Kohl and the Gang

Ah the trials and tribulations of bottle feeding.  The little Who Dat was not much in the mood for bottle feeding today.  I guess he had a little case of the Mondays after his bender this weekend.

On a positive note, dad finally got to hold Kohl in the Heisman pose which he has been waiting to do since day one.

Also, Kohl is obviously a rabid Saints fan as shown by the picture of him here praying for another Saints Superbowl win when we are at home in the dome.

Though his passion for the black and gold is apparent, he did not particularly enjoy being squeezed into the rather tight “Who Dat” outfit.

Given his dislike of tight clothing, at least this makes it less likely that he will ever wear skinny jeans.

But vengeance was Kohl’s as he peed on mom and dad in retribution, making G-Daddy’s day who was eagerly anticipating the day that Kohl would pee on dad.  He also added insult to injury by spitting up all over dad’s brand new Brooks Brothers sweater.  It was almost as if he said “I love the Saints, mom and dad, but you squeeze me in this stupid thing and you get peed on.  Simple as that.  Next time, I might not be so lenient and make it a number two.  Oh yeah, nice sweater dad.”

Touche, Kohl, touche.

The bottling journey continued over the weekend.  The little fella took in 13 CCs on Saturday morning but decided to take the lazy man’s route and get tube fed his entire feeding at the 5:00 hour.  Then again, I wouldn’t have much of an appetite either if I was just held by this guy:

One of the wonderful nurses at Children’s decided, however, that Kohl got too much stimulation on Saturday which was affecting his ability to take the bottle.  So at 5:00 am today, she turned down the lights, set the mood a little more low key, and the hungry little dude took in 30 CCs – almost half of his full amount per feeding.  Great progress!  It looks like he just has a little stage fright.

And speaking of the big stage, Kohl’s grandfather Pop has proven himself to be quite the thespian. (The following has nothing to do with Kohl’s incredible progress and is strictly for the author’s personal amusement at Pop’s expense).

Pop’s place in Hollywood lore seemed almost predestined with his breakout performance as the Angel Gabriel in the Lakeview Presbyterian Church Christmas play in late 2011. In the video below, Pop continues a mastery of his craft by portraying the whole spectrum of human emotion.  From the sheer joy of a grandfather holding his grandchild for the first time to a complete disdain for having agreed to go with Nanna to see the famous Broadway musical, “Hairspray.”  All is captured here in a mere 21 seconds.

Arguably the most hip grandfather this side of the Mississippi, G-Daddy is loving his little man.  G-Daddy maintains that Kohl smiled at him this morning.  Even though the rest of us know that Kohl was just passing gas, he does seem to like his G-Daddy.

After numerous straw polls and months of suspense, CeCe has finally decided that her grandmother name will be CeCe.  Also pretty hip if you ask me.

Nanna might be small in physical stature, but her love for Kohl knows no bounds.

An angry duck

Today was a good, albeit tiny step in the right direction towards getting discharged.  Up to this point, Kohl has been fed through an OG/NG tube that runs from either his nose or mouth to his stomach.   At first, he was just on IV fluids, lipids, and a really healthy supplement called TPN.  But they have gradually introduced the breast milk that his mom diligently pumps out every two hours with assembly-line-like efficiency.  Now he gets all of his nutrition from breast milk.

He has done a good job of sucking on his pacifier since he has been more alert, and the speech pathologist was confident he would do well with both sucking and swallowing.  They are taking a cautious approach because if he aspirated when trying to swallow the breast milk, that would set us back pretty significantly.

Yet young Kohl had a nice start today.  He managed to get 7 CCs of breast milk from the bottle.  For perspective, he gets 70 CCs per feeding, so he still has a way to go, but he’s moving in the right direction.

Because pictures and videos speak louder than words, here are some random pictures and videos over the last couple of weeks.

Kohl gets a visit from his dad’s friend Matt.  Because of Matt’s reddish hair, bearded face, and large frame, Kohl most likely thought he was getting a visit from a rather large Leprechaun.  And that’s pretty cool.

These are Mom’s first moments with Kohl.  One of the most tragic parts of the circumstances surrounding his birth is that Mom did not really get to see, much less hold, her baby boy.  The good folks at Touro were very accomodating though and wheeled Sarah, who was still recovering from her C-section, down to see her son for a few minutes before the transport to Children’s Hospital.  For those that have not had kids before, the first few moments that a mother spends with her child are truly beautiful.  This is an image that will remain with Dad forever.