much better feel. 

Things to pray for:

~That she continues to do well. 

~It would be nice to get by with her not going through withdraws.

~I miss Emma and David ): 

Thank you so much for your prayers

Love you all, 

Kelly