Good News: Extubated

Whitney Kaholumehekainani Montgomery is 3 weeks and 2 days old.

We called the NYICU (Nursery Intensive Care Unit) this morning when we woke up around 8AM, and they said the nurse was on break but Whitney is doing good. We needed to bring in my breast milk for Whitney so we left for the NICU around 11:30AM. Thomas called again just to let them know we were coming with it and to visit her. The nurse said that they EXTUBATED her! At 9:15AM. That means they took her off the ventilator and put her on the high flow nasal cannula! They didn't say that this morning when we called so I was very surprised. I wish I were there for it because this is an amazing step toward getting all better. I feel like I'm missing a lot of achievements and cute things she does. Whitney looks beautiful and is doing fantastic! It was amazing to see her this way! We are so happy.

Now she has her feeding tube down her nose, and nothing in her mouth! We heard our sweet baby girl cry today for the first time! We heard her make a little peep when she was born. Her cries today were so sad, and soft. She basically has a very sore throat but it should get better in a few days and she'll be screaming loud and clear! I'm so excited! :) Whitney's getting 40 mL's of milk and they are increasing it by 5mL every 12 hours and weaning down on the TPN (nutrients that get to her via Broviac). Once she at 70mLs they'll take out the Broviac, and that means they get to bathe her! She is tolerating her feeds very well and I hope to someday breast feed my baby. We'll see!

Today, Whitney and I bonded. Skin to Skin. They call it Kangaroo Care. It was so nice to be able to hold my baby on my bare chest. I held her there for over 2 hours! It was such a good feeling and something I yearned to do since she was born. I love my daughter so much. I know she is doing so well because Heavenly Father is answering our prayers, every body's prayers.

The nurse told us to find a Pediatrician soon so that we're not doing that at the last minute. They gave us a list of 3 Dr.'s that they recommend. So that is what we will be doing next week. I guess we just meet with them and see which one we feel most comfortable with. And of course to make sure that they know how to take of babies with CDH. I think that after all this, I'll turn out to be one of those...'helicopter moms'.

And we bought Whitney a crib today! I found it online at Walmart, we also bought a mattress of course. It'll be here in "7 -10 business days." I could have done this earlier but had no time. I've been looking at cribs and mattress for a long time (since early pregnancy) and I'm so happy that we could get one for Whitney! I washed all her newborn and 0-3month clothes, but she probably won't fit into her newborn outfits, sad. She doesn't wear the newborn diapers anymore. Sorry for talking on and on and boring, but I haven't written for so long. Oh well, thanks for reading!