Tuesday, October 6th Update

Cooper is 13 weeks old today, and already getting that teenager attitude! Just kidding, he's pretty much adorable all of the time.

We have officially left the NICU for the infant unit, and it is a whole different ballgame. In the NICU each nurse is assigned to one or two babies, and they are always within ten feet or so of the bed to keep an eye on things. In the infant unit we can easily go an hour or more without seeing the nurse, they mostly just pop in if bells start ringing. We do have our own room that we only share with one other baby as opposed to five, so there is definitely more privacy. We are also now allowed to eat in Cooper's room, have multiple visitors at a time, and there is a television (although I don't see what good it is since Chloe vetoed The Walking Dead). 

There are some obvious perks to the infant unit that I think we are going to get used to, but it is also a little bittersweet. We are sad to leave all of our primary care nurses in the NICU; we had grown close with all of them and they all took excellent care of our boy. We also now have to wear silly pink bracelets that we can never take off so long as Coop's in the hospital; NICU never made us do that! Also, the water cups in the infant unit are a third of the size of the NICU's. This isn't sacrament meeting, we could use some bigger cups.

On a more serious note, we got back the results of some tests that were done on Cooper yesterday. He had his head scanned via MRI, and it revealed that there is some damage to the tissue surrounding his brain ventricles. They're not new injuries and they occurred in the early stages of his life when he was still experiencing brain hemorrhaging. It is impossible to tell exactly how this will affect Cooper, but it does put him at an increased risk for certain conditions. The biggest risks deal with motor impairment, primarily cerebral palsy. There is also some risk, albeit significantly lower, of learning disabilities. 

Obviously this is concerning to us as his parents, but we are just going to take things as they come. There is still every possibility that he will turn out just fine, but we just have to keep an eye on him as he grows up. If he fails to reach certain developmental milestones within a reasonable time period then we'll take him in to get him checked up on. From that point we can start early intervention therapy programs that are hugely helpful in helping him to overcome a lot of issues that he may have.

We always knew that Cooper was at risk for these things, but we'd become accustomed to really good news all the time. The MRI served as a reminder that our road doesn't end when we walk out the door with Cooper. In the meantime though, he's perfect as can be. We love our little man.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

-Taylor

Other significant events from today:

-The picc line is officially out! Cooper is off TPN and only taking breast milk feeds. So happy!

-He nursed once today for 17 minutes

-Cooper is having some kidney issues. The ultrasound showed that the kidneys are inflamed, and his blood pressure has been increasing today. This afternoon they started a blood pressure medication. This evening his numbers were still high, so they can him another one time additional dose. Hopefully this will help and they'll be able to just give the medicine once per day. The nurse practitioner said that he could be dealing with high blood pressure for years to come, but he can receive medication to keep it under control. 

- He's just the sweetest boy. Today was emotional, but Cooper remains our sweet and happy boy. We're so grateful to be his parents and for the tremendous joy he brings to our lives!