|
 |
Lots to update
It has been such a long time since we updated the information about Cooper. He is doing so well and we can hardly believe that he will celebrate his first birthday in about 6 weeks! I will do my best to update all his accomplishments since our last post.
Cardiologist:
Cooper had his last cardiologist appointment in October. The hole in his heart is continuing to close. The doctor said it is closing just not as fast as we would like. What does this mean? Well, the doctor is hoping that by the time Cooper is 15 months old (April) that the hole will be small enough that we can take him off of the heart medications he is currently taking. If the hole is still at a size where he is dependent upon the medications, we will probably have to go ahead with surgery. So our prayer between now and April is that the hole will close completely or at least be very, very tiny. At this point the thought of sending him off to surgery to have his chest cut open and his heart and lungs stopped is quite distressing. Andy did ask Dr. Joshi on a scale of 1 to 10 (0 being where he was at birth and 10 being completly closed) | where does he sit. Dr. Joshi responsed that he is at about a 7. Of course my thought is: if he can go from 0 to 7 in nine months, surely he can go from 7 to 10 in six months. Also, on a positive note, the little "nub" of tissue that we were concerned about in July has not grown, we will have to continue to monitor it but at this point, it is not causing a problem. Our next appointment is in January.
Other health news:
Cooper has suffered two bouts of croup which necessitated two trips to the ER in the middle of the night and one hospital stay. He is now on Singulair and is receiving daily breathing treatments to hopefully avoid a recurrence of this yucky virus. So far so good . . .
Eating:
Huge news! In September, we were able to have Cooper's feeding tube removed!! I can't tell you how ecstatic I was about that. Cooper is now eating all kinds of baby foods and is liking that better than his milk. Now that he has learned to eat, we are seeing some good weight gain, however, he is still quite tiny, weighing a whopping 13 lbs. He is smaller than his 4 month old cousin.
Developmentally:
Our little baby is all over the floor. He loves to roll around and explore his surroundings. We are working on getting him to sit independently and to be comfortable in the crawling position. He is doing well and will even hold a sitting position for a few seconds. I am so anxious for him to be able to sit as he loves the perspective it gives him and he really enjoys watching what is going on around him (especially his big brother). Also, I think he will have a little more independence in this position, hopefully it will not be too long.
We have weekly speech and physical therapy sessions and Cooper tolerates them well. Therapy will be a part of our lives for a long, long time. We are so pleased with our speech therapist, Liz and our physical therapist, Heather. They have been great and are really an encouragement to me.
Cooper really does add to our family and loves being talked to and entertained. He is so interactive with what is going on around him and I like to believe this is a good sign.
|