Normal baby life

I don't want to speak too soon, but I feel like we have entered into the normal baby zone.  Cole has been doing great ever since we switched him to the non dairy formula and had the surgery for his hernia.  The only hurdle that we have run into is that Cole got bronculitus, which I am sure is from being in so many hospitals and doctors offices.  Our goal is to stay out of any hospital or doctor office until his 4 month check up. 

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to -

Cole in his car seat (actually not crying, he hates his car seat, if anyone has any suggestions to get him to like it let me know.  I had to ask the doctor if it would cause brain damage if I let him cry it out in the car seat because he turns purple from crying so much, and of course he said no, I know I am crazy!)

Cole playing in his play yard

Napping in our arms, of course!

Family picture

True love!

First smile, I was only able to catch the tail end of it

Loving his monkey (thank you Owen and Jack)

Surgery went great!

Cole made it through his first surgery!  Everything went great with the surgery, the only complication was that it took them an hour and 4 tries to get the breathing tube down and now his throat is a little swollen and he sounds really raspy. He is already starting to pick up the ladies, the nurses keep coming in to see how cute he is!  Hopefully this is our last time in the hospital for a long time, I don't know how James and I made it through 28 days in the NICU, just these 2 days have been hard enough. 

Surgery Day

Cole just went into surgery to have the hernia surgery.  The morning started out pretty rough when we discovered that the IV was in his hand wrong causing all of the fluid to fill his arm making it really hard and swollen, mama had a huge melt down and made the nurse cry!  The surgery should only be 30 to 45 minutes, we will update you all once he is out. 

Keep Cole in your thoughts and prayers, and his parents!

It is just never ending

For the past couple of weeks I have noticed that Cole was having a lot of stomach issues and seems to be in a lot of pain when trying to poop or pass gas.  I took him in to the doctor a couple times and they could not find anything wrong with him. I asked about switching his formula because I thought that he might have an allergy to the milk or the formula, but they did not want me to switch because it was the only preemie formula.  Another week went by and he was still in a lot of pain so I brought him back in to the doctor and it turns out that he has an allergy to the protein in milk and has a hernia.  My theory is that all of the struggling with pooping and passing gas due to the milk allergy caused the hernia.  The pediatrician thinks that he is going to have to go into surgery next week, we are meeting with the surgeons at Children's early in the week to figure out an action plan.  The surgery is not a major surgery, but for someone a young as Cole there is always a risk of putting him under.  We would love your thoughts and prayers, I keep saying that I can't handle any more and yet it keeps coming, the Lord must think that I am really strong!

Evergreen Hospital NICU Gala

Last Saturday Evergreen Hospital NICU had a Gala to raise money to create a NICU transition room.  This room would be next to the operating room where the mothers are and would include a camera so the mother could see what was going on with their child.  This is amazing, I did not see Cole for 5 hours after giving birth and it was such a lonely and helpless feeling to not know what was going on.  They were able to raise 1.2 million dollars for this.   

Here is a link to the video that was played (Cole even makes an appearance in the video)
    
http://vimeo.com/64532834

Trying out the Moby wrap for the first time, it took me a couple tries