Hi friends and fam!
I've set up a new website that should have better functionality, for those who want to keep up with Cooper.
https://cooperwillmott411.wordpress.com/
Check it out! It should be easier to leave comments and view videos, and there's even an option to subscribe to get email alerts when an update is published.
Ok, I am plain fed up with Blogger. I just wrote a nice long post and even manually saved it, and it got deleted. Along with the issues with their crummy and clumsy interface, inability to put videos in posts, and their app not working, I’m officially over it. I need to move the Coop Scoop over to a new host. Stay tuned!
For some reason I have a long position on Boppy photos from the past day or two, which I will happily share with you.
Yesterday was a big day, as Cooper was finally well enough to celebrate his bris! We had a beautiful and emotional ceremony, and many friends and family members were able to attend via the magic of Zoom.
We gave him the Hebrew name Ran David to honor my mom’s sister and brother who were sadly taken from us much too soon. In addition, Ran means joyful and full of song, while David means beloved king and mighty warrior. He has already proven himself to be a warrior, and this little guy has more love in his life than he knows what to do with! Also, as his parents, we are doing everything we can to make sure his life is full of joy and music.
Mat and I spoke about the name we chose for him, and our hopes for his future. My mom shared memories of Ronni and David and the wonderful qualities they had that she wants Cooper to inherit. My dad and Mat’s parents read grandparents’ prayers, and my Aunt Beth led the blessing over the candles.
Coop barely made a peep when the big snip came! I’ll be honest, I was somewhat worried about the pain implications, both in the moment and while healing. Honestly though, it hasn’t been as bad as I expected. He is either incredibly tough, or it must not hurt as much as you’d think. He took a couple of hours to be mopey afterwards and didn’t take much of his next bottle, but then he was back to himself. He hardly even whimpers now when we change his bandaging.
Thank you to those of you who were able to join us! We felt your love and support through the screen. It was great to chat with some of you fine folks afterwards and introduce Cooper to his legion of adoring fans.
Guess who has two thumbs and weighs 6 lbs 13 oz???
This guy!!! Look at that chonker chowing down!!!
Yesterday was a busy day. His pediatrician appointment went really well. She is thrilled with his progress! We changed around some of his feeding plans - he is now allowed to sleep for one 4.5 hour stretch at night without eating, which sounds heavenly! 😝 Unfortunately Coop did not get that memo and still woke us every 3 hours last night. We’ll make sure he gets another copy of the memo. I’m also able to now breastfeed for up to an hour a day, but we still need to be offering him bottles at every feed for the extra calories. This does make for some double work for us, but hopefully it will move us toward our goal of eventually being able to breastfeed as full meals.
We also met with the Early Intervention folks and did an evaluation. They warned that the testing is not super meaningful for one month-old babies, as there are very limited things they should be doing at this point. However, there are a few key things he doesn’t do yet, like returning smiles or putting both hands on his bottle. We do think some of it is due to his time in the NICU. The poor kid never saw anyone smile at him until he was 3 weeks old - everyone was always wearing a mask! He also didn’t start bottles until almost 2 weeks, and even then his experience was limited since he was taking really small amounts by mouth and often being tube fed.
Anyway, we are not really worried about these issues, but it does qualify us for services. They use a “parent coaching” model, where they can give us strategies to help him advance and work toward meeting appropriate milestones. I figure we could use all the coaching we can get! We are becoming somewhat adept at meeting all of his basic needs like eating, sleeping, and getting his diaper changed, but we can certainly use more direction on how to stimulate him and encourage him to develop appropriate skills. We’ll be meeting with someone twice a month for now to get our coaching!
My mom actually took this fitting picture of an honest glimpse into our lives as new parents - our house is an absolute disaster, there is baby paraphernalia strewn everywhere, and we’re both passed out on the couch at noon. Yup.
One more exciting piece of news - Cooper has been approved by his pediatrician to finally get a circumcision! As you may or may not know, this is an important rite of passage in a Jewish boy’s life, so we’re excited to celebrate this milestone (though Coop may not be as excited...). We’ll be doing a little ceremony this Wednesday evening to have the procedure performed and to announce his Hebrew name (and for Cooper to get his first taste of wine!) We will be inviting friends and family to watch the brief ceremony virtually, so if you are interested, please message me, Mat, or my mom for additional info. All are welcome!
The grandparents have started to filter out and we’re now down to just my mom (who we’re planning to forcibly detain until Cooper goes to college).
Life is settling down and we’re trying to get into a new normal of sorts. Things are definitely feeling easier. As I sat with him this morning - feeding him a bottle while pumping, I thought back to how impossible all of it felt when I first started; pumping that first week and often getting next to nothing, feeding him his first few bottles with the nurse’s sweet guidance and trying unsuccessfully to hold back my tears of frustration and inadequacy. I know there will be new challenges down the road, and hopefully I can look back and remember how this learning curve went. It gets easier, I just need to have patience and faith.
Coop has two appointments tomorrow that we’re looking forward to - we’re meeting with the pediatrician to check in about his weight and his feeding goals, and then he has an evaluation with the Early Intervention folks to check in on his development. *We* think he’s doing fabulously, but it would be nice to hear that from professionals!
Coop continues to astound us! This morning he weighed in at a hefty 6 lbs 9 oz! (And then he promptly farted right in the nurse’s face.) He is taking most of his bottles, hasn’t needed his feeding tube for 4 days now, and he breastfeeds twice a day! And yesterday during tummy time, he ROLLED OVER!!! I know it sounds insane, but my mom, Mat, and I all witnessed it! He was wriggling around, he got over onto his side, and then he gave one big fart and flopped over onto his back. He was stunned. We were stunned! We flipped him back onto his belly and a few minutes later he did it again (without the wind propulsion this time).
Of course he hasn’t done it again since, and we weren’t able to capture it on video. We did take a couple of videos where he got close, though. You can see how strong he is as he lifts his legs up and swings his body around. And yells about it - apparently he’s the dude at the gym who grunts and yells so the whole place can hear him! (Also I know some people have had trouble viewing the videos so I tried uploading them to YouTube first and hopefully that method will work better.)
We also noticed yesterday that he dependably tracked a rattle with his eyes when we moved it from side to side, which is a more age appropriate and legit milestone for him. We have caught him a couple of times giving us what we think is a smile, but he could just be pooping. The jury’s still out on that one. 💩
We also took Cooper for his first little hike yesterday! He is still under the weight minimum for the wearable baby carriers we have, so Mat tested our stroller’s off-roading capabilities.
And that’s the Coop Scoop!
