Monday, February 6, 2012

NICU Day 37 (January 13th)

We had yet another really good day with Noelle.  She is a completely different baby than she was a week ago, and the doctors and nurses are just amazed!!  It is incredible to go from one end (your nurse crying as she says good bye to you for the evening after a really bad day) to the other end (everyone just smiling and happy about her progress), and we know that it is only of God that she has made a complete 180* turn this week.  Thank you for your persistent prayer before God's throne for her--God truly uses it in our lives to bring glory to Him and cause us to recognize our complete dependence on Him for every step of life.  They continued to wean her ventilator settings today since she is doing so well, and basically she is now just on the minimum.  They could be more aggressive about weaning her and extubating her, but since she is still so small, the doctor is not anxious to do that--everything is to be done in tiny baby steps with her.  So, she will probably sit at these settings until her oxygen level is down to 21% (this is room air / what we breathe).  She has been sitting anywhere between 25% and 35% consistently so she really doesn't have far to go for that!!  We don't want them to rush things, but we are really excited about her being extubated soon...just the fact that it is starting to be discussed is incredible, especially after last week!!  Her echocardiogram revealed that her heart is still continuing to improve.  They are going to continue her heart medication until it is more improved, but they were able to wean her nitric oxide more based on what they saw.  That is still a matter of prayer and yet a huge praise at the same time!!  We are so grateful for God's evident hand on her life.  We are really enjoying our time with her, and it is fun to start seeing her personality come to life.  She definitely knows what she likes and does not like!!  She seems to be a content baby as long as she is not being poked or prodded or held down in any way.  The nurses are amazed at how strongly she pushes against them when they are trying to do a procedure on her!!  I hate to see her crying and pushing against them, and yet I am thankful that she isn't just lying there and being apathetic about it.  On the other hand, she is really responsive and loves to hold and squeeze our fingers or follow our voices with her eyes--so sweet to watch.  She also has made it clear that she prefers to sleep on her tummy as opposed to her back, and she likes her back to be rubbed as well.  These seem to be such little things in one sense, and yet it is fun to see some of these traits that we know will be evident for the rest of her life.  We continue to thank God for our tiny miracle and praise Him for what He has done and what we have faith He will continue to do.

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