Pulmo appointment

Cooper's appointment today went great. At his last visit with Dr. Hadeed, he weighed 12lbs 4oz. Today he weighed a solid 14lbs 9oz! This was an amazing gain. He is now in the 10th percentile. We are back on the charts for the first time. Woohoo! I am so happy. He doesn't have to come back until September, 3 months; this is the longest stretch yet. At that time we will discuss going off the meds. Please be praying that this will be a possibility as he has been on them since 5 days old. After his appointment, we went to Whole Foods and stocked up on lots of gluten/wheat, dairy, soy, egg, ect... free food. I got some yummy stuff. I'll post some of my favorites later. I also got Cooper lots of organic baby food. We should be good for a while.

6 months

Cooper is 6 months old today. Half of a year. I can't believe it has been this long already, and at the same time it is hard to remember life without him. I am so grateful today. He is doing wonderfully. My baby boy is not so much of a baby anymore; he is trying so hard to crawl, and his back and neck are finally getting stronger so I think he will be sitting up soon. I look back on where we have come from and am amazed. You would never know what a struggle it has been. Cooper is a beautiful, healthy, not so little, boy. I am overjoyed at the fact we are here. God is so good! We have a check-up tomorrow with the pulmonologist. I am sure they will be amazed at the progress he has made in the past 6 weeks since they have seen him. I will give weight update sometime tomorrow.

Storm Devastation

Last Thursday evening, June 5, a major storm blew through our area. No one is officially calling it a tornado, but judging by the damage, it is hard to call it any thing but. The whole town lost electricity at around 8pm. The earliest it was restored was 11am Friday, and that was in very few areas. We did not get our electricity back until Sunday evening around 5. Thankfully, Curtis' parents were in the early group who got it back by Friday morning and we were able to stay with them. The events of Thursday evening were very scary for me. I have been around storms for as long as I can remember and never got to freaked out as long as there was a "scaredie hole" nearby. Now that I have Cooper, it made me very nervous. I looked out my parents window, holding my helpless child in my arms, and prayed that I would make it to the basement before the windows went. It came and went so fast. What I saw in my parents courtyard was unlike anything I have ever seen before. We all made it down stairs, and the windows did not break. Curtis was still at work in Wichita Falls, and the phones were not working so I couldn't reach him. This was awful for me. Once I finally got a hold of him, we had found out that the highway would be closed all night, and he would be unable to come home. The next morning we woke to devastation. Our town was turned upside down; it looked like a war zone. There were trees uprooted everywhere, and even houses that were completely demolished. Our neighbor across the street had a carport stuck in her tree. My husband's grandparents had several trees uprooted, laying on their cars and house. I will be posting pictures of some of this damage soon, but for now here is a link to the Times Record News photo gallery.

Prayers please

I just wanted to ask everyone to remember my dear cousin Amy's little boy, Grayson, tomorrow. He is having a scope with stomach biopsies tomorrow afternoon. He has severe allergies, and they are checking for an eosinophilic disorder. Some of you may remember that we thought Cooper might have this when he was around 2 months. He had a blood test with good results so we never had to go forward with the biopsy. Please be in prayer that the results will not show EGID or EE. Also, for Amy and Kenny, as this is a difficult time for them. The results will take time, so continue to remember them in your prayers over the next couple of weeks as the waiting is so difficult.

You know you have a sick baby when...

Cooper totally conked out at lunch time today while Curtis was feeding him applesauce. He was actually in between bites. He had just started to feed him; they didn't even make it through half the jar. Poor little guy. He clearly doesn't feel too well. He also cut his first tooth today. The teething has been really rough on us all. I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband who will get up early with Cooper so I can have an extra hour of sleep. I'm pretty sure I could not survive this otherwise. Hopefully teething and the cold will pass soon, and we can get back to being happy!

Sick again...

On Friday night my mom noticed that Cooper was really wheezing. His stridor has been a lot worse this past week too. When it was time for bed on Friday he had really started to wheeze. I was really worried about him, afraid he had perhaps aspirated. I would have put him on his monitor for the night, but the home health company had come to pick it up that day. This was really hard. Even though he had not worn it in almost a month, it was still in the bedroom. I knew it was there if I needed it. It was really hard to get rid of it; it had definitely become a crutch. So, needless to say, I didn't sleep so hot on Friday night. We took him into sick time on Saturday morning. The on-call doctor was the doctor who had originally seen and diagnosed Cooper with reflux in the hospital at 5 days old. We loved him, and he would have been Cooper's pedi if he had been taking new patients. The funny thing was, is he started asking us if we had considered the fundo and gave us a surgeon's name at Cook's who is very well trained in the laproscopic version of the surgery. He said he would of sent Cooper to her long ago. I told him Cooper was doing really well now, compared to before, and that the Elimination diet has seemed to really help. Also Cooper's weight was really great. He was weighed on a different scale and fully clothed, but he weighed 14lbs 5oz! I figure he's probably in the mid to high 13s. All of this made me wonder, if he would have been Cooper's pedi, would he have had the fundo at 2 months like the pulmonologist suggested? What would that mean for Cooper today? It is amazing how God works. As much as I love this particular pedi, I'm glad we haven't done the surgery. I know it is still possible that he may need it at some point, but I feel that things are pretty under control for now. I think that Cooper was protected from the surgery. God worked through our pedi in convincing us to hold off and give Cooper some time. Wow, how thankful I am for that. Anyway, turns out Cooper has a little cold, and his throat was really red. This exacerbates his laryngomalacia and his reflux and that is what is causing the wheezing. Luckily, his lungs sounded clear when the pedi listened to his chest. He is on an antihistamine and we have added back another reflux med just for a few days until he seems to be doing better. I am so glad it was nothing more serious. Now we just have to deal with the rough nights having a sickie in the house!

First Real Swim

On Friday, we went swimming at Heath and Tracey's house. It was Cooper's first time in an underground pool. He really enjoyed it until he got hungry. It was also Andrew's first time in the pool. It was fun for them to share their first of many firsts.