A Year of Miracles

Cooper turned 1 on July 7th! It's hard to believe that one year has passed, and Cooper is now one year old (9 months adjusted). I don't really have words to describe what this last year has been, but if I could sum it up with one word it would be gratitude.

Cooper had a few doctors appointments in July and we have received a lot of incredible news about his development. He had an appointment at the Neonatal Follow-up Clinic at the University of Utah, where babies who were in the NICU at Primary Children's are seen until they turn 4. We met with the neurologist who followed Cooper at Primary's, an occupational therapist, and a neonatalogist.

When Cooper was one week old we learned that he had experienced severe bleeding and damage in his brain. Full-term babies blood vessels in the brain are fully developed, but preterm (and especially extremely babies like Cooper) are high risk for bleeds because the vessels aren't fully developed. For the first week of Cooper's life the doctors and nurses tried to move Cooper's tiny body and head as little as possible, as to lessen the possibility of bleeding in the brain. However, between a life flight and surgery in the first four days of life, Cooper did experience damage and bleeding. Taylor and I felt like it wasn't in Cooper's best interest to be very open about that information because there was no way to know what his future would look like, and we wanted to remain optimistic. But truthfully, Cooper experienced the most severe (grade 3 and grade 4) bleeds in his brain, and doctors told us that we may need to prepare ourselves for cerebral palsy and developmental delays.

Cooper has had an occupational therapist work with him once or twice a month since the beginning of the year, and she taught us exercises and things to do to facilitate his development. At first we were a little concerned that Cooper was favoring one side of his body over the other (a sign of cerebral palsy) but we worked hard with Coop to help him use both hands and legs equally, and he is doing so well now! Cooper is right where he should be developmentally for his adjusted age (the age he would be if he had been born full-term) and he's impressed everyone.

Anyway, at the appointment with Cooper's neurologist and the neonatologist, they were both extremely impressed with Cooper's development and told me the possibility of Cooper having CP was basically zero. It was apparent by the way they discussed his progress with me that Cooper is definitely not the norm for babies with grade 3 and 4 bleeds, and I got a little teary because I felt so much gratitude. Of course we would have embraced whatever quality of life Cooper might have had, but we're grateful that Cooper is developing normally and growing a strong, healthy, perfect body.