Friday, July 17th Update

Cooper is officially 7 days post surgery, and doing well! His weight dropped a little today, but hopefully he will gain it back quickly. Today he received the last dose of his antibiotics (from surgery) and he is still on caffeine. He is tolerating the breast milk feedings well, but having some reflux that they're monitoring. A few doctors from the neurology team came and met with me about the bleeding and swelling in Cooper's brain. We are praying for miracles!

For the past 10 days Cooper has been pretty sedated, and we haven't heard him cry because of the intubation tube down his throat. Today he was much more alert, and we heard his heart breaking little cry several times! It's so hard to listen to him cry and not be able to pick him up and comfort him. Before we left last night, Taylor and I were both able to do skin to skin with Cooper, and it was wonderful. It was amazing to watch his vital signs as he was placed on my chest and see his oxygen levels go up and his heart rate go down (both great things) immediately. Holding him was definitely the best part of the day. 

Since Cooper's birth last week, many women have told me what a roller coaster of emotions the NICU is. That is the perfect analogy to describe it -- the highs are so high, but the lows are very low as well. At times the energy in the NICU is so intense -- we are in a large room with 4 or 5 other babies in close proximity, and there is always a lot of people, alarms, crying babies (and sometimes crying parents) and emotion in the room. When we leave the hospital each day I feel so emotionally drained, but there is no place I would rather be right now. We are learning how to do hard things through the strength of the Lord, and he is helping our weaknesses become strong!