Yay, goodbye ventilator!!! So since my last post on Wednesday, here's what's gone down:

Lucy was deemed not quite strong enough to try Long Prong CPAP on Thursday, so Robs and I were a bit flat for the rest of the day thinking it'd be another week before they'd try again. However, on Friday they team were keen to give it a go, and Lucy surprised us all by lasting for the whole afternoon! Although buoyed by this news, we still weren't celebrating at that stage as we were convinced that on Saturday she'd tire and be back on the ventilator, but to our amazement - Saturday (and then even Sunday) remained ventilator-less! Then come this morning, the doctors decided to give her a crack at 'proper' CPAP, and as of 8pm she's still going strong with good sats and gases. It won't be totally unexpected if she doesn't last, but having had 4 days without a machine doing all her breathing will be strengthening her lungs significantly and we're daring to dream! We're also happy that Lucy's resident doc was just as stoked as us with her sudden improvement!

For the uninitiated, CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. Unlike the ventilator, it doesn't breathe for the baby; rather it helps the baby breathe by providing additional pressure to keep the alveoli open each time the baby takes a breath. So now instead of being intubated for breathing, Lucy gets to wear this funky looking helmet thing. And, as you can see in the second photo, mum was pretty keen to pick off the remnants of the tape that held the previous tube in place. Who knows - eventually we might get to see our whole daughter's face at the same time!