Monday, March 30, 2009

Gotta Hear

Well, we didn't get so lucky...Cooper had to start his series of injections on Thursday. They weren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be though. I thought they were injections in his ears that had to be done at the hospital but they were shots they put in his leg. I was pretty upset when we went to the doctors and they told me his ears were still bad. The ER doctor made us think he was better. Cooper had to go to the doctors office three days in a row for his injections and I am happy to announce his ears are better...for now. YEAH!!!! It is like we have a new baby. His ears are better and his bum no longer looks like raw meat. He has been so much fun since he doesn't cry 24-7. We still haven't gotten our pictures back yet but I have posted some new pictures of us for the mean time.







Cooper hanging out with his friends Evan and Molly.







Coopers bath time!!! He loves his baths!!!


This is Cooper and I taking our morning nap.
At 4 weeks, Cooper Finally fit in his come home outfit...YEAH!!!!!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Cooper's first ER visit

A little background 1st....Our poor little guy has been so sick pretty much since the day he was born. I took him to the doctor one day prior to his two week check up. At that appointment, he was diagnosed with an ear infection. It was so sad. He is too little for that. They prescribed him an antibiotic thinking for sure it would help. Then one week later he was still screaming all the time and had this nasty diaper rash so I took him back again. The antibiotic he was on didn't do a thing for his ear and it actually got worse. Then I found out that his antibiotic was giving him a yeast infection. So, at 3 weeks, he got his second antibiotic and prescription cream for his bum. I swear the cream for his butt made it worse. He has about 6 open sores on his bum. It has now gone way beyond a diaper rash. So, yet again, one week later our little guy is still screaming and getting worse, so I took him back to the doctor again. His ear infection has continued to get worse and is now in both ears instead of just one. They said that if his ears weren't better after this new antibiotic they were going prescribed him, he will have to go to the hospital for injections until he is 3 months old and can get tubes. SOOOO sad!!! :( The doctors could not believe how bad his butt had gotten. It has been so frustrating because his bottom can't get better until he is off of the antibiotics which caused the whole butt problem to begin with. Cooper was then prescribed another antibiotic and more medicine for his bottom. He bum now looks like raw hamburger. It is the saddest thing I have ever seen. It hurts him so bad to get his diaper changed. He screams bloody murder every time. The saddest part is that he is too little for even infant Tylenol so he can't have anything to help the pain. Including the Tylenol, Cooper has had 7 medications and he is only 4 weeks and 4 days old. He is such a tough guy to be going through all of this.

On Friday night, Cooper literally screamed from 11:00pm to 6:00am. Matt and I had zero minutes of sleep. We had tried everything. We finally called the on call doctor around 2:00am and he gave us the go ahead to try the infant Tylenol. So, Matt jumped in the car and picked up some Tylenol. We were really hopeful that would help fast but by 4:30am he was still screaming. We figured something had to be wrong so we took him to the ER. I was worried he had burst his ear drum but they said his ears were getting better YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But they could not believe his bum. They did X-rays and the whole works to make sure he was okay and everything came back normal. The problem is his butt is soo bad that every time he pees (which he does in insane amounts) and poops, it burns is raw bum. It sucks so bad because there isn't anything we can do to help his butt until he can get off the antibiotics for his ears. So, we were relieved to find out that nothing was terribly wrong with Cooper, but so sad that there still isn't anything we can do to help him. Cooper has an appointment tomorrow to find out if we can stop the antibiotics. Since the doctors in the ER said his ears didn't look too bad, we are really hoping he will be off the antibiotics soon. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.

We got our first family pictures and Cooper's pictures taken last week, so as soon as I get those back I will post the pictures. Be sure to look for them because they are extremely cute...they do have Matt and Cooper in them after all!!!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

So...I am officially the world's slowest blogger. I was so excited to have a blog so I could put pictures of Cooper on it as soon as he was born. He is now 3 1/2 weeks old. I am just a little behind :). Being a mom has been the most incredible experience ever. I love every second of it. Even during the middle of the night when we haven't even fallen asleep yet and it is 3:00am. Since he was so little when he was born, I had to wake him up every 3 hours around the clock to feed him. Breaking that habit has been quit the challenge. The poor guys is completely confused. It is amazing how your body can adjust to no sleep. He is starting to stay awake more during the day which is so much fun. He has the most beautiful deep blue eyes. Matt and I are both praying they stay that way.

Nothing in the world brings a bigger smile to my face than watching Matt and Cooper together. Cooper is a complete Daddy's boy. Cooper will be screaming for me and as soon as Matt calls and I put the phone on speaker phone and Cooper hears his Daddy's voice, he stops screaming. It is so much fun to watch. They are already little buds. Matt and is the greatest Dad. I feel bad because he has to get up for work in the mornings but he still wakes up with me and Cooper to help. I am the luckiest girl to have such a supportive husband.

About the delivery...I delivered Cooper at 38 weeks. I had had low amniotic fluid for a couple of weeks so my doctor was watching me really close. Anything below a level 8 of fluid, they induce but since it was my first child, they were really concerned about inducing me early. When I delivered, my levels were at 6.3. When I got to the hospital they started me on a tablet to thin my cervix because my body wasn't ready to have the baby. That started around noon on Friday. As my cervix was thinning I started to have contractions. The bad part is that they don't give you an epidural until you are dilated to a four. So even though I was having contractions I couldn't have an epidural. They gave me some medicine they said would help but all it did was really relax me between contractions and not help at all with the pain during the contractions. Finally at 2:00am on Saturday, my water broke. By 4:00 I was finally able to have my epidural. YEAH!!!! I was so nervous for the epidural and it didn't hurt at all. Getting the IV was way worse. The only bad thing was they didn't tell me I had a button to keep the epidural medicine coming and I started feeling everything again. They had to call the anesthesiologist back to give a full dose again. By 8:00am I started pushing and Cooper was born at 9:45am Saturday morning. He was posterior so I had to push for a while. The second he was placed on my stomach, Matt and I stared to cry. What a miracle!!!! He weighed 5lbs 10oz and was 18 inches long. He was being growth restricted from not having enough fluid. I am so grateful for my doctor. He was so incredible and I am so grateful he was willing to induce me early even though it was my first baby. Cooper could have been in big trouble if we would have waited one more day. He truly is our little miracle!

Sorry this is such a long post. I will try and be better now. Thanks to Joanna I now know what I am doing so I don't have anymore excuses. Thanks Jo :)