So Small Yet So Big

Today was a good day. Gracie was taken off the ventilator at 10:30 this morning cause she was able to breathe on her own. I got there just after they took her off and I was able to hold her for about an hour (see pics below) while the nurses changed her home from an open heated platform to an enclosed incubator. The incubator is a nice warm cozy place for Gracie to rest and continue to grow and get better at breathing on her own. Tomorrow they may be able to feed her milk that mommy has been saving up for her. I held Gracie's hand and she moved around a bit while I talked to her. I met Sister Bernice, the Chaplain at Oakland Children's Hospital, who said a blessing for Gracie and put a prayer card in her incubator. She was very nice to talk to. I took a lot of pictures of Gracie today as this was the first day I could see her without the breathing tube. A few of them are below.
Olivia has ballet class today and was excited to get up and go first thing this morning. She talked to mommy on the phone and told her "I am proud of Gracie!". That was too funny. Olivia knows that mommy and Gracie are at the doctors and will be home soon. Olivia did everything at ballet class today. The mom's at ballet asked about Kim and I told them the whole story. To our surprise later on today a gift bag arrived for Kim at the hospital with gifts for Kim and Gracie from all the mom's at ballet. How sweet that was.
Kim had a tough day with the pain meds, but the good news came later in the day when her blood count went up for the first time since surgery. We hope that continues to trend up and she can come home soon. Many of Kim's friends have gotten word through the grapevine about baby, etc. and are calling and wanting to see her. They also are calling me offering help which is so nice. Jen took the girls for a few hours tonight so I could be with Kim for a while.
Sophia woke up with hives this morning, which threw daddy into a panic (of course), but it turned out not to be so bad. Sophia is apparently allergic to strawberries and the other night she ate a whole thing of strawberry yogurt. Hmm, she loves to watch Strawberry Shortcake with Olivia. I wonder if I need to cut that out too. =)
OK, daddy is going to bed now, but check out Gracie below and I will update everyone again tomorrow night. Take care.