Nicole was her nurse last night. She weighed and bathed her and she was 7lbs, 8 oz (fluid retention).

Olivia’s first night off the vent - she did fantastic. her Oxygen levels did did into the high 50’s but her blood gases were better and she extremely comfy.

They are giving her the Lasix (diaretic) very slow.

She’s on tylenol for pain management.

8:30AM:

Tom is her nurse again today with Diane (who I want to call Kathy all day )

Dr. Heller (Cardiologist) stopped in. She said Olivia is looking GREAT.

Dr. Heller said Dr. Mello oftens says “unique anatomy” when the heart isn’t “textbook” and she said nothing is different than what we knew before.

We’re waiting for the chest tube removal along with possibly the IV in her belly (”pace wire”) prior to feeing. Dr. Heller feels we should get Olivia eating asap as she’s rooting.

Tom put Olivia on “blow by” Oxygen this morning since her levels were dropping into the high 50’s again. This is just a small tube placed in her bed blowing oxygen near her.

9:00AM: Dr. Mello stopped by with Dr. Leopold (cardiologist). They decided to remove the pacer wire so I had to leave for about 20 minutes. Arnie showed up at the hospital during this time and could hear Olivia screaming in anger as he walked down the hall toward her room.

9:35AM: They removed pacer wire “one on ventricle, one on atrium”, the cath, common atrial line and the chest tube. OLIVIA IS WEARING A ONESIE AND DIAPERS FOR THE FIRST TIME!

9:55AM: Lisa and Melinda from xray came over to do a chest xray.

12:30PM: First feeding of expressed breast milk. They defrosted 5 ml and she took 4ml. She was given aspirin (1/2 baby tablet dissolved in water) and a dose of Zantac.

4:45PM: Our first breastfeeding session. She ate for 10-15 minutes on the right side. After she fell asleep and her oxygen levels hit 100%

Dr. Eric is on tonight.

Dr. Megan (resident) said no upper GI until after Olivia’s adjusted to being off all the meds and she is “more stable”.

Medications: They will start to wean her off the dopamine tomorrow. She is still on IV fluids “9″ per hour which is the minimum she needs.

9:30PM: Another breastfeeding session.

Tricia called and said that the nurse put in orders to have Olivia moved back to NICU. She must be doing great. Also, Olivia is wearing a onesie and hat, REAL clothes. She talked to the doctor and he said not to worry about Olivia’s unique anatomy. Tricia sounds like she is just beaming.

Olivia has been doing fantastic. Yesterday she had two nurses dedicated to her care - Tom (in training) and Kathy. When I was released we walked over here and they were “rounding” about Olivia. Each child has their own room (and own nurse) in the PICU. The room was FULL of doctors which startled me at first.

They spent yesterday weaning her off the vent. By noon she was doing 2/3 of the breathing and her oxygen levels were in the 90’s which actually they considered to be possibly too high.

She is on the following meds:

Dopamine for BP regulation

Milrinone for “cardio” - decreases the pressures in her major vessels.

Morphine for pain - but it’s not a drip. Olivia is on a very light dosage but she seems sensitive to it.

Sugar water for fluids.

They were giving her Lasix yesterday morning for diaretic but had to back off when her oxygen levels were all over the place.

Around 4:15pm, her BP was 95/56, oxygen levels 89%. Blood gasses were showing an oxygen level of 75% which was what they wanted to see.

They made a decision to remove the ventilator around 5:20. There were two respiratory therapists and two nurses present. It went extremely well and she was FIGHTING MAD! She has done FANTASTIC off the vent and her breathing has been BETTER without the vent than on it.

Nicole was Olivia’s nurse last night. An aside, the nursing staff here has been nothing but fantastic. Very helpful and I’ve had no complaints.

Olivia had a very good night. They just gave her a bath and weighed her. She smells SO SWEET! Not that she didn’t before, but even better now. Olivia weighed in at 7lbs, 8 oz which is probably a water weight gain. She’s not terribly puffy and Nicole commented that she is doing better than they normally see.

Olivia’s oxygen levels dropped into the high 50’s last night but her blood gasses were great and she hasn’t been struggling. She’s extremely comfy and very aware - She was WIDE awake at 2AM when I went to see her.

The family rooms here are very nice - SMALL but nice. I have a TV with DVD/VCR combo, a small closet, a desk and a trundle bed. There are two bathrooms and a common area (including full sized fridge and microwave) that are shared by the wing of bedrooms - there are 6 bedrooms total and only 3 families here right now. Everyone is very quiet and no visitors are allowed in this wing so it keeps things quiet and clean.