Life in the PICU

Well we're wrapping up day 9, and the doctors have said that they are in no rush to get Vita off the breathing machine. They'd like to wait and be cautious. They aren't even going to consider extubating Vita until the day after tomorrow, but they will likely wait even longer than that. Since they'll want to keep Vita in the ICU at least a day after they extubate, we are looking at nearly another week in the ICU before getting moved to general care. Since Vita had a bit of a rough day yesterday (having the breathing tube removed and then put back in) she was really tired today and slept almost all day. This is actually a good thing, as she was having a really nice deep peaceful sleep. Meanwhile, her body is still doing the good work of rebuilding those neuromuscular connections to reverse the paralysis, while she rests and rebuilds her strength. Presumably (fingers crossed) when she's done resting and wants to have more awake time again, she'll demonstrate even more progress. While Vita sleeps and goes in and out of some semi-awake time, Ernie and I pass the time hanging out close to her side. I'm just about out of songs to sing (I'm sure the nurses are relieved about that) so I've taken to reading Vita stories so she can hear my voice. Today we read the Velveteen Rabit. Even tired babies like to be entertained, and Dad has maintained his sense of silliness this whole time. Also, we're settling into more of a routine here in the ICU. We don't have a private room... in fact there are 4 babies (and their families) sharing our room with just curtains to provide privacy. However, we've really made ourselves at home here. The big news is that we finally landed ourselves a sleep chair, pictured below. This chair reclines and is (sort of) comfortable. Yay! Finally, the "child life" unit at Stanford is really good. They come around and make sure kids have developmentally appropriate toys for their stay here. They gave Vita a musical mobile and a dinosaur puppet, and the same little musical aquarium crib toy that she had on her bassinet at work. The staff here are so good, and they're taking care of Vita's physical needs while being sensitive to her emotional needs as well.