Cody
Meet Cody James Cobler. He was born on Christmas weighing 1lb 9oz and 12¼ inches long. He was born at 24 weeks, 5 days (16 weeks early). He spent a total of 134 days in the NICU.
Everything during the pregnancy was going smoothly. The weekend right before Christmas we went up to my hometown to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family. Things were still going great until the 23rd of December. That day is when complications arose. I went to the MercyOne of North Iowa ER and was then sent up to their OB. I was checked by two OB doctors and they saw things that they shouldn't be seeing. I was contracting (without feeling them at all) and dilated one centimeter. I was given antibiotics, magnesium sulfate, and one round of steroids while in the ER. I was then transferred to MercyOne in Des Moines where I gave birth two days later. Each day the doctors told me to expect to have a baby, but thanks be to God that our little one stayed in long enough to get the steroids he needed!
During his stay in the NICU he overcame a lot of things. He also was very lucky to not have had other issues like other micro-preemies can deal with (stomach, brain, ear, eye issues). He was on the high frequency ventilator for a little over a month before being switched to a lower frequency vent which he stayed on for quite some time. Once he was switched to this ventilator I was able to hold him for the very first time! I had to wait a whole month to do this, and trust me it was worth the wait!!! During that time, we were told that he had chronic lung disease. We tried a total of three or four different times to get him off of the ventilator and on to the "scuba gear." Eventually he worked his way down to just wall oxygen before being discharged. During his stay, he had multiple blood transfusions, a few different infections, and pneumonia twice. Most micro-preemie babies end up with some type of brain bleed. Cody NEVER had one which was a huge relief! He ended up having trouble taking a bottle due to aspirating his formula. So, when he had surgery to fix is bilateral inguinal hernias, we chose to have them insert a G-tube. At that point, the only thing keeping him in the NICU was his feedings. Once he healed from that surgery and Tyler and I knew what we were doing with his G-tube, our little boy was FINALLY discharged! It was a very long 134 days. We saw no end in sight until it finally came.
During his stay he had the best care ever! All of his nurses and doctors were absolutely amazing!!
Today he is a happy 8 month old! He is completely off of any extra oxygen and is taking his formula by bottle! He has one more surgery coming up to fix his craniosynostosis. Otherwise we are just working on weight gain and development.
It is because of God that our son is alive today. He knew what was going to happen and he provided all the means that were necessary to keep our son alive. Our son is our miracle baby!!