A Silent Night at Last

Nothing new to report, but I had to post about Andrea's first night ever with no breathing support. I really think she slept better, or at least more comfortably, without the nasal cannula. It wasn't usual for us to have half a dozen false alarms in a night, almost always caused by Andrea moving in her sleep. When she's active, the PulseOx doesn't make good contact with her foot, and the machine alarms. We always responded to the alarms, even when we were convinced all was well. Last night, there was one false alarm, and it stopped even before we could get out of bed and investigate.

Since we don't have to worry about Andrea wrapping the cannula around her neck, we were able to leave her upper torso unswaddled last night. It was the first time her hands were free, which was probably a more comfortable way to sleep as well. We will continue to swaddle her from the waist down to minimize the likelihood of her getting the PulseOx cord wrapped around her neck!

When we were discharged from the hospital in June, no one gave us any idea of how long Andrea might need oxygen support. I think the doctors might have suspected that we were looking at 6 months of it, but wisely kept that to themselves. We have been waiting for this moment for so long; it seems unreal that we're finally here. Through it all, we have tried to remain positive and optomistic, and to have faith that this day would come. Thanks be to God, it finally has.

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
St. Thomas Aquinas