This morning we were very anxious about walking into Clara's POD, fearing she had a bad night and a bad morning. There had been no calls through out the night, but that usually doesn't mean much. I actually told Jason he had to go in first and look. 

We were shocked to see that her vent settings were down and she was sating at 97!! Her PIP was down to 22, yesterday it was 27. Her Respiratory rate was 40, it was 55. And her oxygen was 43-45. Yesterday it was 60-70. Her Doctor and Nurse practitioners were very surprised and please her recovery was going so well. I think they expected the worse too. She was just so unstable before surgery. She has had no problems with her blood pressure as well. 

She is still very swollen, but her urine out put is almost double it needs to be so they did not need to put a cath in. This also means that her kidneys are working at getting rid of all the fluid. You can see she is still puffy. Today she could barley open her eyes. Her weight was up like over 100 grams because of fluid, which is crazy high.

She also did not desat near as much as she had been doing, and if she did was only in the 80's and she could get it back up. The room was very quiet today, without her monitor going crazy and her nurse coming in constantly chasing her oxygen settings. 

I could however tell that at times she was uncomfortable, so they continued to give her a fentanyl drip for pain. She started getting like 7 mls of milk, and will continue the TPN and lipids too. They will gradually start her feeds back, as she is recovering and the blood is learning how to circulate correctly. 

I called her nurse tonight and she still is continuing to do well. Her nurse practitioner told me today again Clara doesn't follow the " NICU book". She still ceases to amaze everyone with her plans. 

We are very happy with her "gains" today, but are weary because something good means there is something not so good around the corner. It just usually goes that way. BUT today is a great day, and we all can celebrate that. 

So still now we are to wait and watch anxiously as she recovers and see if there are any more "gains" in days to come.  We are so proud of our sweet Clara. She is one tough cookie!!

For me, for the first time in many days I actually was able to take a big deep breath. Besides being still tired, I have not been sick with fear and stress all day. I praise GOD because he is faithful. Trusting him with Clara is something that I have to have extreme concentration on. I naturally want to control every situation and outcome. Sometimes I feel if I could just get a glimpse into the future, it would make feel so much better or I could prepare myself good or bad. But it doesn't work that way. I have no idea from one day to the next. So I have to trust in him that tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day he will meet me there and get me through it.

 I am so thankful for this day, and that my faith is once again restored by His mercy and grace.