Much Better Day

Here are a few pictures from yesterday when they were getting the ventilator set up. So Ella had a much much better night last night and has done well all day today. Her chest x-ray looked a little better today and they were able to keep her oxygen at 30% or below almost all day. I think she even got to 22% at one point. They have been adjusting the numbers on her ventilator as they have seen her progress and I don't understand all the details yet, but the jist of it is that the more they take her numbers down, the more they allow her to do on her own as part of the weaning process. Tomorrow they plan to continue to wean her until they can take her off hopefully tomorrow night. They told us today that they still feel that there might be some pnemonia in her lungs so she will need to continue to stay on antibiotics for another 7 days. The neonatalogist said that we shouldn't plan on her coming home at that point though because we will still have lots to do in the way of helping her learn how to eat etc. I guess this is the one benefit to seeing 2 good friends and my sister go through this NICU experience before us because the idea of her staying in NICU for possibly a month or so doesn't seem so shocking given what they experienced. We're just kind of taking one day at a time here and hoping for the best. Also on a positive note we may be able to get my Mom to come out here as early next week thanks to our friends with some inside connections in the pilot world and that will be so helpful as far as babysitting goes. Our friends here have been just WONDERFUL and it's been so nice to have places for the girls to go without having to worry about them, but I know at some point they are going to need some more structure and having a 3rd adult IN our home will be very very helpful especially when it's a Grandma. :)

As for me, I was supposed to check out today but the doctors decided to keep me until tomorrow. I am doing really good with everything as far as the delivery goes but I've had a pretty bad headache/lightheadedness since I delivered and it just hasn't gone away. I feel much better when I'm laying down and don't have trouble sleeping so they had me talk with an anestehiologist to see about an epidural headache which is something you can get as a result of an epidural where a little bit of spinal fluid can leak out into your body. He said that it doesn't look like I have a true spinal headache because I am still able to function and if I have a mild one, it can be resolved on it's own (without having to do a blood patch which is where they essentially go back in like they are doing an epidural again and put some blood back in there to solve everything....not something I really want to do again) with time. The annoying thing is that this type of headache is not affected by pain medicine at all so it's just a matter of getting lots of fluids and rest.

And that's the update on us! Thank you again for all the help, calls, concern, prayers, and love.