So when we say Lucy's been intubated and is on a ventilator, It means she's on SIPPV+VG. The first part stands for Synchonised Intermittent Positive Pressure Ventilation, which means the ventilator delivers a breath each time Lucy attempts to take one herself. The doctors set a minimum respiratory rate, so if she gets tired or lazy, the machine ensures she receives enough ventilation. The VG part stands for Volume Guarantee, Which makes sure that the amount of air in each breath exceeds the minimum level set by the doctors. So she's assured of maintaining rate and depth of her breathing. At the same time, the nurses can alter the amount of oxygen that the ventilator delivers (FiO2), keeping it at air level (21%) when she's going OK, and increasing it (up to 50%) if she becomes distressed.

CPAP, or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, is what we hope Lucy will graduate to in the next few weeks. At this point she'll be extubated and only require a mask for breathing support. In basic terms, this will help keep the alveoli more open and increase her Funcional Residual Capacity (the amount of air in her lungs). CPAP requires much more effort to breath on Lucy's part, so it's likely she'll need to be weaned of the ventilator for an hour or so at a time initially until she's worn out. Then she'll go back and forth between the two until she can maintain an effective rate without the ventilator.

When will she make the change? When she's ready I suppose. Some parents of 24 week bubs in the unit have told us that their little ones went for up to 2 months before they graduated to CPAP, so we might have that ventilator ticking a way for a while yet.

Now we've got that little spiel out of the way, I can tell you that Lucy's had a good weekend. Her blood cultures came back positive for staph, which was no great surprise, but the antibiotics have got her back to a level where she's now able to resume feeding. She's wriggling around a little more during the day too, and has burst through the birth-weight barrier, tipping the scales at a hefty 720 grams today. Finally she's opened her bowels for the first time, yay! Yes, it's the little things that make you excited when you're in this position...