Tuesday evening

We've had a good day today- This morning it was decided to take Emma Kate off her IV fluids since she is tolerating the feedings so well and is up to decent amounts of food through the NG tube. Her numbers have been good all day- the only times we had any worries were when he BP elevated a few times, each one was soon after associated with us seeing her eyebrows move, indicating she was getting light on her sedation or paralytic, since she is getting tolerant to them. She's actually starting to get higher doses than the people in the pharmacy have experienced... she's one tough little cookie. Her vent numbers have been awesome all day- her peak pressure has been it's lowest ever, in the mid 20's, and she's getting rid of CO2 really well too. She was scoped again today, and both her ENT and the pulmonologist were very pleased with how everything looked!! It's staying open (granted, she's still getting positive pressure from the vent, so we don't know how she'll do breathing on her own yet), and inflammation has improved. We got a double thumbs-up from her ENT, and got more of the "magic drops" in there (steroids). Her peak pressure went up to about 28 (which is still really good for Emma Kate) after the procedure and the drops, and after a little while, it's back down to about 24. We're so happy to see progress in a good direction! She's gotten some physical therapy from the hospital today in addition to Mommy's attempts through the day, and is wearing her splints off and on as well. She got a good rub-down with lotion this morning and looks really good- the nurse last night gave her a little bath and cleaned her hair a bit- it's curled up all cute again. For now the plan is to stay the course unless we have indications to do otherwise, and to go a few more days monitoring and scoping at least daily. Then we'll have to decide when to start taking her off the paralytic and initiate some breaths on her own...