Lincoln's New Face

Lincoln's extubation yesterday was a success and he has been doing well off of the ventilator for almost 24 hours now. I was able to be in the room when they took his ET tube out and he made his first sounds! They were quiet and scratchy. His throat is really sore from the tube being in so long. I took video so that Dan would be able to enjoy the moment, too. He is now on high-flow oxygen through nasal cannulas. Lincoln looks so different without the tape across his upper lip! He is even more handsome now. I just vaguely remember that face from the delivery room. From that point on, he has always been on a ventilator and taped up! He was even switched to a big boy crib yesterday, so now there is even more space in his room. Little by little, the equipment is being taken away. All of the doctors and nurses are very happy with his progress. They say the next step is learning to feed. Since Lincoln is a month old now and has never taken anything by mouth, he may not have the instinctive coordination to suck, swallow and breath. With help from speech therapy, he will have to learn without the reflex most babies have. How fast he learns to feed will indicate when he can come home. As it has been from day one, it's up to Lincoln. We are on his time.