Catch Up

I just realized I fell behind on my Cooper updates. He actually had quite a few steps forward this week!

He got his picc line out on Monday! He now has nothing inserted in his skin. All of his monitors are stuck on his skin, nothing puncturing it. This greatly reduces the risk of infection. Big step!

On Thursday, they switched him from CPAP to high flow. This is administered through the same nose cannula, but with different settings. They have already been able to bump his settings down and if they continue to lower it and he tolerates it, he may be weaned from all respiratory help soon.

Oh Thursday morning he had his first eye exam. The nurse practitioner, B, that administered the exam was very pleased with what she saw and says that there are no signs of problems yet. He will still have eye exams every week just to be sure no problems develop.

He has continued to wear clothes and be swaddled all week and has been maintaining his temperature very well. The nurse says they may lift the top of his isolette tomorrow and if he still does well he might move to an open crib! Yay!

He is back to full feeds and they started to add a human milk fortifier to bring my milk up to 24 calories per ounce. Without the fortifier it would only be 20 calories per ounce so those extra calories should help him gain weight more consistently. He hovers around 3 lbs, last night at 3 lbs 1oz. He also started vitamins this morning and did not like it! He dropped his heart rate right away but the nurses say that is normal until they get used to the vitamins.

He is doing great with his pacifier so we have also had some practice sessions for breast feeding and while he is still not ready he is showing that he knows what to do. It is hard work for a baby this small to suck, swallow, and breathe all at the same time and he gets very tired during our practice sessions. He is right on track for his gestational age of 34 weeks. Milk flows more easily from a bottle so he will be offered a bottle in the next few days to get the suck, swallow, and breathe down while strengthening his sucking reflex.

I think that is all of his updates. Listing them all together shows just how great this week was. He had that set back weeks ago so it seems like he's making up for lost time now! I promise to try to update more often this week.