Yellow boy

Well our sweet Coopie went from blue to pink (normal), to yellow! (I certainly hope there are no more colors involved in this pattern) Like I said in the post earlier, our boy's direct bilirubin has crept up over the past few days and can't be treated with photo therapy so he's just turning a bit more yellow everyday. There isn't much they can do for that except keep an eye on it and try to control it with some medication, which he has now been on for 2 days. It's not at a critical level by any means but they want to keep it under control which we're thankful for.  Besides the bilirubin issue we're really not facing too many obstacles at the moment. His morning rounds orders and instructions for the day have gone from 8 full pages on day one to 1/4 of a page on day 13...again, we are THANKFUL! This morning the instructions were  to up his feedings to 18ml every 3 hours and see how he tolerates it(he has been doing well thus far), make sure he poops (which he did, YAY!), give meds for the bilirubin, and do a blood sugar test. A MUCH easier day than we've been having in our world.

Mini Coop is doing an awesome job of digesting and, so far, has been keeping up with his feedings. I was told this morning that once we get up to his full feedings we can stop his TPN and take out his PICC line! I then asked what his full feedings would be and Melanie (another favorite nurse whom I adore) told me in the low 20ml's and that it's possible to be there by Monday! HOW EXCITING! I'm trying not to get ahead of myself but what a wonderful hope! Also, when Dr. Nold made rounds this morning she said she was planning to take him off of his CPAP around 33 weeks gestational age and take him straight to room air with no intervention...that would be this Saturday or Sunday! Again, SUPER EXCITING! Also a bit terrifying since last time he went into respiratory distress and showed signs of heart failure. I have been assured though, that he is a different boy now and I can see that too so I'm hopeful. His platelets have been going up beautifully, just as they should, so we are no longer hanging on every number in his CBC. In fact, they are so confident in his numbers that they have opted to only draw a CBC every couple days. Another bit of exciting news....it was a good news kind of day!

On the agenda for tomorrow morning is a blood draw to check the bilirubin count once again and hopefully we'll also get the results back from Cooper's genetic testing to rule/point out any long term issues we may be facing. Prayers for those 2 tests would be greatly appreciated. Also prayers for Cooper to keep on this upswing and GOOD NEWS trend!

So much to be thankful for!