The Burning Question

We got up at 5:30 Thursday morning and left the house at 6:15 to start the familiar drive to Seattle. We have been lucky in that Cohen still generally sleeps the whole way down and back. We got to Children's for our first appointment with Dr W, the pulmonologist. We got a little surprise in that one of the residents who helped take care of Cohen in the NICU at UW was doing a rotation at the clinic, so she got to see Cohen again which was fun.

 {On the road...}

{Good morning, little buddy}

We get asked this question all the time, everyone wants to know "When does Cohen get to be off his oxygen?" And before I would always say that we weren't really sure. We didn't know how long he would need it for. But, now the answer is NOW! He is done with his oxygen! We went in expecting for him to get switched to wearing it at night and then eventually to be off, but his pulmonologist said that he felt he was ready to be off altogether. He said his weight gain, which is what they were worried about, was really the best they could ask for. Dr W said if we were more comfortable going slower off the oxygen we could, but it would be more for our benefit rather than Cohen needing it. We won't turn in all our oxygen tanks yet just in case, and we may put his oxygen on for the first few nights just for our own sanity. We will be watching him closely the next few days to make sure he isn't working too hard to breathe or acting funny. But, otherwise he is free!

 {A VERY busy boy, notice the feet flailing and blanket waving}

We had a little time between pulmonology and cardiology appointments so we got to visit with one of my friends from nursing school who works at Children's. It was fun for her to get to see Cohen too, we have been trying to meet up at our other appointments and it just hasn't worked out, so I'm glad it finally did.


Cohen had his ECHO at 10:30 and he was so good. He held really still and watched a Baby Einstein movie and drank his bottle while they looked at his heart. He had been so squirmy and busy during his first appointment that I was a little worried, but he did great. Cohen also held still for his EKG, so that was a bonus. It's hard enough to get adults to hold still, I can't imagine trying to do one on a baby, but he did great. We waited over an hour for the cardiologist to come in and see us. Luckily, Cohen was exhausted and fell asleep in his stroller and Danny and I watched Netflix shows on his phone. We met with a different cardiologist than before and she said everything looked great. I told her they had just taken Cohen off of his oxygen so she thought we should come back for one more checkup in 6 months.

 {This is Cohen getting his EKG back in November}

 {Helping with his ECHO}

{Worn out and waiting (and waiting) for the doctor}

We finally left Children's after 1:00 and were starving so we stopped at our favorite place to get sandwiches while we were in Seattle. Whenever my mom came down to stay with me she would always stop at the Trinity Market and get me a turkey sandwich and bring it to the NICU for me. It was fun to drive Cohen around and say "Look, that's where we lived for 4 months, that window right there was my room" and "that's where I ate ice cream for dinner many nights" and "there's that pesky little parking enforcement man who gave us a ticket the day you were discharged from the hospital" and "that's the sidewalk I was walking down when that guy ran into me with his bike"

 {Yummmmmm}