2 1/2 Weeks Later

Cohen is 18 days old today. It feels like we just had her yesterday, but also feels like she has been a part of our lives from the beginning. We were told if she made it through the first 7-10 days in "reasonable condition" that she had a good chance of surviving. She was on a ventilator for the first week and a half. She was extubated twice during that time; first, because they thought she was doing well enough and second because our little booger extubated herself. Both times she needed to go back on the vent. She was finally extubated for good about a week ago. She is using a nasal CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) right now. She is breathing room air, which is 21% oxygen, but just needs a little extra pressure to fill her lungs. Preemies lungs tend to want to stick together since they are so underdeveloped. Here is her CPAP. It is actually scarier looking than the ventilator, but it means she is progressing!

She was tipping the scales at 2 lb. 4 oz this morning. The doctor let me know that she may lose a couple of ounces in the next few days do to some feeding readjustments. Cohen gave us our first scare two days ago. We hate to see the NICU calling anytime other than their routine morning call; and we got a call a couple of afternoons ago letting us know that Cohen had blood in her stool. This is never a good sign, but in Preemies, it can be a sign of a very dangerous infection known as NEC. She had been tolerating her feeds very well up until this point. They stopped the feedings completely and had to put an IV back in her little arm to give her nutrients. They did 3-4 x-rays over the course of two days and found nothing significant at all. She restarted feeds yesterday with a different formula (mixed with my --almost-non-existent-- breast-milk). They are very slowly progressing her feeds, but she is doing great so far. She has had more bowel movements and no blood! The doctor said sometimes that happens and there is really no reason. She must have strained to hard:) I am cautiously optimistic about it. It seems like NEC is not an issue right now, but it is still scary to me.

Cohen and I have been able to Kangaroo twice (that is a NICU term for holding her skin to skin for a set amount of time). Studies have shown babies how Kangaroo tend to do better in every aspect of getting better: put on weight faster, eat better, interact quicker. We are hoping Brian will be able to do it tomorrow. Here is a picture of us finishing our Kangaroo Care. This helps to show her size...

This too-- Daddy's wedding band on my chest next to her hand. If you have a ring, look at it. Her hand is barely bigger.

The nurses already love her. They all say she is "feisty". She cries and moves around constantly. We have a video of her crying while the nurse took her temperature. She hates being messed with. I don't blame her. 

I am heading up to the hospital now to visit. I will update again in a couple of days. Thank you for prayers. We still need them!