February 21, 2009: OUCH!

Poor Cohen! The new IV in his arm failed and there were no good veins in his other arm or legs, so now our little man is sporting an IV in his head! John said the first attempt at putting it in his head didn’t work, so they had to re-do it. Ugh! On a bright note, he loves having both arms free AND now he can wear his long sleeve t-shirt!

On to some good news....Cohen is making fantastic progress with his feeds. He is up to 14.5cc/feed! Due to such an increase, his lipids and fluids (the fats and nutrients) are slowly decreasing as his feeds increase. The goal is to have him at a point where he is getting all his nutrients and fats from breast milk and completely off the IV. He is still not pooping without the help of an enema. We are much happier with the order for an enema if he goes 24 hours without pooping. John did most of Cohen’s care time today, so he was in charge of the “effect” today’s enema had :)

Cohen had some problems in the middle of the night with his oxygen percentage. He did not want to come down to his 21% previous low, and fought pretty hard to keep it at 25%. His morning nurse tried again, and thankfully was able to get him comfortable at 21%. However, we watched the nurses play with his levels all day, but Cohen has decided that 23% is where he would like to be.

It is so exciting to have John here; it was a long week without him! I didn’t have to wait on the shuttle to take me to and from the hospital (on their scheduled times of course)! I absolutely LOVED seeing him interact with his son as he is the best daddy in the entire world. He didn't even hesitate when I left him (I had to pump!) to do care time even though he hasn't done it before! And watching him hold Cohen was priceless. However, it didn’t take John very long to realize that hospital days are long and tiring. In an effort to spend some time together away from the hospital, we tried to run errands in Spokane..but I found myself getting very anxious and nervous being away from Cohen for so long (and it really wasn’t that long). In the end I was able to spend some time with John and John was able to spend time with both Cohen and I. It was a productive Saturday. The only thing missing?? Carter! Who will be here tomorrow!!