All About Claire- Day 4

Well, yesterday certainly was exciting. Claire came off her ventilator around 3 pm and was able to keep her oxygen saturation levels up on her own. They did some more bloodwork and her blood gases looked good, which means her lungs were working effectively. The Cpap was helping give her a little extra oxygen and provide some pressure to keep her lungs inflated, but she was doing the work on her own. She also started IV nutrition yesterday. She had never had food and they didn't want to tax her digestive system but wanted she needed some electrolytes, so she was on an iv of something that looked strikingly similar to Casey's favorite lemon-lime Gatorade.... She was also diagnosed with Jaundice, which was not a suprise considering she wasn't eating anything to help flush it out. She started phototherapy late last night, which meant no blankets, all skin showing, goggles on 23 hours/ day. She was not pleased and by 1am had put up such a fuss that the nurse took her out from her bed and let me hold her for the first time! For one blissful hour in the middle of the night, she was able to sit in my arms wearing her Cpap, but free of her bililight and despite the tubes and the alarms and the perpetual gurgling noise coming from her mouth (when a baby with lungs full of fluid is on the Cpap, they percolate like a little coffee pot) everything seemed just perfect. The plan for today is to let her rest and adjust to the big transition of being off the ventilator and then slowly wean her off the Cpap.