A New Ventilator

Charly has been trying to take breaths on her own since she was just a day or two old. We have heard from some of the nurses that she does this more when John and I are in the room. Because she is showing that she is ready to make more oxygen on her own...they moved her to a new ventilator. I was excited and nervous for her because the new vent would mean that she needs to work harder. No more kicking back and letting the old vent do all the work, she will now HAVE to breath on on her own.

I stayed at the hospital for over 5 hours yesterday, but they weren't going to move her to the new vent until later in the evening. We got a call from the Nurse Practitioner around 5pm that said she was moved to the new vent and is doing great.

John's Dad turned 70 last night and had a HUGE surprise party. I didn't feel that good, but I went and it was fun to see how surprised he was. It was so nice to visit with friends and family, and everyone asked about little Charly. We felt an overwhelming sense of love and care for her!

After the party John and I went back to the NICU to see little Charly Bell on her new vent. As soon as I go there I was surprised! She didn't look comfortable AT ALL...her little head was bouncing up and down and her arms were flailing around. I wasn't sure if this was because of her "seizure" history, or because she was uncomfortable. Withing seconds of my worry, the nurse, the nurse practitioner and the respiratory therapist were all in the room looking at Charly. They moved her to her side, and the bouncing stopped a little, but she just looked SO UNCOMFORTABLE. I don't think any of the staff had followed Charly before so from what they were seeing...they said it looked normal. There was no convincing me...I felt like something needed to be adjusted. I cried. I know she's going to have to work harder on the new vent, but I was shocked that she was working so hard that her body was bouncing around. After a review and movement of her vent tube (meaning they had to push her tube further into her chest than it was placed), an x-ray, and moving to her other side...she was completely still. I think her vent tube had slipped a little which made her really uncomfortable. Needless to say, we were there until after 2am. I felt much better leaving her though. I guess you could call this one...Mommy freak out #1.

On a lighter note I took a picture of her little diaper, and blood pressure cuff. She is so tiny that the blood pressure cuff is too small to wrap around the pen. Her diaper is miniature and is HUGE on her. It's hard to really show from the pictures how completely tiny she is. I keep begging John to buy a tennis ball so we can put it next to her head - her head is smaller than a tennis ball.