Grace came off the ventilator successfully today! She has a nasal canula, and was smiling away minutes after the tube was out of her mouth. The first 24 hours from having the tube removed are crucial to her staying off the ventilator. After 10:00 tomorrow morning, she should be pretty stable. Being intubated can cause secretions to build up in her lungs. While she was intubated, the nurses could suction it out, but now Grace either needs to cough it up or let it absorb back into her body. She has been coughing alot (kind of sounds like a cat trying to get rid of a hairball), and it's uncomfortable for her.
Her morphine was turned off all the way this morning, and withdrawals kicked in this afternoon. She is on methadone to wean her off, but it doesn't make alot of discomfort go away. She is very fussy and sensitive to touch, and isn't able to sleep much. It's so hard to watch an innocent little baby go through this, especially right after a good thing happened! She has been given a mild dose of a sedative now to help her calm down and rest. Hopefully, the withdrawals will wear off in a couple days.
We had a great time with Grace this morning before the lack of morphine affected her. We held her easily, and she was giving us big smiles, and staring at Daddy's Cowboys hat. She started crying when he took it off to kiss her. She is so big! We just bought her a bunch of 0-3 months outfits a month ago, and she is outgrowing them before she has even worn them! She feels so heavy to us compared to just a few weeks ago!
She is getting fed again through the tube in her nose, and we will probably try a bottle in a couple days. Please pray for her continued success off the ventilator (an doff oxygen all together), for her withdrawals to be brief, and for success with bottle feeding. Once she is stable on breathing off the ventilator, and taking all bottles, she will be allowed to go home!
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