There's a new kid in town....

Cooper Wayne Chrisp!



That's his 'grumpy old man' look.

If you're wondering where I've been for the past two weeks, well, the answer is Cooper.

On the 28th of May, Jessica called me and said she was at the hospital, thinking her water had broken. Cooper wasn't due until July 31st! Turns out, her membranes *had* ruptured, and they were admitting her.

There were two rounds of steriods (Thursday and Friday), lots of antibiotics and talk of doing a c-section on Saturday (May 31). Jess was required to stay in the hospital, with lots of monitoring of her and baby. On Saturday, the doctor decided that Jess was doing really well, and it would be in Cooper's best interests if he stayed inside for a while longer. We were all hoping for another week, but Cooper had other plans...

Late on Monday night/very early on Tuesday morning, Jess called and said they'd decided to do the surgery right away because she was having contractions. (She'd had a previous c-section, and they didn't want Cooper to go through trauma of labor.) So at 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 3, little Cooper made his debut.

He weighed 4lbs 12 oz and was 17" long. Pretty good size for what they think was a 31w/3day gestation!



He was immediately whisked away to NICU. Doing very well since the beginning, breathing all on his own (yay steriods!). He did have two IVs and the NG tube. The IVs are gone, but the NG tube is still there.

What looks like a skin condition is apparently just the amniotic fluid that dried/stuck to him. It's all gone now (by 12 June), and his skin looks terrific. He has sweet, wavy blond hair, too. Lots of it!

They're working on getting his temperature regulated so he can move to a regular hospital bassinet, but he's currently still in the temperature/humidity controlled isolette.

So. That explains a little bit of my time away from blogger....

k