Today was another great day for Ava. At about noon, she came completely off the nitric oxide and off the jet high frequency ventilator and onto a conventional ventilator. She looks so much more comfortable, although she is also off of her heavy-duty sedatives and is starting to wake up and realize what is going on. She is a big girl (compared to a lot of the premies in the NICU) and she fights the vent a bit.
At our nightly visit, Jeff and I actually got to help out. I changed her diaper and cleaned her eyes and mouth. Jeff helped the nurse change all of her bedding - quite an ordeal. We weighed her and she is now up to 8lbs 6oz, although a lot of that is probably water retention weight that she will shed as she starts moving more. These little things seem big to us right now - it is so nice to be able to actually do some things for her. We hope we'll be able to hold her soon and give her a bath - she needs it after 9 days of all those tubes, wires and stickers, not to mention still having anmeotic fluid all over her!
