Harli Nicole Culy: January 17, 2011

Today was a good day, Blair's doctor appointment went well and Harli had a strong day. This morning when I arrived in Harli's room their hadn't been many changes from the night before. She was still on the conventional ventilator and they did a blood gas this morning and her results came back good, but they weren't low enough where the doctors had to take her off the vent so they decided to leave her on it and do another blood gas at 8:00 p.m. The doctor did call for an x-ray on Harli's stomach to see if there were any extra gases and the results came back that there were none. The surgeon came up to remove the penrose, which is the tube they had put in her belly, and asked our nurse if Harli had any bowel movements lately the nurse told the surgeon she had not had a bowel movement since the night after her surgery, which was last Wednesday night. When the surgeon and the nurse opened up Harli's diaper they were in for a great surprise she had a bowel movement twenty minutes after I had changed her diaper. They told us that was a great sign but still doesn't mean the intestine is 100% healed and they would still wait the ten days to put the dye through her system.

Our normal doctor was back today after the weekend and saw how well Harli was doing and was very surprised she was back on the conventional ventilator and that it was on its lowest settings. The nurse practitioner and the doctor were talking about the steps they would take when they removed Harli from the ventilator and the nurse practitioner mentioned the vapotherm machine. The doctor is against going to the vapotherm machine because he is afraid that Harli won't be able to handle that machine cause of her size and he said they would have to go back to the CPAP machine when Harli forced them to take her off the ventilator but probably not before then.

Blair and I were told this morning that Harli was doing well enough that we would get to kangaroo Harli again and that just made our day. When the nurse got back from lunch I was able to hold Harli for a total of two hours which was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. There was a point in time when one of the nurses had to come over and wake me up because I had fallen deep asleep and they were afraid that I would shake and Harli would fall of my chest. I can honestly say I think that was the best fifteen minutes I have slept since Harli decided to come into our lives a few days early.

When we left tonight at 8:00 p.m. they had just done another blood gas and her results came back the same as they were this morning, they were good but not good enough that she was forcing the doctors to take her off the vent. Harli had two bowel movements throughout the day which ties her for the most she's had since she was born. She is still weighing in at 1lb 12oz which is not a surprise since she is off milk until they find out if her intestine has healed. So we will continue to pray that Harli will continue to grow and heal and when she is ready to come off the ventilator she will let us know. I want to thank everyone again for all their thoughts, prayers, and gifts they have sent my family in the past couple of weeks. Tonight Blair and I have been opening our mail we got from home and we have both been sitting here in our room crying because of how much love and support our family is receiving during our time of need. We want to continue to say THANK YOU!

We would also like to thank the nurses and the doctors who have been taking care of Harli, if it wasn't for their compassion and their desire to help others Blair and I wouldn't be able to relax and rest like we need to.