On Solid Ground

What an amazing day today.

First of all, thanks to the many of you who sent me messages or left FB comments of encouragement--you're awesome. And thanks to those of you who were prayer warriors for all of us today. It is so evident to me that God is hearing and answering our prayers.

It feels good to be off of the rollercoaster, standing on the solid ground of truth. And it feels good to have much to celebrate today:

It is exciting to watch Lilly standing on solid ground, supporting her own weight, and even walking from the room to the play room several times today. She spent much of the day out of bed, and--despite fears overnight that her breathing was not deep enough and her lungs were suffering--she nearly weaned herself entirely from any suupplemental O2 this afternoon, and is on a minimal amount of nasal canula O2 flow tonight just because she tends to desat at night.

She had one of her iVs and her last remaining drain removed today. Each tube removed from her body warrants a little happy dance as that is one step closer to discharge.

She is no longer on regularly scheduled pain meds, but on an as-needed basis, and has been able to stretch out those doses as well.

And last, but not least (forgive me if it's TMI but if you'd had a child go through major surgery you'll understand what a big deal it is) she had her first post op BM today. Hooray. Things are moving.

For her part, Bella had a good day as well and was SO happy to have her sister out of bed an in the play room with her. And you know Lilly is feeling better when the sibling rivalry kicks right back in as well. We spent much time today in the play room making crafts, bowling, and making bead necklaces. They also had a tea party in the room and played with their Bitty Babies (thank you Aunt Wen for passing along Kaylla's old Bitty Baby for Bella!).

And we enjoyed a visit from Grammy and Pop Pop. It's always good to have folks come see us here!

We have light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Campbell is really happpy with Lilly's progress, and has a few milestones for her to meet but the "D" word (discharge) did come up today...possibly early next week. We need some followup X-rays and a CT scan,and Lilly needs to meet some PT milestones (we'll work on stairs tomorrow).

All in all, everyone's spirits were much better today. Here's hoping for continued progress over the weekend and a speedy return HOME!