Day 70 - 10 weeks old! Easter Sunday

Praise God for this wonderful day! Ava has had the best day ever! At 3am this morning, she extubated herself (pulled her tube out by moving her head). They put her on CPAP (steady stream of O2) where she actually does all the breathing. Her breathing can be fast at times, but her first blood gas was 60 which is pretty good. Her next blood gas was 67 at 9am, which is getting higher. They said if it didn't go down that she would go back on the vent. I had everyone praying all of the place like church. We decided to run into the hospital to see her in case we couldn't see her face if she went back on the vent. I checked her out and she seemed to be doing good and they told her that I could hold for about 2 hours today. I am feeling a bit sick so I wore a mask. I don't have any real symptoms, just a scratchy throat. Anthony went up after I came down (since we had to sit in the car with the girls) and we waited while they got her blood gas. The gas was 63! Praise God it came down. So they kept her on the CPAP and I got to hold her almost two hours today. What a blessing. Ava was so happy. She has this crazy hat with the tube going over her head but she can finally suck on her pacifier easily.

At 6pm, her gas was 61, so they were happy with that. The Nurse practitioner said that they are very happy with her progress. When her steroids are done, she may regress a bit to a higher percentage of O2 (she was at 55% today), but they are not expecting her to go back on the oscillator. I am praying she doesn't get sick, but she is getting my breast milk. If she does go back on the conventional vent, they at least know that she can do the CPAP and is capable of that. They told me that she may be on the CPAP a week or so until they know she can go on the cannula.

Ava weighs 3lbs. 14 oz but she was wearing her hat. She is 38 cm long - 14.96" , and her head is 27.5cm - 10.83".

Praise God for all he has done. I was just hoping for Ava to be off the steroids and doing well today, but now God has exceeded my expectations on the day that we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead. Maybe he had us go through the horrible back and forth a few weeks ago just to get us to this glorious day where Easter means so much more to us and make Ava's story even more incredible.

Praying for an incredible week and for Ava's eye exam on Tuesday to go perfectly.