Fabulous Friday

It seemed as if my first Friday back in the office would never end. Sure the routine was much the same, arrive at 6:30am get some coffee in me, wait for the bagels to arrive, do some work, read Olivia's email and look at my daily picture, reply to Olivia's email, go to lunch, some more work, and then go home. Except today, going home meant going to where my family was. I left work a little early and besides the usual Chicago traffic on 88 and 294 I made some pretty good time today, which is good because Lisa sounded so excited when I spoke with her that I needed to get out to them ASAP. Some reasons why she was excited:

1. No more epinepherine! Yay, one medicine completely gone.
2. They started to feed Olivia today. Slowly but surely.
3. The lasix dosage has been upped a little bit to help drain the remainder of the fluids.
4. There is talk of them pulling the remaining chest tube tomorrow.
5. They are lowering her vent settings and rumor has it that Olivia will be off the ventilator by Monday which means Lisa and I will get to hold her for the first time in all of her glory.

Like I said, this is all great news, the only downside is now that I am here at the hospital, I will not be receiving my morning email's from Olivia, apparently those are reserved for when I am at work. I never knew that my 2 week old daughter was so talented (and sarcastic) let alone having the capability of typing on a keyboard. But those emails always make my day. As far as everwything else, we shall see how it goes. Lisa and I have learned to be cautiously optimistic about everything the doctors tell us...especially the timetable of things but it is so hard not to get excited about holding the little munchkin. I mean look at her.... isn't she just so cute?! I think when Lisa finally gets to hold her the doctors are going to give her a sedative in order to make sure her and 2 of the nurses don't run out the door and kidnap her. Its amazing how well you get to know some of the nurses in the PSHU and they are all great. They go out of there way to explain everything to Lisa and I while we are there and always make us feel so comfortable. Although my favorite part of any visit is still when she opens her eyes. Not the opening the eyes to fuss part, but the "I'm curious to see whats out here in the world part". It just cracks me up how she peers through her right eye to see if anything is interesting and if so, the left one will follow suit. But if nothing fun is going on she will open her right eye real big to double check and then slam it shut as if to not be disturbed. Its hilarious the things she does. At this point in time the running tally on the floor is that her eyes are green, although I am not fully convinced

Either way, it is exciting to be back at the Ronald McDonald House with Lisa and be only a 5 minute walk away from Olivia. Knowing that should help me sleep sound as a pound. Don't forget to save your pop top's and turn them into your local RMH. Its amazing what those little pieces of aluminum can do... and build.

Good night - Brian, Lisa & Olivia

(if you guys are lucky maybe I will convince Olivia to post an entry this weekend... no promises though, she gets stage freight sometimes)