April 1, 2009: We're Home!!

Aril Fools! Ha, Ha, sorry, I couldn’t resist :) In all actuality, Cohen made some serious strides today and is back on track to coming home soon! He had his favorite nurse Kathy today, and when Kathy is in charge of him, he totally behaves. Case in point: Today he nippled MORE than his prescribed feeds! His NG tube was coming out so before Kathy bathed him, she just took it out all together. Instead of immediately putting it back in, she gave him a bottle to see how he did. He took 75cc’s and his prescribed amount is 54cc/feed! She decided to revamp his routine and instead of eating every three hours, she moved him to an every 4 hour schedule. We hope the extra hour of rest in between feeds will give him the energy to do well nippling. As of 8pm tonight, so far so good! Cohen’s doctor always laughs at how zealous Kathy is, but decided to give Cohen a chance at keeping that NG tube out. With that said, our little man has been NG tube free since 9am this morning! If he doesn’t keep up the full feeds he will have the tube put back in…as the Doctor told me “be prepared for failure.” And we are, but we are more hopeful that Cohen will enjoy being tube free and keep up with his feeds! Another obstacle with this new routine is if Cohen doesn’t gain at least an ounce per day he will have to go back to every 3 hour feeds. I, personally, would LOVE it if he was on a 4 hour schedule…the more sleep I can get when he comes home the better (since we’ll be keeping him on the same schedule the hospital has him on!) Breastfeeding is still our plan for when Cohen comes home, but for now and until he reaches full feeds and is really tube free, we will be going with the bottle.

Carter and John were here today and the boys had another window visit. This visit was a lot of fun because the NICU windows are on either side of the main door and are floor to ceiling....so Carter was able to get close and personal with the window to see his little brother. Cohen was awake this time too! Carter pointed and giggled, and blew kisses to his baby brother. So far so good….

In case anyone was wondering...this is day 50!