Another BIG day...

Yesterday was another BIG day for little Cooper. I got to hold him for the second time in his life! Katrina, Cooper's nurse, swaddled him and laid him on my chest. I started talking to him and he was squirming and trying to move his head (moving his head is bad when on a ventilator, the tubes can come out!) Katrina noticed his squirming and said "He is looking for you!" So we adjusted him so we could see each other eye to eye. I kept talking to him, mostly about silly stuff, and he just looked right at me! It was too precious!!! He then fell asleep and laid comfortably for the whole hour I got to hold him! I was so excited!!

The neonatalologist came in a little while later and saw the settings on the ventilator. We decided to go ahead with the steroids, and they started his 8 day dose on Saturday. Cooper had been weaned down quite a bit and was tolerating the low settings beautifully! He was also breathing quite a bit over the ventilator. The doctor saw this and decided that he was ready to come off the ventilator! I was like "NO!! I am not ready!!" It is ironic, actually. As they were extubating him (pulling his tube out) I was thinking about not being ready. I was not ready for him to be delivered and I was not ready for him to come off the ventilator! I then realized it was NOT about me! Is Cooper ready?? I might NEVER be ready for any of his first milestones.

They put Cooper on a vapotherm. It is a steady flow of oxygen that goes up the nose. He did NOT like it! He was so cute! He was arching his back to get away from the air. Bless his heart! The doctors ran a blood gas test to check his CO2 levels 2 hours after putting him on the vapotherm. The results were not good! He went from 60 to 99. The doctor came back in and said that they needed to put him back on the ventilator. I was so disappointed, but I want what is best for Cooper. They asked me to leave while they reintubated him (it is a sterile procedure) so I went downstairs for dinner. (Kevin is having dinner with Tennessee Titan Cortland Finnegan at this time, so I am there solo!! He arrives just as they are reintubating him.) When we come back, the doctor meets us at the door and tells us that Cooper has his own plan. They wanted to try something else. They rigged up (invented) a Cpap machine with the ventilator together. The ventilator was giving him 5 breaths a minute to help push out the CO2. He absolutely hated this one!! He was having such a hard time resting. He would get so angry and ball up his fists and turn red, then he would tire himself out and fall asleep. He would wake up and start this whole process again. It was SO HARD to watch!! I knew he was not resting very well!! His blood gas an hour later was better. They ordered another blood gas for 2 hours later. We waited at the hospital until 1:00am for the results of that blood gas. It was a little worse, but they decided to watch him. We had to leave to get some sleep. It is always hard to leave Cooper at the hospital, but it was especially hard this night!

I called early the next morning to check on him. It turns out that Cooper's CO2 levels kept going up so they had to put him back on the ventilator at 4am. He was resting comfortably. When we got to the hospital after my doctor's appointment, he was sleeping. I got to help with all his care today, but we decided to let him sleep. He was absolutely exhausted!

He is still getting his steroids. They will wean him off the vent until he is ready to come off. Hopefully he will do better next time! It was good for him to try! We are so proud of our little man!