Farrah is off the vent! Before I left work yesterday, Farrah's nurse told me that they were planning to change Farrah over to the nasal CPAP since she had been at 21% oxygen all day and was doing so well. When I arrived, I pull the quilt off Farrah's bed to see that she had this device around her head and asked the nurse how the CPAP worked. When the nurse looked in, she said that Farrah had taken the nasal CPAP and put it into her mouth since she had last looked at her, which meant that Farrah had been breathing on her own for an extended amount of time and was doing great. The nurse practioner heard about it and decided that Farrah was doing well enough to go on to the high flow nasal cannula. This is less oxygen support than Farrah has ever been on! They switched her over to high flow last night and she has been doing great ever since.
The best part is that we can hear Farrah's voice now that the breathing tube is out. Instead of faint squeaks like we heard over a month ago, we can hear hoarse cries. She is very vocal and it is so very precious. I cried when I realized that I could finally hear her crying. I texted Ray to give him all the updates and he came over right after work to see the changes for himself. We did her 8:00 pm rounds together and then Farrah's night nurse told Ray to sit down in the arm chair. Then she put Farrah underneath Ray's t-shirt for kangaroo care. Farrah and Ray slept while he held her for over one hour. Farrah's vitals were perfect and she was so happy to be held be her daddy again.
This morning we found out that Farrah had a great night and kept up all her breathing. Keep in mind, this change is without any steroids that we talked about earlier. She is doing this all on her own! What an amazing answer to prayer. There is a chance that Farrah could still get tired and need a little more support, but we are praising God for this incredible change in our daughter. She blew all the nurses away with how quickly she graduated from the vent, to the CPAP, to the high flow. She is on room air on the high flow...she really did fly off the vent like we were praying for.
The other big change is that Farrah's night nurse put a little t-shirt on her last night and carefully watched Farrah's temperature and turned off the heater settings on Farrah's bed. The next step is for Farrah to move to an open crib and maintaining her own body temperature is an important piece of that. Farrah did so well with her temperature over night that we received the go-ahead this morning to bring in some preemie clothes for Farrah. In order to be NICU-friendly, the clothes need to have snaps or buttons down the front. I ran around town today with our friend Mary looking for clothes for Farrah. Farrah's PICC line was removed this morning, so without a breathing tube or PICC line, so is free to move about as she is able. We are so proud of our baby girl and these big changes.
Now she just needs to keep gaining weight so she can move into what they refer to as a Feeder Grower in the NICU. We pray that her lungs stay strong and so appreciate everyone's prayers and thoughts for the exact same thing.
I am washing the preemie clothes I picked up for Farrah and then am headed over to the hospital for more time with her this evening.
Now for some photos...
Where's Farrah? :)
This is how the CPAP should look, but it only last like this
on Farrah for less than 30 minutes.
Trying to get Farrah to calm down after her diaper change
...only her pacifier and being swaddled did the trick.
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Farrah looking up at Ray as he tries to calm her down.
So great to hear this wonderful news! She is so precious and it is wonderful to see her little face instead of the heavier vent equipment. Lots of love and continued strength to you all1
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