Kangaroo care and Cooper is off his c-pap!

I got to hold Cooper today for the very first time! I cried...I am just so in awe of this little man! The nurse told me that I could hold him for 30 minutes so she put his little body on my chest and my heart just melted. He was doing so good and was so relaxed that they told me that he could stay with me for ANOTHER 30 minutes! I sang him a song that the music therapist taught me and I started to cry again! So, as long as he's having a good day, we'll do 30 minutes of kangaroo care in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. The NICU staff is awesome about letting us do all the (reasonable) care for him during the day.

I'm pumping every 3 hours so they'll be giving him breast milk with his formula. I changed his diaper again today which is fun because I haven't had much experience with changing little boy diapers but I'm getting the hang of it!

The most awesome news though is that Cooper is off his c-pap and is breathing all on his own! The nurse said that he is doing so well that technically speaking he could go to the step down unit already but he's going to stay in his pod for now because he's only 31 weeks. The number 1 rule is that no baby goes home before 34 weeks...but, that's totally okay with me because I don't want him to come home until he is completely ready.

Here are some pics from kangaroo care today and a picture of his little face without his c-pap! He gets all of his hair from his daddy because every baby born on my side of the family is born bald!

Here is Cooper without his c-pap! He does still have a feeding tube in his nose but his little face is so much freer now!

I'm rubbing his little back!

Kangaroo care from this morning...

This is our first skin to skin contact...do I have to tell you how happy my heart is here?