Lots of updates

There is a lot to catch up on from the weekend.  First, Kennedy has been doing amazing! She has improved so much over the past few days. She's back to 32 ml's on her feeds and is now up to 3 lbs 11 oz. If things continue to go well we're hoping she'll be 4 lbs by the end of the weekend! She has all her IV's out except for the one for the steroids. She's getting a 6 day dose of steroids that started Saturday. They've also been giving her a breathing treatment called Albuterol that has been like magic for her! They've explained it to me as it being the same thing as an inhaler for people who have asthma. Kennedy has chronic lung disease from being on the vent so occasionally her chest tightens up and it's hard for her to get oxygen into her lungs. This medication is like a mist and it opens her right up.  So between that treatment and the steroids they were able to remove her from the oscillator and back to conventional vent on Saturday. From there they've been able to continue to ween her vent setting down and she's been great with her oxygen levels, anywhere between 25-30%. Again,  great progress for someone who was so sick just 2 days earlier.

That brings us to Sunday,  her 7 week birthday and 33 week gestational birthday. Oh, and of course Mother's Day!  I received the best Mother's day gift from her, I was able to hold her and she behaved very nicely! It was so nice! She's getting so big and is just so precious and beautiful. I can't wait until she's home!  I'm going to pick her up and never let her go! She continued to do well the rest of the day. She stayed at 25% and they continued to drop her settings.  Late in the afternoon they were able to switch her to what's called the Nava. It doesn't breathe for her, she breathes on her own, but it offers her support.  The tube is placed near her diaphragm and if it detects that she's stopped breathing it gives her a breath and reminds her to breathe. They didn't take the tube out because they wanted to see how she did breathing with this machine first.

That brings us to today, Monday.  I called for an update this morning and the nurse told me she had a great night! She really needed no support from the Nava so she thought they'd extubate her today.

I'm here at the hospital now and as of 11:00 this morning Kennedy is officially off the vent!! They still have her on the Nava as a back up but she's doing all the work on her own! We're hoping and praying she can stay off the vent. She seems to be stronger this time so fingers crossed everyone!! She's doing well so far but this is a big week! If she can keep this up this will be huge progress for her! I will update when I can.

On a side note, I hope all the Mommy's out there enjoyed their Mother's Day!! I sure did and am very greatful to my family!!