Ventilation tube removed

Yesterday morning, Farrah's blood gas numbers looked better than the day before so the decision was made to extubate her. They put the nasal cannula in after removing the ventilation tube, and Farrah has now had it in for over 24 hours. She seemed to be tolerating it ok. She looked very tired when we saw her yesterday, but her eyes were open and she was looking around when we were changing her diaper, wiping her mouth and eyes, and taking her temperature. The nurse needed to increase the amount of oxygen she receives, which is typical with this type of change. As of this morning, her nurse observed that Farrah was breathing pretty fast, but they did another blood gas test this morning an it looked the same as yesterday. That means that they will continue to keep the nasal cannula in, which is a good step towards Farrah breathing on her own.

When Ray and I visited with her yesterday, we could hear a faint squeak coming from Farrah as she was crying. The nurse said that the squeaking is a good sign. Her vocal cords are most likely swollen from having the ventilation tube in for two weeks, so it will take a little time for the swelling to go down. Then we should be able to hear her cry. We look forward to the day when we were can hear cry since we only heard her cry once right after she was delivered, and it was music to our ears.

The photo below shows how Farrah's feedings work. She receives breast milk from a syringe that is lifted above her feeding tube (orange tube), which lets gravity do the work for her feedings. Since she is usually awake during her feedings, she tends to move around and show her fiesty side (as can be seen below).

We will try to update the shutterfly site with more photos and videos shortly.