Another Good Day

We had another uneventful day, which is always great. Dr. Bove stopped by and said that Audra is a "star" and "very strong"!! We told him that her name means noble strength and he said it is fitting :)

Audra has tolerated her feedings well and is up to 5 mL per hour. She is getting weened off most of her iv meds and is taking a few meds in her feeding tube now instead.

Audra had an echo this morning. Her heart function looks as expected, which is good. We will have a repeat echo on Thursday to make sure everything still looks good. Clinically, she is doing very well as all of her numbers are right in target.

We are still looking at moving to moderate care tomorrow. This is exciting but scary! We have had one nurse for Audra this entire time and in moderate care, it is 4 patients per nurse. This will be a big change but she shouldn't need as much direct attention. Thus, the moderate care. But it is still scary nonetheless.

Her chest dressings will get removed tonight at bath time. We are looking forward to that although not to hearing Audra cry as the nurse removes the sticky portion of the bandage :( Sorry baby!

We enjoyed some nice family time today! Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers!

First Feeding

Audra had her first feeding late last night! This is an important step because parts of her digestive system can lose functionality if she is not digesting the food right. We learned how to place the feeding tube, which Audra did not like - sorry baby! But once the tube was in place and the breast milk was delivered, she was doing fine.

We are looking forward to seeing her chest today as her dressings come off! They didn't have to use any stitches in the very top layer if her chest, so the scar should heal very nicely. They will use the same scar for her future surgeries as well so how it looks now really doesn't matter. But they said she has good skin that heals well :)

Out of the Bay

It is so quiet in our private room! We are just getting settled into the same room that we had pre-op, which is still an intensive care room. It is at the end of the hall and such a change from the always hectic Bay. We are all relaxing.

Audra has been doing so well breathing on her own. We had another great repeat nurse today but have someone new to us tonight.

Next up for Audra is feeding! She will get some breast milk tonight via a feeding tube. We will see how she does. But things keep moving forward!

We are looking forward to spending more family time together tomorrow. Big thanks to Grandma, Grandpa and my sister for taking great care of our older daughter and sending us picture updates!

Moving Forward

Our baby is making big steps as things are progressing nicely. Audra has done really well on her sprints so they already took her off the ventilator and she is doing well! Hooray! She is having more awake time again, which is great. They are already looking forward to moving her to moderate care - out the Bay and out of intensive care entirely! But she still has many steps to go before she actually gets there. It won't be for at least 24 hours they say but even that us much faster than anticipated!!

As we said before, we are taking things as they come to us and try not to look too far ahead. Audra us doing really well right now and that is what we focus on rather than getting caught up in what potential set-back might be around the next corner.

Thank you all for your support and prayers! It is all really helping!!

Chest Closed

The surgery to close up Audra's chest went well. She is doing well now and looking good. So far, so good! We really could not ask for more.

Tonight Audra will do some "sprints" to test to see if she is ready to get rid of her ventilator. Before the surgery today, she was breathing almost all on her own with the ventilator doing very little. Once she is off the ventilator she will slowly start feedings using breast milk, so we are pumped about that ;)

While we were waiting for the surgery we had a great visit with our older daughter. Thanks to Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt for watching her and bringing her over!

Another Big Day

Last night was another uneventful night, which is great! Audra is doing well. Today is another surgery day because she is getting her chest closed! This is another big step.

Usually Sunday is not a surgery day but yesterday an 8 day old baby girl arrived via ambulance (no helicopter because of the weather here) who needs surgery. We met the parents because we allowed them to come over to see Audra so the parents could see how things look after surgery. We have no idea what the little one's heart problem is but it is hard to see others go through the same thing. They are in our thoughts and prayers this morning.

After that baby's surgery, they will work on Audra so please also keep Audra in your thoughts and prayers. It will take about an hour and a half in the early afternoon. Once her chest is closed she can continue moving forward with healing. Obviously we are looking forward to this.

Audra is receiving great care from her nurses here. She has her own nurse assigned for each shift and once you have a nurse, they try to keep the nurse with you. Here at the Bay, we have had the same two nurses all weekend. They both have their own style but are both great. Two of Audra's pre-op nurses have stopped by and I think that one (my sister's fav) may be back with us tonight. Everyone here really does a great job though.

On a lighter note, we found out that we are on Team Blue (rather than Team Maize). This just refers to the Team if medical staff that you are working with who do rounds. As always, Go Blue!

First Post Op Night

The first night after operation was uneventful! What a relief! Audra is doing well and stable. Her chest is still open, which is standard for the surgery to keep pressure down in the chest. But they have to change the patch that holds it together in a bit. Hopefully this goes well. The doctors think that they will be able to close up her chest tomorrow, which is good news. We are taking things as them come and doing well.

We are looking forward the arrival if our older daughter here shortly for some family bonding time :)