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I would love to report great improvement and miraculous healing. But I can't. All I can report is a baby who's getting used to the sedation drugs and has spent the majority of the afternoon looking around contently and kicking her chubby little feet. The vent settings are up to a level to make sure that she doesn't have any more atelectasis (collapsed alveoli) and so far her co2 is staying in an acceptably high range (low 50s). Every time we try to wean she raises her co2 and the alveoli collapse again. Not fun for anyone.

This led to a good but hard conversation with her doctor about the possibility of a tracheostomy. It's a very real possibility. If she is unable to wean from the vent then a trach is a means for us to get her out from under sedation and to a place where she can develop regularly with assistance for her lungs. It means staying in the hospital until she is a size that they feel comfortable discharging which is around 12 lbs. That could be a while. But it would be a while where her quality if life was markedly better than it is now.

So, the plan is to give her one more shot. Once we have ruled out any other contributing factors (infection, fluid retention in the lungs) that could be setting her back, we will start weaning again. Her pulmonoligist had a few other tricks up his sleeve that could give her a better chance at successful extubation and if that doesn't work then we know we did the best we could.

So for now we wait and pray and ask God to guide every step. This is not new.

Specific Prayer
- miraculous response to weaning
- wisdom for all involved
- peace for sweet Penny
- patience for sweet Lydia as she deals with all if this chaos
- a friend we have made here who's son is in so much suffering that they are praying for his suffering to end even if it means the Lord has to take him home. His name (ironically) is Jonathan

The picture is Penny hanging out with "lydi on a stick"