It’s funny how quickly you lose track of time and days when your life revolves around the NICU. I didn’t realize it was Valentine’s Day until about noon!
I was discharged last night, so today was my first day outside of the hospital in 14 days! It was nice to get out and get some fresh air, but I also felt a huge sense of guilt not being so close to Cohen. It is definitely going to take some time to get used to being a “van”ride away as opposed to going up one floor.
My mom, John, Carter and I ventured all the way to Babies R Us! Apparently Carter has decided to grow an entire clothing size in the last two weeks! He fits perfectly in 24 months clothes, so we got him 36 month clothes so he has some room to grow. 36 months = 3T…that’s crazy! We got Cohen a little Moose for his incubator so that it is not so lonely in there. I really wanted to get him the Nautica teddy bears that will match his future nursery (we had not started the whole preparing for baby shopping, let alone getting his nursery stuff!), but I looked at the teddy bears and they were twice Cohen’s size. I’m not quite ready to have a daily reminder of how small he is…hopefully by the time he goes home those teddy bears will be the right size!
He was given an enema around 9pm last night, and by 1am he had his first official blowout that required a 1am bedding change. We are so thankful he finally had a poop, albeit with some help but at this point in time, poop is poop.
Bilirubin: Cohen’s bilirubin levels only decreased by .3, which with an accuracy of +/- 1.0, and means his level is pretty much the same as the day before, which was the same as the day before that. This isn’t terrible, but it is prolonging his phototherapy. I really want him to be finished with phototherapy so I can at least see his little eyes.
I was discharged last night, so today was my first day outside of the hospital in 14 days! It was nice to get out and get some fresh air, but I also felt a huge sense of guilt not being so close to Cohen. It is definitely going to take some time to get used to being a “van”ride away as opposed to going up one floor.
My mom, John, Carter and I ventured all the way to Babies R Us! Apparently Carter has decided to grow an entire clothing size in the last two weeks! He fits perfectly in 24 months clothes, so we got him 36 month clothes so he has some room to grow. 36 months = 3T…that’s crazy! We got Cohen a little Moose for his incubator so that it is not so lonely in there. I really wanted to get him the Nautica teddy bears that will match his future nursery (we had not started the whole preparing for baby shopping, let alone getting his nursery stuff!), but I looked at the teddy bears and they were twice Cohen’s size. I’m not quite ready to have a daily reminder of how small he is…hopefully by the time he goes home those teddy bears will be the right size!
As for Cohen, he had another “not so great” day. It went like this:
Breathing: He had numerous A&B’s (Apnea and Bradycardia) throughout the night. Again, very common for preemies, but mastering the art of breathing is an essential element he must meet before he can go home. Plus, we are not allowed to hold him until he gets these episodes under control. He had even more during the day, so his nurse was going to request that he be put on caffeine to see if that will help with the A&B’s.
He is still switching between CPAP and the nasal cannula, every 3 hours. His O2 sats are still lower when he is on the nasal cannula, but at least he doesn’t have to struggle with the large prongs (in the other CPAP machine) in his tiny nose. He will continue to be on CPAP until his breathing stabilizes and he doesn’t have any episodes on or off it. It will be a few weeks before we can expect that to happen.
Digestion: His feeds have been suspended, because even without feeds he is having a fair amount of residual. I learned today the residual is usually mostly bile but Cohen’s had some blood in it as well. They are not too concerned about the blood, as it is probably from the tube moving around or going too deep. His tube (the one that is in his mouth & goes all the way to his stomach) is now marked so the nurses can see how far in it is and it is a little bigger to allow the nurses to suck more air from his tummy. He seems to be doing really well with the new tube, but in true Cohen fashion he can’t seem to leave it alone!
He was given an enema around 9pm last night, and by 1am he had his first official blowout that required a 1am bedding change. We are so thankful he finally had a poop, albeit with some help but at this point in time, poop is poop.
Bilirubin: Cohen’s bilirubin levels only decreased by .3, which with an accuracy of +/- 1.0, and means his level is pretty much the same as the day before, which was the same as the day before that. This isn’t terrible, but it is prolonging his phototherapy. I really want him to be finished with phototherapy so I can at least see his little eyes.
A big thank you to my law friends who came to visit! It was so great to see you guys! (See, I told you he was tiny!) I really miss the normalcy of reading case law after case law (though I am glad I did not have to deal with Mr. Dailey, haha!). And Luke, I wonder if I can nominate you for contracts via email….:)
Cohen was also happy to see his Uncle Doug again and meet Uncle Levi and Aunt Angela! Oh, and I forgot to say thank you to Uncle Ryan and Aunt Kim for visiting last week!
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