Rest Rest Little Ava.

Well yesterday we got moved into our new room on the Pediatric Surgical floor. Boy did we have a lot of things. It is amazing what you accumulate. So now we are all comfy and cozy. It is much smaller than our room in PICU. The great news is we have our own shower and bathroom! I did what I had to do but wow is it not in my nature to share a shower. Way too many germs for this little lady!

Anyway we are settled and I think Ava likes the quiet life back. She slept like a little angel last night. Perhaps her angels friends rallied around her and sang her the most beautiful songs ever heard. In fact she almost slept too good. Her heart rate was low. It hung around 98-128 all night. Now this little girl scared us with her respitory rate. It dripped down to 16! The monitor kept dinging and we got a little nervous. Brian would go to her and rub her back or uncover her to get her to breath faster. It seems crazy that just a week ago we wanted her to breath slower. She's probably like, "Mom and Dad make up you minds already, huh?"

We called the nurse in and made sure that it was reading right. It was! All her other numbers were fine. I am wondering if FINALLY she is getting her ever, so needed rest. Thank you Lord!

So the surgeons came in today and told us they were taking everything really slow. That sounds good to me. We will be attempting to remove her NG tube today. The NG pumps the stomach contents out so it is not sitting in her tummy. We want to get her little tummy to be able to pass things down normally through the intestines. They are not sure what other tests they will do on her to find out if there is a blockage. The GI was probably the easiest but well we all know what happened there.

Ava woke up bright and early this morning and I asked if she wanted me to hold her and she shook her head yes. I haven't been holding her much because she always acts really scared and is usually in pain. I don't want to cause more discomfort so I've been only holding her when we need to get her in her race car. She loves the car rides. I'm hoping it will stay nice out today and we could maybe get outside.

So I held her and tried to get her to stand between my bended knees. She did stand and her legs didn't shake this time. I'm thinking this is great progress! I only let her stand for about 30 seconds and then I scooped her back up in my arms. Many Moms take it for granted that they can even hold their babies. I will always cherish each and ever time I'm still able to hold sweet Ava.

She is smiling and nodding her head so I'm optimistic that this will be an amazing day! Keep the prayers rolling in!

~Terri