A Few Surprises

When I got up this morning I texted Danny to see if he had called to check on Cohen in the morning, because he usually does on his way to work or shortly after. He said that Cohen had been switched back to the regular ventilator! His Dr said they had checked his blood gases and they were quite a bit better and his lungs were doing better so they switched him back over some time in the night or morning. Cohen has been tolerating his feeds well so he is up to 2 mL/hr. Such a big boy! They check his tummy to make sure he is digesting and the milk isn't just sitting in there and so he hasn't had any residual.

One of our favorite nurses is there with him today, which is so great because the one yesterday was making me a bit nervous. They are all good nurses but some of them are a little more calm and reassuring then others. So, I was so glad to see her this morning. She told me he had a good night and said that she was going to do some of his cares and then told me she wanted to have a little fun today and did I want to hold him!? Of course I said yes, although I immediately started sweating because I was so nervous. So she took him out with all his little tubes and wires and put him in my lap. Usually they try and do skin to skin but because he is still hooked up to quite a few things she just bundled him up in a blanket and put him in my lap. It was so great to be able to hold him and he tolerated it well, he didn't drop his heart rate or his oxygen or anything. She let me hold him for 20 minutes, which flew by and didn't seem like long enough. I just can't even describe how good it felt to finally hold my baby boy. He is so tiny and she put a little hat on him, which was still way too big. I am just so thankful to the nurse for letting me hold him, she thought we needed a "positive experience" after our rough couple of days.
A few prayer requests:
Cohen has a weird little rash on his back that they aren't quite sure what its from. They have cultured it to hopefully rule out anything bad. The Dr said he isn't really sure what it is, maybe a viral thing or maybe from being on his back with the "shaker" ventilator just irritated his skin. Please pray that it clears up quickly! Cohen doesn't need anything else to have to work on.
The results from his echo came back and he does have a fairly large PDA. The Dr said that generally if it is going to close up on its own it would have done it in the first week or so. He said there is still a chance that it could close on its own -- so pray for this!!! If not, they will wait to see how much it is affecting him and whether he needs to have the surgery or if he can wait it out. It mostly depends on if it seems to be causing him problems, like if they can't get him off the ventilator or he stops making progress. But, at this point he is still weaning from the ventilator so they are going to let him ride it out a bit and see. We know that God can do great things so maybe we will get a little miracle and it will close on its own!
There are more pictures to come but here is a few to hold you over :)