Good Evening From Atlanta

Well, not many changes today, but in some cases that is good. Grace's chest tubes continue to drain quite a bit more than is allowed to remove them, so we wait. We are so proud of her, they don't seem to slow her down. If you could just see her walking up and down the halls, you would never known she had open heart surgery less than a week ago and still has tubes sewn into her chest. They did add another one dose diuretic today to try and pull some more of the fluid off. One side effect of these is that she breaks out into drenching sweats even at a resting state. Needless to say,she has received many sponge baths the past few days. They also removed the dressing that was over her chest incision. It is hard to tell exactly how it looks as there are still steri strips; but from what I can tell it is looking great. Her oxygen saturations haven't been quite as high today, but not low enough to need the oxygen back. This is to be expected we are told and will take some time for them to settle out. So, we do all we can to keep her from getting upset as that tends to make them drop quickly. I have a feeling we have a spoiled girl on our hands, but I do believe she deserves to be for a little while :)

We continue to thank God for all of the the doctors and nurses he has placed in our lives. We have had some of the sweetest nurses that have loved on Grace and done all they can to let her get sleep. Hospital life does not allow for the best sleep, so these stretches are so much appreciated. I have had just the sweetest times laying in bed with her while she falls asleep. She will scoot all the way over to the railing and pat the bed for me or Ryan to lay with her. It is quite a sight to see Ryan and I squeezed in the crib with her, but oh I wouldn't trade these times for the sore bodies anyday. I just kiss on her sweet face and cheeks constantly. She will lay in bed and carry on her own conversations with her baby doll for a good 10-15 minutes before she falls asleep. I don't know much of what she is saying, but she sure does.

Well I am off to try and get a few hours of sleep before the next round of vital checks and meds. Thank you so much for checking in on us and all of your continued prayers. They mean soooo much to us.