Day 73

The last few days have been very interesting.

Friday was a great cuddle and Alice was off the breathing tubes for a few hours.

Cuddle on Saturday showed that she was tired as she kept having desats - not to the point of requiring oxygen to breathe again, but still needed some encouragement (blowing in the face and poking and tickling the belly) to get her to remember to breathe again. So Alice was put back on the breathing tubes after 2 1/2 hours. Max got the chance to Alice for the first time in weeks. He was happy to see her, and after about 5 minutes, it was time for hot chocolate with whip cream. Max has his priorities!

So Daddy got to cuddle with his daughter this morning ...

while Max and I explored the hospital.

Cuddle on Sunday was great and the nurse kept her off the breathing tubes for 5 hours. She was only supposed to be off for 4 hours, but was sleeping so soundly at 1:15pm, he didn't want to disturb Alice so didn't put her back on the breathing tubes until she stirred around 2:15pm. Good day!

With the long stretch on Sunday it was going to be an interesting guess as to what would happen on Monday. Well - we cuddled for 2 1/2 hours (me for 2 hours and Granny - my mom - for her first cuddle with Alice was 1/2 hour). Then back in the crib with no tubes. It was decided by the doctors to leave it up to Alice as to how long she would stay off the tubes. When I called the hospital at 4:30pm, she was still going strong with no breathing tubes. YAY ALICE!

The doctor asked if we'd like to try and get her to Lion's Gate before Christmas but my first response was NO. Too stressful with Christmas at the end of the week and then if something went wrong she'd have to go back to Children's. Better to leave her a few extra days at Children's, get through Christmas, and then have her move to Lion's Gate next week.

Also, as she's doing so well with the breathing, we're going to try a little breast feeding tomorrow morning as well. See how she gets along with the boob.