NICU Centennial

One of the things that has always been interesting to me is how baby's ages are measured. People say things in weeks, days, months, and some other units that I'm completely unfamiliar with. I used to think it was strange, but now I totally get it. Babies change so much in so little time that even a week, or sometimes just a day can present you with a totally different little dude. If we were measuring in grand metric units of 100 days, Cole would be one unit old. That's nuts! And boy has he changed a lot!

One of the most significant recent changes is his ability to breathe room air. This is so huge and exciting! He has now been off oxygen since Saturday at 11am. That's three and a half days! I am over the moon with joy about his strong little lungs.

Of course Cole couldn't be satisfied with all this good news, so he has decided to have elevated blood pressure for some reason. He's had this problem on and off for a couple weeks, and everybody's stumped. His kidneys look great, and he hasn't been anywhere near the salt lick. He is taking a little medication for it and has another ultrasound coming up to check out his gizzards. All the doctors are saying that it's no big deal, just a curiosity. Indeed.

This evening we had a lot of fun goofing around. Here's proof.













YAWN!


After the festivities, Cole was pooped and he fell asleep cozily beneath this beautiful blankie that Kate's aunt Gale made for him.



Is he fashion forward or what? I know, totally! Kate liked the blankie too. And is adorable.

Easy Breathie Beautiful

Today they are doing another test of a cannula free Cole. It's totally awesome! It's so great to see his little face without tubes all over it. I bet you're going to be surprised to know that I took some pictures.

Fixed! A photo essay.

I don't know what a photo essay is, but I kindof assume it doesn't have any words. Therefore I don't think this is technically a photo essay because there will be words. I hope that's okay with you.

We woke up this morning a little late, knowing that we wouldn't have to get to the NICU till the early afternoon. We checked in, and there was a cancellation at Children's Hospital, so there was a chance he'd be shifted up to around 10am or something. That would be sweet! We could get this all overwith super early!

That didn't happen. We goofed around all morning and planned for the original 3pm time. What we didn't plan for was Cole's new hat.







What the crap is that?! Turns out it's his IV. They tried to get one into his arm, his wrist, his leg, his foot, his everything. He's too chubby though, which is a great problem to have. Weird, because the result is a huge puffy hat with a giant needle going into his brain (it's not actually in his BRAIN, but that's fun to say if you're juvenile like me). Our nurse Liz said that it's actually a pretty awesome spot for an IV though, because this way there's no arm or leg that needs to be bound. It looks scary, but is really great for Cole. Definitely deserves a high five.



We hung around till 3, and then 3:30, and his appointment kept getting pushed back. It was totally like this:



But it was cool because we got to spend time with the nurses we love. This is Grace.



This is Grace and Liz, and Kate holding Cole with something on his noggin. Special shout out to Liz -- she came in on her day off, during her "working nights" rotation, or whatever it's called, just so Cole could have a friendly face at his side in the OR. How great is that? Liz rocks; it's a fact.



Finally, our time came. The ambulance came and we began packing Cole into the very fancy Pizza box. Special delivery!



There's a baby in that calzone:



Off you go buddy.



Precious cargo, waiting for the elevator.



The back of the bus is where all the cool kids sit.



Good thing you have all this hardware to bring you all the way to across the street!



Here we are finally at Children's. As you can see, if it comes down to it, Liz is ready to kick some ass on Cole's behalf. You may notice that Cole got a Curious George to keep him company in the OR, courtesy of the Children's staff. That's pretty awesome.



Clearly there will not be any ass kicking required, because everybody at Children's is awesome, and they fawn all over Cole. They think he is adoreable. I think they're right.



Cole was actually having a good time. If you click this picture you'll see he was all giggles!



He must have known that there were not going to be any flammable anesthetics used. Good thing.



Into the OR you go! Have fun in there!



Kate and I head over to endure the 2 hours the procedure requires in the waiting room.





We didn't have our Dinosaur stickers, but it's cool because we're over 12.



This was our view.



And then suddenly this!



Yay! How'd it go everybody? Very well thank you. Cole slept through the whole thing thanks to sleeping drugs and local anesthesia. And super kick ass surgeons.

When we got back to the NICU at BI (home sweet home!) they pulled him out of the pizza box and he looked great.



Curious George remained at his side as he reacquainted himself with his room, temporarily from the new perspective of a warmer rather than his crib. The nurses were sweet enough to shield his eyes from the lights 'cause they're bright! Ow!



Cole was fairly uncomfortable for a little while and Kate did a really wonderful job of comforting him. She is a kick ass mother.













And that's the story of Cole's surgery. He was inconsolable for a little while, but Kate hung in there and made sure he was happy and snoozy. He should be back to normal in like a week or so.

Cole's Cut

Cole's hernia surgery has been scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.   Eek!

Please send good vibes, wishes, thoughts, prayers, love etc. his way.

Happy birthday!

Today, Cole turned 3 months old. Or negative 1 month, depending on how you want to look at it.

To celebrate, he horked down 3 ounces of formula in like 15 minutes. It was awesome. And then he fell right asleep. The same thing happens to me when I party that hard, he must have my genes! His breathing is starting to sound less raspy, which is really nice.



This totally looks like a debauchery aftermath shot:


He's all smiles!


This is Kate's awesome "no paparazzi please" shot:


This is a totally adorable shot that our awesome nurse Stacey took:


Still not a ton of news to report. He did take two meals in a row by bottle today; so that's pretty exciting! His cross training regimen of looking left must really be helping with his stamina.

Cole has these round little sticky stickers on his cheeks which hold the cannula in place. He likes to grab them and pull them off, so they are frequently half off. Tonight, I tickled his cheek beneath the unstuck portion of one of the stickers, and he totally smiled. I did it again and he made a face that I'm going to say was a half smile. Maybe it was a coincidence but from now on I'm going to scritch his cheeks and see if it makes him giggle or annoyed. You will be the first to know the results of my experiment.

I can't wait till he comes home! Eeep!

Kidney Bean Surprise

Preemies are  just full of surprises.  That's what the doctors say when they're about to spring something unexpected on you. 

And the surprise is never something awesome, like oh Cole got a puppy, or he's a whiz on the ukulele, or he learned how to throw a wicked curve ball in gym class today.

I should say, to soothe your nerves, he's fine.

We got a call from the NICU the other day, and for the record, you do not want a call from the NICU, the caller I.D. will give you a HEART ATTACK.  The nurse practitioner is all casual and breezy "Oh hi, Cole's fine, just noticed something a little peculiar.  He's got high blood pressure."  Um, what?  Like he's been working too hard at the office, or worrying about the national deficit? "So we're just gonna do some tests, give him an ultrasound, check out those kidneys, see what's up.  It's probably nothing."  Oh, OK, thanks for the nervous breakdown, looking forward to those test results.  By noon, the results are in, he has "adorable kidneys" (yes, it's a direct quote), no sign of trouble or damage.  Phew, and damn kid, I haven't even had lunch yet.

In other news, we were informed by the occupational therapist, that he's awesome, and he has great muscle tone (all those hours in the gym are really paying off).  He also has a strong preference for looking to the right, which, in his defense has a gorgeous view of the Boston skyline.  Still, they prefer symmetrical muscle development blah blah blah so he got a massage and some stretching, like this is some baby spa.  So his homework is simply "look left" and in a few weeks, they'll give him a custom jazzercise routine to work out the rest of his chubby parts.  He will look totally awesome in a leotard and leg warmers.

His hernia surgery is tentatively scheduled for the 15th, but subject to change pending the red blood cell count.  

He's tipping the scales at 7 pounds, 11 ounces.  Lookin' good, slim.

His eyes are still sparkly and blue, and I've confirmed with the doctor (like seven times) that the R.O.P. should be gone for good.  They say "most likely yes, but y'know those preemies are just full of surprises..."

Delay/Hooray

The surgeon decided to postpone Cole's hernia surgery for a few weeks.  Don't worry, he's fine. Some pre-op blood tests revealed a low red blood cell count.  Not alarmingly low, just a smidge.  Standard stuff for preemies, since their little blood factories are still under construction.  

The doctors specifically said that he's not sick, this isn't unusual, and they're not worried.  They're just gonna give him a little more time to grow bigger and stronger.  So it's back to the usual swingin', and drinkin' and snoozing and hanging out with his gaggle of girlfriends/nurses at the NICU.  Future surgery date TBD.

Oh, and some good news, Cole got his weekly eye exam yesterday.  He was very brave, they didn't even have to use the scary eyelid pincher thingys.  The ophthalmologist  said that she didn't see any signs of that pesky retinopathy of prematurity, which is a fancy way of saying his peepers looked sparkly and clear.  Blinkety blink blink and yay.  Side note, his eyes seem to be blue so far.  

It's Tuesday, and there isn't a whole lot of news!

Since it's been a slow week, here are some photos that we took recently. Check out these super awesome outfits:






And here he is swinging the swing. Wee!





Fun times!

Seven Round Pounds

Oh, hello!  We know, we know, we have been slothy bloggers, we're sorry, but there hasn't been much to report, really (which is good).  And yeah, we know,  you're all "just post pictures!" We will, we will, but in the meantime,  an update on all things doodlebean...

You may have guessed from the headline that he has broken the seven pound mark.  Yes, seriously, seven round, dimpled pounds.  Seven pounds, four ounces to be exact.  He has a huge belly, fat rolls galore and chinny, chin, chins.

If you've tired of the pork report, here's a new measurement we keep forgetting to mention - length: 17 inches top to toes.   Seventeen-ish though, it's hard to measure a wriggling infant exactly.

Cole has gotten so big, he has started to outgrow his teeny preemie sized wardrobe.  He's bursting out of the clothes, Incredible Hulk style.  He's begun lounging around in regular, normal newborn sized outfits.  

Sometimes he lounges in his crib, and sometimes he lounges in his new...swing!   He seems to enjoy these field trips to the playground.   Swingin' & snoozing, multitasking is very advanced stuff.

He has also been practicing his solo breathing (sans oxygen support).  He made it about 9 hours yesterday.  Inhaling and exhaling all by his lonesome, so that's pretty exciting.  

He had an eye exam, and it looks like his R.O.P. might be improving so we've got our fingers crossed about that.

Cole's hernia surgery is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, so hopefully they'll get his little gizzards repaired and he can focus on getting all the credits he needs for graduation.

We know the question on everyone's mind is when will he go home?  It's hard to say.  He has several milestones he'll have to achieve, so it will take some time.  They say to use your due date as a guide, so January 25th is is our best guess.  We'll keep you posted.

And that's all the news for now.  Thanks for your patience.