Smiles!

After making it up to the recovery floor and two very good naps sweet little Liv is starting to reappear!  You still have to work a little harder for those smiles than usual but it's very good progress.  Needless to say, Andrew and I were thrilled and feeling much better about leaving her tonight.  For those who don't know, on the recovery floor your nurse isn't right there the whole time like they are in the ICU.  Makes sense.  We were feeling a little nervous about leaving little miss tonight when she's been so grumpy for a good portion of the day.  But, after a little tweak in her diet, going from 24 kcal to 20 (as Annie put it, "She doesn't need a steak dinner right away.") And two messy diapers Olivia seems to be MUCH happier.  Her tummy is still a bit swollen but it's softer and after a few more poops and a lot more gas I think she'll be golden.

Olivia has continued to roller coaster with her oxygen.  We've gotten her as low as .5 liters but if she gets ticked she goes right back up.  She usually sits around 1-1.5 liters but will occasionally hit two.  And it takes some time for her to get back down.  Also when she's ticked her head turns a lovely shade of reddish purple.  And her head is still a little big.  Hoorah for the glenn.  But, she's looking better every minute.
The next couple days should be pretty mellow so you may not hear from me 'til Monday evening or so. That is when we're scheduled for our ENT consult.  Please pray for good news with that.  I know it's a silly thing to be so worried/upset about but all I want is to be able to feed my baby normally.  This consult should tell us whether Liv has any paralysis to her vocal cords, which may be the reason she's failed her swallow studies.  If there is paralysis, there's nothing they can do other than wait for her to grow out of it.  Which would mean even longer (and we don't know how long) of extremely little to no oral feeds.