Triple Digits

Cohen is 101 days old today! I can't believe it. This morning I came in and found out that he had a huge blowout just for me. There was poop all up his back and all over his clothes. He earned himself a bath! What a way to greet your mother at 8:00 am! Especially since she had to get up early and take the car back to the shop to see if it can get all the way fixed and then walk to the hospital from u-village. In sweatpants and with my hair a little wild. If you have seen my "morning hair" you know what I'm talking about. Oh well. At least this time I wasn't walking down the street crying.

 

 {This was last weekend, but still exciting! Auntie Christine's first hold}

We have been talking with the Drs quite a bit about the "what's next" for Cohen. Obviously we are getting antsy to bring him home but that doesn't seem to be realistic for right now. The Drs said it will probably be another 4-6 weeks. Sigh. I am trying not to focus on the fact that that means another 4-6 weeks at the home, another 4-6 weeks away from Danny. Another 4-6 weeks of driving back and forth. Another 4-6 weeks of eating out. Blech. We will probably start to ask a few more of you if we can come over for dinner! :)

 {Grampa's first hold}

Cohen has another echo on Friday which will help them know a little more. If the right side of his heart is looking smaller that would be a good thing and would mean his heart wasn't having to work quite as hard to pump blood into his stiff lungs. They will also check to see how his PDA looks. It is unlikely at this point that they would do anything to fix it if it was still there. If his heart looks bigger at all then that may be something they would consult a cardiologist at Children's about. We are praying that the right side of his heart is getting smaller and having to work less!

Cohen will have another head ultrasound sometime before he goes home just to check. It isn't a huge concern because the brain bleed he had was a low grade one and was resolving, so they don't anticipate that it would be getting worse or anything. The Dr said that neurologically Cohen "has a very bright future".

Cohen's main issues right now are his lungs and his feedings. Which go together in a way. Because Cohen is at his due date and still requiring a fair amount of support, the Drs here at UW will consult with the pulmonologists (lung Drs) at Children's. He will be followed up by a pulmonologist when he goes home so it may actually be nice to get them involved now. We were told today that Cohen will go home on oxygen (which we were already anticipating) and that he will probably be on it for up to a year.

As far as his feedings, Cohen is growing so well that they are now only weighing him every other day!  Today his weight was 6 lbs 14 oz. Those of you who guessed 10 lbs (that's my guess) for when he goes home will be pretty close, I think. He still gets to practice breastfeeding after I pump so that he still thinks he is getting to eat. One of the big thing to keep in your prayers is that Cohen doesn't develop an oral aversion. This can happen to babies who are on feeding tubes long term. Since Cohen is getting fed through a tube, he doesn't get the true experience of eating and sometimes after a while they can decide they don't want to try anymore and aren't interested in eating. So, we are trying to give him positive oral experiences. He gets to suck on his binky or be at the breast when he is getting his tube feedings. We put little drops of milk on his binky or in his mouth so he still gets to taste it.

I have a lot of things floating around in my head today as my due date is tomorrow. There will be more than one post today as this is kind of how I process things. I also have pictures from my Due Date Party I had this weekend that I want to put up! Cohen looks very grown up today, but in my haste to get the car in this morning I forgot the camera so I will try to put up more pictures later. I know that's really what people come here for :)