SO ONCE AGAIN DR KELLEY SETS US ON THE RIGHT PATH....

Last night went ok. Cooper took about 15ml of milk from the bottle at 3am but that was it. I was anxious to see Dr. Kelley to figure out what we were going to do about Cooper's lack of interest in eating. Dr. Kelley began with, "Kristi, it has been 1 day". As always he had all the answers and I once again feel like we have direction. Basically Cooper needs to "want" to eat. Because we feed him through the NG tube a pretty significant amount, Cooper is never truly hungry. Therefore, we need him to become interested in the taste that we are giving him. The formula we are giving him currently is horrible tasting. Dr. Kelley asked if we had ever tasted it and of course I had not so tonight I did and right there in front of Cooper I spit it out in the sink. IT WAS NASTY!!! I gave it to Raelynn to taste and she agreed. Therefore, if by Saturday Cooper is still showing little interest, we will switch to a sweeter formula which we had used in the past. In addition, we will try sippy cups and baby food. Because we want to stimulate Coop's taste buds we are skipping cereal, skipping veggies and going straight to the good stuff....fruits. If baby food fruits don't cut it, we get to try applesauce and mashed up bananas just like we eat. If Cooper continues to show little interest in the formula, we will add chocolate or strawberry to it for flavoring. Now, this gives us a good laugh because I don't allow Raelynn to drink chocolate or strawberry milk. Therefore, you can only imagine what her reaction will be if she sees me mixing it for Cooper. That will be fun :) Anyway, it is all a process because although our goal is to get Cooper to eating enough to get rid of the NG tube , it is also most important that he continues to consume the needed amount of calories. Cooper will be burning more calories as he begins to eat on his own and therefore will require more calories as well. I cannot tell you how thankful I am to have Dr. Kelley to explain this all to us and give us step by step instructions on what to do. So our schedule now is this; 15 minutes before each feeding we present a bottle to Cooper. Whatever he consumes in that 15 minutes we deduct from the total volume we give him through the NG tube. We will also present baby food to him 3X per day. It is a little tricky as to when to present them because the feedings are so close together and they are still given over a full hour. However, I think we will be trying at about 7:30am, 1:30pm and 7:30pm. Tonight we gave him Cherries and Apples. He choke quite a bit but was very tired when I was trying to give it to him. It was the first time feeding him also so I am not discouraged by it. He took 20ml by mouth twice today, once for Lisa at noon and again for me around 6pm. I pray that this will continue to improve. Raelynn is very helpful in the feedings as well. Tonight she had me feed her some of Cooper's food so she could show him how to eat. Cooper was not impressed and neither was Raelynn with the flavor!

We met with 2 potential matches and one observer for our Tiny K support person tonight as well. You all know how I am, I wanted everything perfect and us sitting there waiting patiently when they arrrived. Instead we were in the middle of chaos. We had gotten home late because I had to go to the store to get baby food, banans and a new sippy cup for Cooper. I was rushing to try to feed him with the bottle, give him his meds, get his feed through the NG tube started, feed Raelynn, get everything put away, light a candle so it smelled all good, make sure there was nothing out of place and so on. Instead this is what happened. Cooper decides to take the bottle, yeah, but delays the start of the feed therefore just slowing everything down. Raelynn does not want to eat but instead wants to play dress up and is running around the house butt naked with a cape and high heels on. The phone rings.....some nut case talking about the price of gas. It is too high what else is there to say. Open the front door for the company that will be arriving and within minutes Raelynn puts hand prints all over it with her hands that are covered in girly lotion. Grab the windex and clean the glass. Light the candle so everything is smelling good but instead smell something melting.....the grocery sack which is still sitting on counter full of groceries. Put out the fire and put away the groceries. Terry is home and now helping me calm the chaos. Things are improving and then.....Cooper poops or should I say has a blow out!!! Terry changes him, washes him, redresses him. Raelynn now decides she is hungry and I am throughing Spaghetti O's in the microwave, sure to make a good impression with my nutritious dinner for my daughter and the door bell rings. The dog goes nuts, Raelynn rushes to the door and I take a deep breath............. They were wonderful and I am very excited to work with them. As I explained to them, we have the best medical doctors we could ever hope for so I am not worried about Cooper's physical well being. What I will look to them for is to monitor his speech and development of his motor skills, things like that.

I have mentioned several times about how thankful I am for things people in the community, our friends and family have done for us. Without disclosing specifics, I was once again very touched by a contribution made to "Cooper's Cause". I promise to pass the good that we have experienced on to others. I do not think anyone should hold this much goodness all to themselves. I feel so blessed to have Cooper and the support systems we have through our family, friends, doctors, nurses and everyone else that has touched our lives but I continue to be astonished at the generosity shown through your prayers and contributions. You amaze me and I thank you!