Redeeming Thursday.

Back in high school, the running joke amongst my friends (shout out to Ruth and Nicole) was that if something bad was going happen, it would be on a Thursday.  Our teachers seemed to like to give difficult tests on Thursday, I guess.  Maybe one of us got our heart broken on a Thursday, I can't remember. Thursday should have been great because it's only one day away from Friday, but we were almost superstitious in our Thursday phobia.

In the "several" years since high school, I've pretty much overcome my issues with Thursday.  It's often a downright pleasant day.  In the five weeks since Bonnie was born, I think it may have become my new favorite day of the week.  Here's a recap of some recent Thursdays:

Thursday, June 7:  Bonnie is born.
Thursday, June 28:  Bonnie comes off ECMO.
Thursday, July 5:  Bonnie has her hernia repair surgery.
Thursday, July 12 (that would be today):  Bonnie is OFF THE VENTILATOR!

That's right, friends.  Bonnie was extubated today around 10:00 a.m.  She is breathing on her own and doing a stellar job of it.  Praise the Lord!  (Seriously, take a minute and say thank you because this is nothing short of incredible.)  For the first couple hours, she didn't have CPAP, Vapotherm, nasal cannula--nothing!  Nothing at all on her sweet little face.  First time that's happened since she was about 2 minutes old.  They did end up starting her on a nasal cannula on extremely low flow oxygen (0.1 liters/minute) because her doctor didn't want her O2 sats to be below 95%.  She was mostly keeping them up that high anyway, but would dip down in the high 80s occasionally.  Blood oxygen levels that are too low can exacerbate pulmonary hypertension, and we definitely don't want that.  So I'm totally fine with a nasal cannula.  Compared to that terrible ET tube, it's downright adorable.

Here is a photo recap of Bonnie's best Thursday yet.

This is the ventilator, not ventilating.

Bonnie with *nothing* on her face except leftover adhesive from all the junk that *used* to be on her face.

Yes, I had held her before, but we had some serious snuggle time today.  Couldn't have done this very easily on the vent.

Sleeping peacefully with a minimal amount of oxygen flow ("less than a whiff", as Bonnie's favorite respiratory therapist Joe says) through the nasal cannula.

And one more thing I'm super excited about.  They started giving Bonnie some breastmilk today through an NG tube.  Super tiny amounts at first--1 cc an hour, i.e. less than an ounce a day--just to get her belly to wake up.  There are likely to be several speed bumps on the way to learning to eat by mouth, but I'm so excited for her to get started on the process.

So much to be thankful for today.  Thank you *all* for your faithful prayers for our sweet Bonnie.  They have been answered over and above what I even could have imagined.  The big prayer requests at this point are for her to tolerate feedings (and learn to eat by mouth eventually), and for her to wean off her pain/sedation medications with minimal issues.  The drug weaning I am told is a very long and difficult process, and Bonnie is on high doses of some pretty heavy stuff (fentanyl and versed).  She basically has to go through baby rehab, which is not going to be enjoyable for anyone.

Happy Thursday, everybody!