Monday, August 24th Update

Cooper had a good day! His primary concern was the amount of stool he's producing. Now that he is only receiving breast milk and not TPN, they measure his stool output carefully to make sure he's not producing too much. Yesterday he was on the higher end of the acceptable range, but so far so good. If he does start to produce too much, they will decrease the amount of milk he's given. Yesterday he was given just over an ounce of milk every three hours. Everything about the care of preemie babies is such a balancing act... but right now his team seems to have figured out what he's responding to.

After Cooper's adrenal crisis a few weeks ago, he was given steroid shots of hydrocortizone to help his kidneys produce the needed hormones. They slowly weaned him off of the hydrocortizone last week, and so far all of his electrolyte levels seem to be normal, which we're grateful for! Cooper is also still receiving caffeine daily, and will likely continue to receive it for a while.

Last night while doing Cooper's cares (which is when he is normally weighed) his ostomy bag leaked, and it took a while to clean him up and change the bag. After which, I held him for an hour. Therefore, his nurse decided to wait until his next set of cares (at midnight) to weigh him, so we don't know that number yet. We're hoping that Cooper continues to grow without TPN as well as he has been growing last week! He's doing well right now and we're grateful for the many blessings he is receiving. :)