Sunday

Katie's drawing of Sadie

(notice the hairdo - she captured it well!)

Sadie is still doing pretty well post-op. One of the cardiologists came in today and remarked about how beautifully she is doing considering all the issues early on. She is awake quite often and very alert. The nurse today put a mobile above her, and Sadie's been staring at it whenever her eyes are open. They are still keeping her very sedated, so we stay quiet and try to keep it dim in here so that we don't arouse her. Every time we touch her or talk her bp goes wild, so it's hard to restrain ourselves from touching and talking.

I've seen her "sad" face several times now and it's enough to make your heart break. Her little brow furrows and she tries to cry through the ventilator and I'm just dying to pick her up and comfort her when it happens. Poor baby.

The good news today is that her vent will come out either tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on how much swelling goes down. They don't want to excubate (sorry, my medical spelling is terrible) until the swelling is down - today shes's at 4.41 kg, and she needs to get back down to around 3.5 (her birth weight) to ensure that her lungs do not have too much pressure to work against. She's breathing well with the vent, and is back on TPN, which is a nutritional supplement to her IV. Once they remove the ventilator she'll have a new tube put in through her nose into her lower intestine and will once again start receiving breastmilk (which is good, since the nurses informed me that I've run out of freezer space here to store it.) They've been upping her pain meds today (Fentanyl) and are giving her potassium and calcium, as she's voiding quite a bit today, and needs a bit of a boost.

Once Sadie's vent is out, things will start moving rapidly - the chest tube will come out shortly after, and then we will be able to hold her for the first time. I can't wait for that moment. It will most likely happen by the end of this week. By the weekend she will most likely be moved out of the PICU onto the "floor" - meaning she's non-critical. She'll probably be on the floor for 7-10 days then (FINALLY) coming home with us. There's finally an end in sight, and I can barely contain myself. I wish I had a fast-forward button to get us there sooner.