11:00pm: I am going to try and keep this blog shorter than what it probably deserves, but Kristen and I are exhausted. Not exhausted from not sleeping enough... more so exhausted from the constant state of stress that we find ourselves living in these days. The valuable lesson we learned early on in the NICU was to take things day by day, however, we feel this past week we have lived minute by minute. Just because things are good one minute doesn't mean that as soon as you turn your head to look the other way things, everything can't fall to pieces. We feel like today was one of those days.

This morning, they were able to wean him down to 21 on the mean pressure and the doctor had commented on the fact that if we could have one more solid day like we did last night, that he would consider moving Reid onto the conventional vent tomorrow (Friday). Today was supposed to be a weaning of his O2 - nothing more than that. No more than a couple hours after he made that comment, Reid's CO2 and pH levels went out of whack and we found ourselves dropping our sats into the lower 80s. And what is the first thing the respiratory therapist does? Crank our mean pressure back up to where we started yesterday - 27. "Don't worry" he said, "I will wean these pressures quickly back down as soon as I can get his sats up." And guess what happened when his sats got back up - another explanation about how we needed to start the weaning process all over again.

At 10 tonight, we went from 27 back down to 26 with a plan of weaning again at 2am assuming his blood gasses look good. Currently we are satting 98-100 and he is resting peacefully. Our nurse tonight is great - we have had her the past 4 nights and she is very in tune with Reid. She notices when his sedation is wearing thin and is quick to make sure that he is given more medicine. One of the biggest problems with Reid even remotely coming to his senses is that he becomes somewhat aware of his reality. So much as a little breath on his own works against this very expensive machine doing the job for him. So, long story short, the more sedation he has, the better off he is.

Reid has had a busy day with visitors today. I cant even begin to count the number of people that have stopped by to say hello - he is famous and he doesn't even know it. If anything, it is a nice distraction from the monotony of sitting in his room, starring at his monitor and hoping the bottom doesn't fall out. So, a big thank you to everyone who has stopped by to say hello!

7:00am: Kristen and I spent the night at the hospital last night. She stayed in the room on the couch and I got a sleeper room that resembles a jail cell with a bed that is probably as comfy as the cots that belong in those cells. Don't think either of us got good sleep, but Reid had a really good night. I don't know all of the details as it is shift change and I can't get back in the PICU until 8. He is now on a mean pressure of 23 and satting 97-100. This pressure is down from 30 the other day and down from almost 27 yesterday. From our conversation yesterday, it sounds like we need to be in the upper teens before we can try going back to the conventional vent. They are trying to wean by 1 about every 4 hours. More to come as the morning unfolds...