A long Tuesday

Oh how things change in the NICU...

The good news is it's not Eloise this time. The bad news is since it's Cooper, it really came out of nowhere. Eloise fortunately had a pretty quiet day. She got some good snuggle time with both Mom and Dad, and spent the rest of the day snoozing away.

Cooper has had it pretty rough, and we think it'll take a while for him to start feeling better. He started the morning (around 6) unable to tolerate his food and he had a pretty rounded, hard belly. After an x-ray and a visit from the doctor, he was diagnosed with Necrotizing Enterocolitis, or NEC. Like we went through with Ella a few weeks ago, Coop was put back on the ventilator to give him some time to rest and try to jump start his healing process. He's on antibiotics to kill the infection and will be for at least a week, and his feeds have been stopped for that time if not a bit longer. He was pretty alert, and as Jeff said, "owly" this morning. He has been given some pain medication to make him a bit more comfortable, although he's been awake enough to give Mommy and Daddy the sad "I don't feel really well" eyes.

Unfortunately, we're kind of right in the thick of things with him. We're stressed and scared for our little boy, but we're hopeful that he'll start to respond to the antibiotics. We have to remember that we can't expect him to bounce back as quickly as Ella did, that their conditions are completely different. I guess we just have a few long NICU days coming up...good thing we're getting pretty good at it. :-) Coop and Ella's cousin Maggie did offer her assistance to Coop, incase his doctors and nurses needed a break. :-)