Huge Day, Just HUGE!

Well if you can't tell by the excitement, Luke's ET tube is GONE!!! During rounds they originally just wanted to turn down the ventilator 2 and see how that went, but then I think they saw how let down I was. So Dr. Leicty asked me how I felt if they just tried it today. I started to cry. Until today I haven't seem Luke's entire face or heard him make a nose since he was seconds old. This is huge to me. They decided to put him on SiPap. The machine is a lot like CPAP for snoring people. It goes over his nose and pushes air into him, but he has to breathe himself. The difference in this machine is it alternates on the amount of air Luke will get. So every other breathe is a 9, then it goes back to 6. When we go to CPAP it will be set at 6 most likely.
The nose piece is help on his face with straps that are tightened on a little hat they put on him. Also all the tubes are Velcro on to the front of the hat. He looks a little like Smurf according to my mom, just without the blue. The switch happened so quick. They loosened all the tape and removed it, then gave him three quick breathes and pulled the tube. Quickly, Liz his nurse, placed the new piece on his nose. He didn't seem to like it at first, but quickly calmed down. He didn't "desatt" during any of the action. They got relaxed, and fed him, then went back to everyday things. He hasn't seemed to struggle at all so far, knock on wood. They did a blood gas an hour after the switch and his CO2 had risen a bit, but they said that was normal. So as of right now there are no blood gases scheduled unless he seems to struggle some. They are now watching his respiratory rate to make sure he isn't trying to breathe too much. They are also watching the concentration of oxygen that he needs to prevent "desatting." So far we are good, nothing too bad. He also hasn't had any pain medication today, and he seems to be doing okay with that.
Now just because he is doing well now doesn't mean that tomorrow he won't be put back onto the ventilator. He could change quickly. Usually they watch really closely for the first 72 hours, but so far we are doing good. In other big news, Luke is now 3 pounds! This might be contributed to all the blood he received yesterday, so he might lose some tomorrow, but he was there today. We are so close be being able to dress him. It is still early in the night so hopefully we still have a good, calm night. The prayers are doing huge things down here, thank you everyone so much from all of us.

Jordan

Pictures: The first one is Liz, Luke's nurse, getting everything ready.

 Luke has his hat on, just waiting for the tube to come out.

 They are trying to get Luke comfortable after the switch. The only tube that is now in Luke's mouth is the feeding tube.

 He went back to sleep real quick after all the excitement.

The nice thing about the hat, it holds down his ears. No tape needed!

 Sorry the picture is sideways, but this is the SiPap. Sure is a lot smaller than the Jet and the ventilator.

This is the cutest little apron that my friend Gloria made for Luke. She worked at Home Depot with Jonathin and I and made Luke his own apron. It could fit him right now. I love the Superman artwork!