It was Cooper's first full day off of oxygen, and he did wonderfully. I am still unable to believe how different he looks when he doesn't have the nasal tubes on his face, but he just keeps looking cuter and cuter. He's breathing well, and even when his oxygen begins to dip he is learning to start breathing faster and deeper to correct the issue on himself. He is, in essence, learning to self-regulate.
Cooper also had another eye exam today. His eyes are doing well and developing just like we would hope. There are several stages of eye development (appropriately titled stage 1, 2, and 3), and Cooper has just moved from stage 2 to stage 3 within the past week. This means that he is starting to develop a 180* range of vision whereas before he could only see what was directly in front of him. It's good news, and they'll continue to keep an eye on it to make sure that things keep moving forward (pun intended).
Because he had too much stool output yesterday the doctors had to decrease the amount of food that Cooper was receiving. So they took it down a bit and switched him to "continuous feeds" which means that he is constantly being fed at a very slow pace as opposed to having "meals" every couple of hours. He has tolerated the change very well and his stool output is now way below what it needs to be; which means that he is getting more nutrition and absorbing more milk. Unfortunately, in spite of this, he did lose 30 grams today which puts his total weight at 1670 grams. Hopefully he'll have gained it back by tomorrow!
-Taylor
Chloe's note:
Another exciting milestone from today was when Cooper was examined by the developmental team, and given the go ahead to begin "non-nutritive" breastfeeding. Typically a baby doesn't master the sucking and swallowing reflex until about 34 -36 weeks, which is when they learn to really take a bottle and breastfeed. However, during his exam Cooper was showing signs of interest and "rooting" (A reflex that is seen in newborn babies, who automatically turn the face toward the stimulus and make sucking (rooting) motions with the mouth when the cheek or lip is touched. The rooting reflex helps to ensure successful breastfeeding). I won't go into a lot of detail, but essentially I pumped before we did skin to skin, and Cooper practiced latching. He did well for his first time, and the lactation consultant was very impressed!
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