So, I have good news and I have bad news.

The bad news is that Leah’s breathing is atrocious right now and her sound effects have progressed from a kitten purring (super-raspy) to a puppy begging to let in (squeaky inhalation) to a flock of seagulls (the birds, not the band).

The good news is that Leah’s breathing is atrocious because she is off the vent. They took her off of the heavy sedation earlier today and it took all of like, ten minutes for her to wake up (the doctor came back and was surprised to find her awake – he thought it would take her a couple of hours to wake up!). So we had an awake but drugged baby for a little while, but after she was extubated they waited a bit and gave her more meds to calm her down. She is still on a low dose of the heavy sedative.

Leah is getting 100% oxygen through the nasal cannula, but her trachea is understandably swollen, and she has tracheomalacia, so it’s also not hardened like it should be. So she’s really struggling to breathe through the uncomfortable trachea. But she is breathing, and her numbers look good. The hope is that she will sound better as the swelling goes down. She went through something similar (though not as horrible) when she was intubated during the Great Mic-Key/Mini Change-Up, and while it was a hellish night, she did get better. I’m assuming this will take a little longer since she was intubated almost a week, but I am telling myself it WILL get better soon.

It’s a lot more stressful being in the PICU when your kid breathes like a flock of seagulls. We’ve been spoiled the past few months. I’m glad we reminded ourselves of that going into this procedure.

A rare wide-awake-ish moment right after extubation and before more sedation.

Yeah, that’s more like it.

Don’t be fooled by these open eyes – the kid is pretty out of it.

Mostly she just looks stoned. Largely because she’s pretty stoned.

But she’s still awfully cute, isn’t she?