Tag team post...

This is David, I realized that I gave Kristi the wrong information yesterday. Grace is currently on bipap, not cpap.  The goal for Grace today was to continue weaning her on her oxygen and pressure support for her lungs, with the hopes of transitioning her to cpap today. However, Grace's lungs looked a little wet on her X-ray this morning, so they did another one this afternoon and they were the same, if not even a little more wet; therefore, they want to hold off on going down on her pressure support until they see if they can get some more fluid off of her.  Otherwise, if they wean her too quickly from the pressure support, while she has extra fluid on her lungs, then she will end up "failing" and need to be reintubated, which they don't want to happen because they tried to move her along too quickly.

Daddy did a great job making that bipap machine look fashionable!

This is a tag team blog post :-).  I (Kristi) just have to share a couple of things that I'm grateful for today…

-We are so very grateful for the nursing staff at BCH!!!  Their level of professionalism, knowledge, and genuine care for their patients (and their family) is unbelievable!  Here is one small example of their incredible competence: Yesterday Grace's blood pressure dropped to 40/20 (yep, you read that right… super scary), David said that the nurse calmly and proficiently began snapping open about 6 larger syringes of fluid, one after another, infusing them as quickly as possible in an effort to get her blood pressure back up by giving her fluid back (since they had dried her out so much, trying to get as much fluid off of her lungs as possible), while simultaneously calling the attending and fellow (on the phone/walky talky thing) to get them to come to the bedside so they could come up with a plan on how to proceed.  David said that unless he was watching the monitor and knew what her numbers looked like, he never would have known that they were in what could be a crisis situation.  These same amazingly competent nurses are also the ones that will go through so much trouble to make sure that Grace gets the hospitals version of a spa treatment (washed hair and style, lip exfoliation and lip balm, new bedding, etc) and lots of extra loves (hugs, encouraging words, etc).  As if that's not enough, they are our biggest advocates, always working to make sure that all of our needs and concerns are heard and addressed (even if it means pestering Dr's, etc).  All I can say is that pediatric nurses and Dr.'s have such a special calling in life!  I love them and praise God for them!!!

-The grace and forgiveness that children extend so freely!  I almost had to turn in my tooth fairy wings this morning…  Abigail lost her tooth yesterday at school, so she put it under her pillow and due to extreme air traffic and high winds the tooth fairy wasn't able to make her delivery.  Therefore, my heart crumbled when Abigail walked into my room this morning with her tooth still in the bag she had put under her pillow and tears in her eyes. Now for the good news, Abigail already knew who the real tooth fairy is (her mommy) and so it was a chance for her to be reminded that we all make mistakes (even mommy's and daddy's) and practice extending her mommy grace and forgiveness (as I practice trying to forgive myself).  I love that she went on to speak truth to me tonight when I shared that my "worst" was being a bad tooth fairy and letting her down.  She giggled and said  "it's ok Mommy, just remember what you always tell me, God's mercies are new every morning, so we get to start over fresh each day."  The second part to the good news, is that our new rule is that if the tooth fairy doesn't show up on the first night, then you get double the treasure on the second night :-).  Here is what the tooth fairy brought Abigail, along with money and super cute nail decals (thank you Summer!)…

Please keep praying, sweet Village!  Will you please pray for what ever God puts on your heart ?!?!

(((BIG GIANT HUGES))) and thanks!