Feeling hopeful this morning

**I have attached pictures of Olivia at the bottom of this post. In those pictures she is on the ventilator and hooked up to a lot of tubes. If that is difficult for you to see or have small children looking over your shoulder you may want to take this into consideration.**

This morning Brian and I are feeling more hopeful about Olivia's recovery. The last few days she hasn't really seemed to get better at all, and in fact, often seems that she is getting worse. We know that because of the viruses we have to "ride the illness out" (which means they can't give her medicine to "fix it") but its hard to stay hopeful while waiting when your kid in having a machine breathe for her. Since she was put on the ventilator Olivia's settings on the machine have been higher than the doctors would like (which means she needs more assistance from the machine than generally they are happy with). This morning Brian just called and Olivia's settings are lower and now basically in what they consider the "optimal zone".  Honestly, she will probably yo-yo up from there again and come back down several times, but knowing she can reach a lower setting is giving us a little hope this morning for a full recovery. Thank you for your kind words and especially your prayers. We are definitely not out of the woods yet and still covet those prayers, but at least we have something concrete to point to as progress--small though it may be.

Even though Olivia is not only purposely paralyzed by this medication, but also sleeping all the time, we think its important to continue to talk to her and have her listen to music. Brian and I are excited that the Child Life department of the hospital has offered to record us reading books to Olivia for the nurses to play while we cannot be at the hospital. That way we can try to be present with her even when we can't be. So thoughtful.

Below are some pictures Brian took of Olivia yesterday. The nurses are so sweet to make her look like a healthy little girl by painting her nails and putting her hair up with ribbons. I told Brian on the inside Olivia is singing "You make me feel like a natural woman"...not sure he knew what to do with that. Here are the pics

Also, Olivia CAN have visitors in ICU if anyone is interested in coming-- we love having company. However, because it is intensive care, either Brian or I have to be present to escort you back to the room. If you are interested in visiting just let one of us know and we can let you know when someone will be in her room so you could come back. 

For the curious types--the tape around her mouth keeps the breathing tube from getting knocked around when they move her. They change it out everyday and clean around it. I know it looks weird if you've never seen it before. The patch on her forehead measures the oxygen in her tissues--she has one on her back as well. All those clear tubes from her mouth to the left side of the picture hook up to the ventilator and the small wire tubes around her head go from the medication pumps into a line in her neck (pretty much a long-lasting more stable IV). I may be partial, but even really sick, my girl looks great!