3 Days Old

First of all, we would like to thank all of you so much for keeping us in your prayers. We are amazed by all the support of people we haven't even met, we know we couldn't do this without all the support! Little Cohen had a rough day yesterday but seemed to have a little bit better night. This seems to be a day by day (hour by hour, minute by minute) process of his care, which is pretty hard on his mom and dad.
As we mentioned yesterday, they were concerned with his lungs and so they switched him to a different ventilator. Instead of getting 40 or so big breaths a minute he is now getting around 100 little tiny breaths, more of a continuous thing. Sometimes the big breaths can be too hard on their lungs and damage the tissue so they are hoping he will do a little better on this ventilator. They are checking his lungs frequently by chest xray so they can see how he is doing. His little lungs are just so fragile because he is so tiny and early.
He also got a (teeny, tiny) cathether put in last night to see if he was making any pee and just unable to get it out. He had some pee throughout the night, but not quite as much as they would like so they are giving him medicine to increase his blood pressure so that his kidneys are better perfused (get better blood flow) so they make more pee. He is still retaining some fluid so they are also giving him a diuretic to help him hopefully get rid of some of the fluid.
They will also be doing a head ultrasound of Cohen this afternoon to see if he has had any bleeding in his brain, which can happen in preemies. He will be checked now because sometimes the bleed may have happened while I was still pregnant or sometimes they can happen after he is born so they want to check him now to see if its something that may have already happened or if they find later that he has some bleeding that it happened after he was born.
I (Jana) am feeling a little better physically today. They will either discharge me from the hospital this afternoon or tomorrow. The hospital provides a room for parents after discharge for a night or two, but not usually longer. It is based on priority and right now they said they should be able to get us a room no problem because they want us to be close by. After that we will need to find somewhere to stay, there is a hotel close by that we may be able to get a room at. We want to be close so that we can get here quickly and visit often.
Its hard to keep all the medical details straight because there are so many and they change so often! But, please continue to pray for:
1) Our emotional strength - it is a difficult place to be in to be grieving the loss of a baby and also trying to be strong for our baby who needs us to be there for him. The doctors are pretty straightforward and tell it like it is, which can be a little hard to hear and discouraging at times. But, we are just trying to take this all as it comes.
2) That we will be able to work out somewhere close to the hospital to stay once we are discharged
3)For baby Cohen's lungs and kidneys specifically - that he does better on this ventilator and that his kidneys start to work a little better and makes lots of pee

He is mostly all covered up with his tubes and things so it is hard to see him and get any good pictures. He is also under the blue lights for his bilirubin levels, which is also pretty common in preemies. But here are his little toes again. He likes to stretch his legs and wiggle his arms around, just like we always saw on the ultrasounds (and in my stomach!). He has the longest fingers and toes that he must have gotten from his daddy!