March 11, 2009

His first burping

Cohen's 1st Bottle!

Working up to that bottle

Bright eyed after his bath

Nice and clean

Today was a BIG day for little Cohen. It was full of activity and new things.

First, Cohen had his eyes tested for Retinopathy of Prematurity, which is an eye condition that occurs in some premature babies. Blood vessels that bring blood to the retina re one of the last structures of the eye to mature and even in a full term baby the retina is not completely developed. A premature baby’s retina is incompletely developed and at risk for ROP. Blood vessels that bring blood to the retina can begin to develop abnormally and the abnormal growth of the blood vessels is called Retinopothy of Prematurity. In some cases the abnormal blood vessels shrink and go away with no treatment. In ROP, the abnormal blood vessels do not deliver nutrients to the retina causing the vessels to become fragile and may leak. Untreated, ROP can cause scar tissue on the retina, which can result in the retina detaching and causing blindness. ROP is classified according to severity of the changes of the blood vessels, from stage 0 to stage 5. The results of Cohen’s exam indicates stage 0, zone 2, which means that his blood vessels appear to be normal but incomplete in growth. He will have repeat exam in two weeks. This is excellent news!!

Cohen also had his first bottle today. We weren’t going to start oral feeds until next week, but he was giving major cues and Kathy decided we could try it. She started off by allowing him to suck on a bottle nipple without a bottle attached and put drops of milk in the nipple via syringe. He downed that 3cc’s quickly. She then moved to give him an actual bottle. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, and played with the nipple for awhile, but he was able to get an additional 5cc’s from the bottle before tiring. At 33 weeks gestation, he did amazingly well! The doctor has allowed him to continue nippling, and transitioning between bottle and breast every other feeding, depending on the cues he gives. Meaning if he wakes up for care times and starts to root he will get to try oral feeds . He woke up at 3pm and was giving hunger cues, so we attempted breastfeeding at that time. I was so impressed. It took him a little bit to get latched on, but once he did he ate for a good 5 minutes before passing out. Needles to say, he slept right through his 6pm feed :)

Cohen also had some hot tub time! Well, not really…but it was as close to it as the NICU could get. He had a warm soaking bath to get some of the “stink” off him. Sour breastmilk, and sweat from the pulse oximeter made for one stinky baby! He did not appreciate the bath very much, but he looked and smelled so much better!

And finally, Cohen is still off his cannula and doing really well!! He is battling reflux really bad and I am so proud of him for keeping is sats up throughout it all. The doctor has increased his reflux meds again, so hopefully he will get some comfort from that. His nurse thinks he looks really pale and combining that with his tired attitude, she thinks he will probably need a blood transfusion. I am still holding out hope that the shots do their job and we won’t have to go down that route. But boy, does he despise getting that shot….