Disney Has Nothing On This Place!

You always hear that Disney is the Greatest Place on Earth, but that is a ruse!  It is my deepest heartfelt opinion that the "Greatest Place on Earth" is Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. While in the NICU, Cooper was treated amazingly. The nurses and the doctors did a great job of thoroughly describing everything that they were treating and what they were doing, what they were looking for, how we could look for signs, how we could do things a little better, etc.

Initially Cooper was admitted at 6:30 am on Sunday, April 17, 2011. The first difficult decision was that we had to limit the visitor list to six people. Of course, with the way our family is, just grandparents took up all six spots. The difficult part was that that meant that we had to leave all the aunts and uncles off.

Once we were satisfied that we could do nothing more for Cooper on that first day, Amanda and I went to Maggie and Griffin's to get some much needed sleep. The great thing about family is that they will always rearrange whatever they have to accommodate you. Maggie and Griffin allowed us to stay at their house for three nights, and Mimom and D-Daddy, Deda, and Doc and Cindy Lou all came and stayed at the hospital or took us out to eat or did whatever they could comfort us.

Cooper was on monitors for three days and under the jaundice lights for two days. (He did get to wear some nifty goggles while under the lights.) When you entered the NICU the very first thing you had to do was wash your hands up to your elbows and then put on a yellow gown before you could touch Cooper. This got to be so routine that it was second nature. Cooper was in much better shape than most of the other babies there, so we were optimistic. Amanda and I both initially spent more time watching the monitors than we really should have. The thing about it is, you can't help but look at those things. You have no idea what they really say, or what all those things mean, but you stare at them anyway.

After three days, they took Cooper off of all the monitors and moved him to the Progressive Unit. This is the step between NICU and going home so it was very much welcomed. They allowed us to "room in" in this private room with Cooper while in the Progressive Unit. This was something that really allowed us to overcome the anxiety of coming home and doing this all by ourselves. While in the Progressive Unit I decided that Cooper had been such a trooper that I built him a monkey at the Build-A-Bear Workshop. We named him Marty and, of course, he is a baseball player and Rangers fan.

After two nights of little sleep and constant worry, we were finally able to bring Cooper home.