Cooper is 5 months old this week.  He is now 9lbs 1.5 oz.  The weight gain is slow but he is getting chubby.  He will be going to Spectrum this week Tuesday for his surgery. Please keep him in your prayers that all will go well.  We are really hoping this surgery will bring good things for Cooper.  No more feeding tube in his nose and no more painful reflux.

Cooper has been to the Dr's office several times this month for respitory virus's.  The antibiotics have helped but having him get sick has been a scarey reminder that it wouldn't take much to land him in the hospital.

We have seen Dr. Droste, a great pediatric opthemologist, for Coopers eyes.  His right eye has normal vision and his left eye doesn't seem to have much vision.  This is great news.  When Cooper was born we faced the prospect of a child with no hearing or vision.  Now we find out he has normal vision in one eye and moderate hearing loss.  God is good.  We will be going to Detroit on July 1st to have Dr. Capone who is an amazing opthamologist look at Coopers bad eye.  They will be doing an ultrasound on his eye and if they can do anything to help his eye they will operate that same day.  They don't usually do this all on one day but they are making an exception for us.

Cooper is doing really well.  His personality is starting to come out.  He wants to sit up (as well as he can) and loves to rough house.  He smiles often when played with and Darrel can really get him laughing.  What a great sound!  We were just saying today that he has already come farther than we thought he might.  We are praying for a great future for Cooper!  I know he has already touched lives and made a difference in ways we could have never imagined.

Things are going well at home.  We're getting into a routine, as well as learning the ropes of having a newborn in the house again.  Cooper is doing great at keeping to his feeding schedule, and making great progress with taking more of his feedings orally.  He took his first complete oral feeding today, no tubes involved!  We hope and pray he'll continue to develop the strength and coordination he needs to feed orally.  He has also had new arm splints cast and will be wearing them 8 hours at a time.  We continue our busy month of February with many of the intitial outpatient appointments.  We anticipate things calming down a bit after we get through this month.  Kalani has been extremely busy with all the appointments, and coordinating things with the girls.  Grandpa and Grandma DeHaan have been wonderful at helping with the girls, and being "on-call" for anything that may come up.  We are blessed to have such great parents, and don't know what we'd do without them. 

The girls have been awesome big sisters.  Tess is so cute planting her little kisses on Cooper.  She's so careful and gentle with him, far from her true nature.  Leila continues to be a big help with Cooper.  She made the comment one day about her not minding that Cooper had a feeding tube, because if he didn't he'd be like all the other babies, and not as special.  Talk about a proud parent moment. 

Thank you again for everyone's prayer and support we've received.  We're truly blessed to have such amazing family and friends.  

This is kind of our brief acceptance speech, as well as a brief update of how Cooper is doing.  First and foremost, we are so thankful to God for blessing us with Cooper, being by our side and his through everything so far, and giving us the strength through him to to walk alongside Cooper on this uncertain road.  The prayer and emotional support we've received from friends and family thus far has been quite overwhelming, and always uplifting.  We want to thank everyone for keeping our family in your prayers.  Please pass on our thanks to those including us in their prayers that we may not even know.  It means so much to us as we believe in and can feel the power of prayer.

Cooper is doing very  well at Spectrum NICU.  He is now off the ventilator, and they have removed his IV as well.  He is starting to make a dent in the supply of milk that Kalani has been tirelessly providing since his birth.  While most of his feeding it done through a feeding tube still, we're encouraged by his progress at oral feeding.  At this point, he still lacks the strength and stamina to effectively take a complete bottle, although he tries hard.  We're told his suck will strengthen with time and oral therapy.  Cooper now has tiny splints that were made for his hands.  Although he gets frustrated with having them on (currently 8 hours a day, with 2 hours off between), the goal is to stretch his ligaments and straighten his hands to be in line with his forearm.  Lacking the radius bone in each arm, his wrist doesn't have the base it needs to be centralized on his arm.  In the future, orthopedic surgery will help correct this to an extent.  An MRI of his head also indicated a large mass in his brain.  The neurosurgeons believe this to be cycstic at this point, but will continue to monitor his progress and will followup with a ultrasound and MRI within 3 months.  We're uncertain if this will affect his function or development at this time.  As has been the case with many of the findings, "some people live normal lives with it, and some don't."  His hearing is also still questionable at this point, as is his acute vision.  We will learn more with time and additional followup testing. 

The plan is to work up Cooper's tolerance to regular feedings of milk before we can bring him home.  Most likely, he will remain on the feeding tube while at home.  We will continue to work with him to strengthen his oral feeding abilities.  Please pray with us for his continued development toward feeding 100% orally.  Although we honestly don't feel completely prepared to have him home, we're all excited and anxious to have him join Mom, Dad and sisters soon.  Leila talks endlessly of being "two big sisters" and is ready to shower Cooper with love and everything she can do to help him.  Her unabashed love and affection toward him is a lesson for us all.  She wants more than anything to hold her baby brother, but was satisfied last night to assist the nurse with taking his temperature, blood pressure and listening to his heart through a stethoscope.  Oh, and she asked today if he'll show up in the mailbox soon.

We thank you for your prayers and will continue to keep everyone posted on Coop.