Esther is out of CICU

Esther has moved to "the floor" today!  She's doing great, and has even been off morphine since early this morning, and just on Tylenol and resting comfortably!  They will be removing her central line as well as her arterial IV, and then placing a new peripheral IV before she goes to the floor.  She's been getting breast milk by feeding tube all night, increasing from 5 ccs per hour to 25 ccs per hour this morning.  She hasn't had even one episode of reflux at all.

Here's a sweet photo I got of her late last night when she was bundled to get her temperature back up:



She has been having mucus in her  throat, and for some reason she doesn't like to cough.  They used deep suctioning to get rid of it last night, but this morning, they really want her to cough it up, and so far she's doing well.  She's been having trouble regulating her temperature - bundle her and she gets too warm (like 99.9), but if left with out a blanket she gets really cool.  Sometimes even just a blanket loosely over her can make her too warm too!  Hopefully she'll level off once we can get clothes on her (once her lines are out she can wear clothes again.

She also gets to start binky training again today!  She will be so happy!  She's been sucking for all she's worth whenever she's not sleeping.

I finally went through my memory card and got some of the photos we took last weekend when Esther got many visitors!

First Uncle Ed, Aunt Denise, and Uncle Duane came by:



Aunt Denise even got some smiles from Esther:



Then Auntie Lisa came and had a great time talking with Esther:



Auntie Lisa brought Esther the cutest Lady Bug, whom we will call "Lady" - Esther loves the bright colors - we suspended her from the mobile above the swing, and soon Esther was taking aim and hitting Lady like she was a pinata!




Then after lunch, Daryl's sister, Jeanne (Esther's middle name is Jeanne), and her family came by on their way home to Indiana!

Here's Esther with her cousin Caitlyn - she had the touch and soon Esther was sound asleep, and sprawled in her lap"




And here are Caityn's brothers, Aaron (has his pilot's license and is going to college), Nathan (also attending college), and Derrick (he and Caitlyn are in high school):


and here's Jeanne and Dave laughing with Daryl:


That was a lot of visitors, that's for sure!