Visiting Cooper

Now that Cooper is home, I want to share a little bit of what our life is going to be like. 

When we left the NICU they gave us some very important counsel. Although Cooper now looks like a healthy newborn, he has chronic lung disease and an extremely fragile immune system. As much as we want to treat him like a full-term baby, we have to be SO careful now that he's home.

A common cold for most people will turn into a scary hospital stay for Cooper. (In fact, the number one cause of death for micro preemies who survive the NICU is a respiratory infection caught before age 2.) We were advised to not have anyone under age 18 hold Cooper until after RSV season ends in March, and to limit visitors. 

Visitors will be welcome to love him with your eyes, but not with your hands. :)

If you visit, please only come if you have not had any signs of sickness (including a runny nose, sore throat, etc) for more that 48 hours and haven't been around anyone who has been sick in the last 48 hours. We would also ask that if you plan to be around Cooper you have the TDAP shot. If you are not up to date on your TDAP shot, we kindly ask that you wait until after RSV season ends to see Cooper. 

Cooper will not be leaving home except to go to doctors appointments until March. It's going to be a long winter for us, and we will miss being with family and friends for the holidays and other gatherings. However, isolation is a small sacrifice to make in order to keep Cooper healthy! Here is the link to a blog post about isolation: http://anearlystartblog.com/2014/01/07/isolation-isnt-about-you/ 

Thank you for your help in keeping Cooper safe! We will continue to blog about Cooper's progress to keep everyone updated.  We can't wait for the end of flu and respiratory season so we can share Cooper with friends and family. :)