March 3, 2009: 3 Weeks!

Cohen is 3 weeks old today!! AND is 4lbs!

But, we are back to that whole roller coaster thing….So, the day started out with Cohen pretty much in an icebox to keep his temperature down. His labs showed no elevated blood count, so that indicates his body is not fighting anything…aka, no infection. With that information and no other signs from Cohen that he is sick, his primary nurse Kathy put him in an open bed, but kept the temperature probe connected to both Cohen and his incubator so she could see what Cohen’s constant temp was. After about 6 hours of being in the open bed, Kathy decided that Cohen did NOT have a fever, rather he was just regulating his body temperature! Fantastic news!! Being 32 weeks gestation today this means Cohen is 2 weeks ahead of the game with his temperature. The incubator is now gone, and he is officially comfortable in a big open bed. (though he wasn’t comfortable when Kathy had to take the temperature probe off his belly…it had only been there for three weeks!) Once Cohen reaches 4lb 8oz (or 4.5lbs) the Occupational Therapist will bring Cohen a mobile for his crib so he’ll have something to look at.

Kathy makes me laugh. She is constantly trying to push the envelope when it comes to Cohen’s care and progress. She was the nurse who made Cohen try the cannula so that he could be off the CPAP, and it worked. Today, Kathy decided that Cohen was just relying on the oxygen way too much, and because he is now a big boy he should be off the cannula…completely! By the time I got here this morning, Cohen had been cannula free for 4 hours! He still de-sats a little after his feeds, so Kathy puts the cannula in for 10-15 minutes after his feeds are complete. This worked wonderfully for the first half of the day….by the time I left this evening, Cohen was officially back on the cannula. Oh well, it was a big day for Cohen so he probably wasn’t ready for such a drastic change.