More updates.....

Today is Thursday, January 22 and we are still in the ICU.....we all really thought this wouldn't last this long. She is off the ventilator, that happened on Tuesday. After she was extubated they removed her feeding tube and all sedatives. They kept her IV but removed all the fluids and antibiotics. I was able to hold her for quite awhile, which was such a nice feeling. It was almost like holding a newborn, I was very intimidated by all the wires and her frailty. Then as we were sitting together, my mother started playing peek-a-boo with her and for the first time in almost a week I got to see my girl smile! It certainly did my heart good! I was able to give her up to my mother and then to Andrew's mother to hold for a few minutes. Through the night was a little tougher, she was not interested in sleeping and I wouldn't be either if I had been sleeping for 6 days straight. On Wednesay, Andrew came back, he made a quick trip to Pineville to do some things for work and let Allie enjoy a few "normal" things like school and ballet. Andrew was ready to hold his little girl when they got back. We decided to let Allie go in and see her and we're so glad she did. When Allie came into the room Anna Grace's face absolutely lit up. That was the most we have seen Anna Grace smile since this started last week. All Allie had to do was look at her and Anna Grace was beaming. Allie colored her a picture for her room and has picked out a couple of toys for Anna Grace to play with while in the hospital. We eventually had an audience of doctors and nurses watching the interaction between our two girls. Well, we thought we were on the upside and could see the light at the end of the tunnel...until today. She's had a hard day today. They decided to put in another feeding tube, she won't eat or drink anything yet. The place where the tube rested on her face for 6 days is raw and very red so I can only imagine that the inside of her mouth looks just like it, if not worse. Then she wasn't able to keep any of her first feeding down. They thought she might be having withdrawals from the heavy drugs she was on before, so they put her back on a small doses of those. Then her oxygen started to drop and they couldn't figure out why. We had been told we were waiting on a room on the floor to open up and they would move us out today, until that happened, then they decided she wasn't ready. I'm doing really well considering the circumstances. When my parents were here they kept me company and gave me something to look forward to, Andrew has been my strength and a source of lots of good laughs, and of course Anna Grace is my motivation. She has come back alive in many ways in the last 2 days. She HATES it when anyone in scrubs comes into her room. The cleaning lady came in to take out the trash and she threw a fit waving her arms and spitting...yes spitting. If she only knew she was spitting at the people who saved her life. Oddly enough, they aren't at all offended but are thrilled with it. I know that everything is going to be ok, I'm just ready to get back to our lives.