Happy first birthday, Oliver!

Oliver is 1 today.  ONE!  What a year it's been.  Oliver now weighs 17 pounds and 13 ounces and is 26 inches long.  I know this because he had to go to the doctor yesterday because he's sick :(   I was really worried that he was going to spend his birthday in the hospital, so I'm glad it didn't end up that way.  The doctor yesterday was worried about how fast he was breathing and how high his heart rate was, so she sent him for a chest xray.  Luckily, there's no pneumonia.  Unfortunately, she believes it's just a viral thing that needs to run it's course.  She put him back on 24 hour oxygen, which is a pain, but she said this will pretty much guarantee he'll be approved for his Synagis shots this fall.  He hasn't gotten sick nearly as many times today as he had the past few days, so I'm really hoping we're in the home stretch.

This comes just 2 weeks after we finally got his feeds back on track after his gtube surgery.  The first couple of weeks after surgery were really rough.  His reflux was at it's worst, we had had to slow down his feeds and give him smaller feeds.  Not easy when his dietitian wanted to increase rate and quantity.  Finally, we were doing well with it, and he gets sick.  Still, no regrets on the surgery.  It's such a relief to not have to constantly worry about the ng tube any more.  The site is still bleeding occasionally, which worries me, but I'm told it's normal.  He likes to pull on the tube, and of course, chew on it.  He's chewing on everything these days, but still no teeth.

Oliver is sitting up great, and rolls from his front to his back immediately, but is still not rolling from back to front or trying to crawl.  While his occupational therapist isn't worried, she does want to work more on encouraging these things.  He is having none of that.  He wants nothing to do with tummy time, or laying on his stomach at all.  He's eating purees really, really well, at least he was 3 days ago.  Fingers crossed he'll still want them when he's well again.

Nathaniel is such a great big brother.  He loves getting to take Oliver a toy or his blankie, or giving him his paci.  Pretty much any time Oliver makes any noise, actually, Nathaniel is trying to stick that paci in his mouth. 

We had planned on taking the boys to dinner at the aquarium tonight for Oliver's birthday dinner, but with him being sick we're stuck in the house.  We had also planned on him getting to try cake for the first time, but that's also getting scrapped.  We'll try again next week.  We let Oliver open his gifts from my sister and her family last night, and he really enjoyed playing with the ribbons.  Nathaniel was more than happy to help him out with the rest of it.

Hopefully he'll be all well again soon, and we can have a birthday celebration for him.  Mama loves you, buddy.  It's been a crazy year, but you've come through it with flying colors.  You're my little fighter, and I'm so, so proud of you.

Gastrostomy at 10 months

Oliver had his Gtube surgery today. Here he is getting ready. 

The surgeon, Dr Partick, said everything went well and he expects recovery in a few days. We're still waiting on a room, but just wanted to post that he's doing ok. He's not happy, but he's ok. 

NG Tube vs G Tube

It's been too long since the last update, mainly because every time I attempt, my laptop shuts down.  Anyway, Oliver is now 10 1/2 months actual, almost 7 months adjusted.  As of today he weighs 17 lbs, 3 oz and is a little over 25 inches long.  And today, we saw a surgeon to discuss removing the NG tube and placing a Gtube.

We've struggled with this decision, but I think it's finally time.  Back in April, we returned home to Illinois for a visit, and Oliver was rocking his bottle feedings.  He was back up to 50% by bottle, and I really thought we were on our way to removing the tube.  But as soon as we returned to CO, Oliver got an ear infection, and started completely refusing the bottle.  I don't blame him, I'm sure it hurt to suck.  However, in the two weeks it took him to fully get over that, he forgot how to suck on a bottle.  His therapist said that he was right at the age where babies' suck goes from being reflexive to learned, and he probably did just forget.  We've been working on it the last two months, but he's just not getting it.  After a week of him pulling the NG tube out multiple times a day, coughing it up, spitting it up, and it getting clogged, I'm done.  I'm ready to see my precious boy's face with no tubes and tape.

Having a G tube will actually be safer than the NG.  With the NG, the big fear is it going into his lungs instead of his stomach.  That could happen when it's being placed, or when he pulls/coughs it out.  The G tube does require surgery to place it, which comes with a risk, but after that there's only a very slight risk of infection; much better than a risk of aspiration.  David and I did our research, and decided that we didn't want him to have a nissen fundoplication done at this time.  That is where the top of the stomach is tightened so that there is less reflux and spitting up.  There can be complications from it, and it can make it nearly impossible for him to throw up it he is sick, as well as not being able to even burp.  The surgeon agreed with us, saying that Oliver is definitely not a usual case of a preemie on a feeding tube failing to thrive.  Oliver's surgery will be next week, we're just waiting on the scheduler to give us a call.

Doctors and Nathaniel's birthday

Both boys have had doctors' appointments in the past week.  Nathaniel had both a trip to the doctor for an ear infection, and his two year check up.  Thankfully, the ear infection is all better, AND the two year appointment doesn't come with vaccinations, yay!  Nathaniel weighs 29 lbs and is 35 inches tall.  That puts him at the 50% for weight and the 70% for height, which is a bit of a change from his one year appointment, where he was 90% for weight and less than 50% for height.

Oliver had both an eye exam and his six month appointment, which was two weeks late due to his ROP surgery.  His eyes look great, and the eye doctor thought that they'd only need to check one more time before declaring the surgery a success.  They believe 90-95% of his vision has been saved.  Oliver needed vaccinations and blood work at his appointment, and weighed in at 12 1/2 lbs.  His doctor is very happy with how he's progressing developmentally.  Now if we could just get him to eat.  Dr Rosenburg is ok with us not rushing into Gtube surgery.  We're going to start occupational therapy for him to get help with bottle feeding.  They also suggested we try spoon feeding him some cereal.

It's so frustrating how completely different raising these two boys is.  Nathaniel was exclusively breastfed for 6 months, at which time we introduced solids via Baby Led Weaning.  He never had purees, and we never gave him rice cereal as there's no nutritional value to it at all.  Oliver only takes formula thickened with rice cereal by mouth, and it sounds like he'll probably eat purees for quite a while before trying to eat real food.  Nathaniel wasn't allowed to watch tv until about 15 months, and then it was just one show.  Oliver eats better if he's watching the tv, so tv it is.  By 11 weeks Nathaniel was sleeping in his crib, but Oliver has reflux so he has to be upright during and after his feeds.  Everything we thought we had worked out with Nathaniel and would be easier the second time went right out the window.  And more than anything, there is nothing more frustrating than a hungry baby who either can not or will not eat.  I really hope we make some headway with the OT.

Yesterday was Nathaniel's second birthday.  We had planned on taking him to the zoo this weekend to celebrate, but a huge winter storm (spring snow storm?) rolled through.  We thought about the Children's Museum, but we weren't sure that was the best place to take Oliver.  I was so disappointed that I didn't have any way to make Nathaniel's birthday special, and then I remembered how much he had enjoyed the restaurant at the aquarium that we went to the first time we visited Denver.  Nathaniel loved it!  We went really early to make sure we could get an aquarium side table, and I'm so thankful we did.  20 minutes later and the place was packed.  Nathaniel would get scared each time one of the bigger fish swam towards the glass, but braved through.  At 6 every night they have divers swimming dressed as mermaids, and he thought that was so neat.  I'm so glad we were able to do something really fun for his birthday.

My sister, brother in law, and niece visited last weekend, and stayed to help me while David traveled on business this week.  It was so good to have people to talk to.  Staying at home with Oliver is very isolating.  Since we just moved here, I don't have any friends to invite over, and even if I did we wouldn't be comfortable having other people in the house around him.  And with it still being cold and flu season, and RSV being so bad this year, I really don't want to take him out anywhere.  Plus, for two weeks after surgery his eyes were dilated, so we couldn't even sit on the porch or go for a walk when the weather was nice.  So it was really, really nice to have someone here to hang out with for a while.  Nate hit the slopes up at Copper Mountain for his birthday, so I think they had a good trip.  I'm so excited we'll get to see them again in less than a month when we head back to Illinois in April. 

ROP surgery

Oliver had surgery on Friday (March 8, David's birthday) to correct and prevent any further retinapathy.  Using a laser, the ophthalmologist scarred the area of his retina that did not have blood vessels running through it.  This prevents bad blood vessels from forming in those areas.  He believes that Oliver will have 90% of his vision, in comparison to the 40% that he would have had had they done surgery at the beginning instead of using the Avastin injections.  The surgery increases his risk for having near sightedness, so in a couple of months he'll start getting checked for needing glasses. 

Surgery went very well, and we were happy with both the nurses and the anesthesia team working on him.  It took about an hour and a half, and when it was done first Dr Oliver came out to let us know how it went from his standpoint, and then the anesthesiologist came out to let us know that everything went perfect from his point of view, as well.  Of course, everyone just loved Oliver.

We finally got into a hospital room for the night around 3 pm.  David had to leave immediately to go pick up Nathaniel, but we had a surprise visitor, Oliver's NICU nurse, Veronica.  It was great to see her, and she couldn't believe how big he had gotten.  David and Nathaniel came back out to the hospital to have dinner with me in the caf, but Nathaniel wasn't allowed up on the floor.  Oliver and I had a very long night in the hospital, and first thing the next morning a winter storm swept through.  David had a hard time getting back out to pick us up, and I had to tell the nurse and doctor to get on with it and get his discharged, we were leaving before the roads got any worse!

Nathaniel just loves the snow.  "NO!" as he likes to call it.  We've let him play out in it a few times now, and there's always a meltdown when it's time to come back in.  He cracks us up daily.  When he wants me to pick him up, but I'm busy with something else, David always asks him, "will you come see me?"  So now when Nathaniel wants to be picked up at all, instead of saying "up" he says "come see me."  It's so cute.  Milk is "munk," puzzles are "puz," and Oliver is "Ober."  I just love it.  His vocabulary continues to grow, and he's starting to repeat everything we say.  Time to reel in the road rage!

Nathaniel thinks that Oliver needs to be covered by every blanket in the house, and can't stand for him to not have a paci in his mouth at all times.  We have to really watch him, but he sure loves being a big brother.

6 months actual

Tomorrow Oliver turns 6 months old.  To celebrate Nathaniel's 6 month, we started letting him play with food, banana and avocado.  For Oliver's... nothing is changing.  Sorry buddy.  Oliver currently weighs 11 lbs and 11 oz.  And this outfit... is 0-3 months!  We've moved out of newborn size.  Thankfully my sister loaded us up on snap front 0-3 outfits, because we used almost exclusively zip front on Nathaniel.  We have more than enough now, and I'm hoping by the time he hits 6 months clothes he'll be off the monitors.

Oliver's ROP surgery got cancelled at the last minute last week.  It's currently rescheduled for March 8.  We're still assuming it'll just be one night in the hospital.  The actual surgery really doesn't require any recovery as it's all done by laser, but he'll need to be closely monitored coming off of the ventilator. 

It's still a huge struggle to get Oliver to eat.  We fight with it all day, trying to get him to take just 10 more mls after he refuses the bottle, and then at night we catch him up via the feeding tube.  We were really hoping he'd be off of it by now.  I'm surprised his pediatrician hasn't pushed for a permanent g-tube.

Oliver is smiling a lot more, and talking to us. Hi Oliver He just stares at Nathaniel when he's around.  After Nathaniel being home three straight days, Oliver did almost nothing but sleep Tuesday.  I'm sure he was thinking, "ahhhh, peace and quiet!"

We finally got a real substantial snow fall out here, and David's office was closed on Monday due to it.  Nathaniel loves the snow, or "noes" as he calls it.  Nathaniel's snow day  He loves playing outside in it, and had a major meltdown when we made him come inside, even though his poor little hands were just blocks of ice.

David has put in his vacation time for April, so we're in the process of planning our trip home.  We should be home April 18-28, and I can't wait. 

Oliver is 2 months old (adjusted)

Ugh, what a weekend.  Friday night we discovered that the outlet in the garage that the fridge and freezer out there are plugged into wasn't working, and we had no idea how long that had been.  I was in panic mode as I have a thousand ounces of frozen breastmilk in that deep freeze.  If you've ever pumped, you know how hard and tedious it is, and the thought of losing all that made me feel sick.  We finally managed to tap into the outlet on the ceiling that the garage door opener runs on, but I was getting ready to hit the internet to find homes for all that milk.

Later that night, Oliver started having trouble breathing, and was coughing.  He managed to maintain good sats, though, so we waited until Saturday morning before calling out to the clinic at the hospital.  The nurse felt that one of the doctors should see him, so we packed up and headed back out to Aurora to go to the emergency room at Children's Hospital.  The woman at registration was worried about how he sounded, so they got us right in.  It didn't take them too long to decide that he had croup, so they gave him a steroid and wanted to monitor him for several hours.  All in all, Oliver and I spent 8 hours in the ER.  Around 2 David left with Nathaniel so that he could get a nap in.  As rough as it was, Oliver was a trooper.  A few hours after he was given the meds the cough cleared up and they were able to lower his oxygen back down to what he's on at home.  Oliver didn't want to take a bottle, but decided instead he was going to nurse.  After all the struggles we've had trying to get him to breastfeed, he decided that was the day he was going to start.  He's a champ!

Oliver is doing great now, but the one lingering concern is his ROP surgery that is scheduled for Friday.  I called out to his doctor, and if all symptoms are cleared up he's ok with the surgery as scheduled. His visiting nurse was here this morning and said that he sounded perfectly clear and looked just fine.  I still need to check with the ophthalmologist, though, to see what his thoughts are. But of course, like Nathaniel's daycare, the Rocky Mountain Eye Institute is closed for President's Day.  Really?

David just left for Winnipeg for a few days.  The high there tomorrow, when he has to walk to a meeting, is -2.  He's just thrilled.  I'm just hoping that the weather doesn't delay his flight getting back in.  There's a chance of snow in the forecast for Wednesday.  My mom flew in to help me with Nathaniel while I focus on getting Oliver back to 100%.

The first four weeks home

I think we've finally managed to get into somewhat of a routine at home.  The first 3 weeks that Oliver was home was just, well, horrible.  Nathaniel was sick, then David got sick, then I got sick, then I got sick yet again.  Through all of that, we managed to keep Oliver healthy.  We had quite the learning curve, though, with managing his feedings, oxygen, and monitor.  We kept Nathaniel downstairs with whichever parent was sick at that time, so even though we were all home together, we weren't really together.  Just in the past couple of days have we all four spent time together, and we finally feel like a family.

Oliver has had two follow up doctor appointments and two eye doctor appointments since he left the NICU.  At the two week mark, Oliver was up to an even 10 lbs and was 20 inches long.  At the four week appointment, he was 10 lbs 9 oz and 20 1/2 inches long.  He's growing, even though we're still struggling with his eating.  At his first eye appointment, Dr Oliver had said that he was probably a month or two out from surgery.  At his second appointment, they went ahead and book the surgery.  Oliver will have the laser eye surgery on February 22 at Children's Hospital, which is on the same campus as UCH, where his NICU stay was.  Since he will be under general anaesthesia, they will keep him overnight for observation, but hopefully it'll just be the one night.  They said it could be anywhere from one to three, though, just so we're prepared.

Oliver eats best lying to his left

David has to go to Canada for work a few days before Oliver's surgery.  After the time we've had so far with Oliver home, I was a little nervous about being home with both boys by myself.  Plus, I wasn't sure how many doctor's appointments Oliver would have that week.  So, we're flying my mom out (for her birthday) to spend some time with Nathaniel.  It's not safe for people to get off of a plane and then hold Oliver, so she'll be stuck in the basement with Nat, but it'll give them some good one on one time.

After being separated for so long, Nathaniel is just loving being a big brother

Oliver's NICU photo shoot (Nov 16, 2012)



While Oliver was in the NICU, I came across the website for Pictures of Hope Foundation. http://www.picturesofhopefoundation.org/  This is a group of photographers, most of whom had previously had a NICU baby, who will take complimentary pictures of babies in the NICU.  I contacted one of the photographers listed in the area, Lisa Hodnet, and set up a photo shoot for Oliver.  This was really nice, because one of the things you miss out on in the NICU is both a hospital photo, and newborn pictures.  We have both for Nathaniel.  Oliver was 2 1/2 months old, and weighed about 4 1/2 lbs at the time of these pictures.  We wanted to share a few of our favorites.

Oliver's nurses were so creative, and were always coming up with new crafts for him.

Oliver's first room, he was in it until right before Christmas when the light switch on the wall started buzzing.
Then we moved to a private, twin room.  It was bigger, which was nice, but it was so secluded that I always thought we were going to get forgotten.

He loved his fishy mobile

Not real thrilled to be disturbed.

By then he was in his big boy bed.  He had to be able to maintain proper temp to get moved out of the giraffe bed.

Oliver had a pulse ox monitor on his foot, which got switched back and forth between feet at every set of cares.

He also had three leads on his chest to monitor his breathing.

He loved laying on his tummy.  Then they send you home and tell you back only.

This was the only preemie outfit we bought for him.  It had little blue elephants on it.  It got lost in the NICU laundry.  Lesson learned :(

We thought we would have these back in time for Christmas, so we got a few in his stocking.

Getting all tucked back in.

Firm pressure on his chest and head was the easiest way to calm him down.  I wish that still worked.

Even Nathaniel got in on it.  By then he wasn't allowed back in the NICU, so this was out in the waiting room.
 He's such a ham for the camera.

First week home

Oliver has had a pretty good first week home. David and I struggled with it more than he did. And then Nathaniel picked up a stomach bug. It's been super hectic, but great that we no longer have to make the hour drive out to the NICU every day.

Oliver had an eye appointment on Tuesday, Jan 22 to check his retinopathy. So far, it's looking really good. He doesn't need to go back for two weeks this time. Which is great because they just take so much out of him. Dr Oliver really doesn't expect much more improvement. As it stands, when he has the surgery very little of his peripheral vision will be lost. No matter how long we wait, that really won't change. The only reason to wait is to continue to see maturation of his lungs. The longer we wait before intubating him, the better his recovery time on the vent will be. Dr Oliver and Dr Mathias both think we have one to two months before the Avastin quits working and the progress stalls or regresses. At that point, the laser surgery will be done.

On Thursday Oliver had his first follow up appointment at Children's Hospital with Dr Rosenburg. It went really well. O was up to 10 pounds even, and measured a little over 20 inches. He's coming in at the 50th percentile for weight, but only the 10th for height. Sounds a bit like Nathaniel. The doctor and the nutritionist, Kim, gave me the go ahead to both start trying to nurse again and give him breastmilk by bottle. I had told them that my major goal was to get him off formula, and they both agreed that would be best for him. It's going to be slow going, but I was so happy to hear that there is no danger in trying.

Thursday night Nathaniel's stomach bug came back with a vengeance after 40 hours puke free. And to add to the fun, David came down with it too. So far, O and I are germ free.

Saturday, we had our first full family outing. We went out for family pictures. It was a bit of a disaster. The photographer was locked out of her studio, so we took pictures in the hallway with her three kids and another family who showed up too early. Nathaniel is usually a ham for the camera, but he was subdued and wouldn't smile for anything. Her kids wanted to see the baby, so I had to keep moving him and telling them that he was sick so they needed to stay back. I really hope at least a few of them turn out, or the stress from it just wasn't worth it.

This morning Oliver pulled his feeding tube out, so we declared today a tube free day to see if it helps with the bottle feeding. I feel like his tube causes him to gag a lot more often, causing him to spit up more. Fingers crossed today goes well.

Nathaniel playing with my Ipad.

Coming home: 20 weeks old

Oliver is home!  We had originally planned on bringing him home on Tuesday, Jan 15, but that day didn't go so well.  I spent the night with Oliver in the NICU Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning after dropping my dad off at the airport David came to pick us up and take us home.  Oliver came home weighing 9 pounds, 11.8 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.

Nathaniel has done so much better than what I had anticipated.  I figured he would be jealous and clingy, but he's adapted really well.  I also was worried about him wanting to touch Oliver and all the gear that came home with him, but he's content to watch him from a distance and wave to him.  Thank goodness Oliver got used to sleeping through all sorts of noise in the NICU, because Nathaniel likes to yell "baby!" every time he sees Oliver, and "baby nigh-nigh" when he sees Oliver sleeping.

Oliver seems to be adjusting to being at home fairly well, but has been fussier than he was in the nicu.  The visiting nurse assigned to him said that was typical for the first week.  Oliver came home on oxygen, a feeding tube, and a pulse ox monitor.  Our living room is full of cords and tubes.  He's doing just great holding his O2 sat, which we expected.  He's still having a really hard time with bottle feeding though.  As of right now he's taking about half of his food by mouth.  The remainder he gets through his feeding tube via a pump.  It's been challenging to learn all the extras that came home with him, but the most challenging is trying to feed him.  He wants to eat by bottle so bad, he just struggles with it.  But he almost instantly starts choking, and it scares him, and then he doesn't want to try any more.  We're hoping he grows out of these difficulties.  If not, his NICU doctors suggested when he has surgery to repair a hernia, he also gets a gtube placed in his stomach for more direct feedings.  I really, really hope he starts to get the bottle soon so that we don't have to go that route.

Oliver was on a really good sleeping schedule in the NICU, and I'm hoping he sticks to it.  So far he's been a little off, but again it's his first week and I'm assured that's normal.  I get next to no sleep when I try to sleep near him: he's loud.  He grunts almost all night long.  I'm sure I'll get used to it in time, but right now, I'm one tired mama.  Luckily David is able to take baby duty on the weekend nights since Oliver isn't breastfeeding, so I get a little more sleep. 

One thing we didn't bring home from the NICU with Oliver that we could really use is his day nurse, Veronica.  We're just going to have to figure out how to do all this ourselves.

The weather here has been beautiful this weekend, so we were able to get Nathaniel out of the house and over to the park.  He found a soccer ball, and couldn't have been happier.  One of his current favorite words is happy, so he runs around singing "happy, happy, happy."  He's such a good boy, and is going to be a great big brother.  Just as soon as he learns the meaning of "gentle."

Oliver says he's happy to be home

20 weeks, one day left to go

In the past 4 days, Oliver has passed everything he needed to to get discharged. His room air challenge went well enough that he won't need to go home on a monitor (not sure I'm so happy about that). His car seat challenge went so well that he continued to sleep in it for an additional 2 hours. He has perfect hearing, and everything looked great for discharge. We had originally planned on taking him home today, the 15th, but after a little trouble this afternoon we decided one more night was in order.   I'm rooming in with him tonight.

But it's official, on Wednesday, January 16, 2013, my boy is coming home!

19 weeks, leaving the NICU soon

In nicu speak, today is "day of life 136."  136 days in the hospital. It looks like his stay will be ending on day 140. They have finally told us that we can bring our boy home.  Oliver weighs 9 lbs now, a huge change from his original 610 grams.

I had requested a week's notice of discharge, and was promised it, but yesterday I was told to expect discharge on Monday. We still have a lot to do around the house to prepare, and not a lot of time to do it. Oliver will be coming home on oxygen, so we need to have a concentrator set up. He will still need to be fed through a tube, so we have to get a pump set up. And if he doesn't score well on either the room air or car seat tests, he'll come home on a blood oxygen monitor. David and I still have to be taught how to use all these things, as well as go through infant cpr training. And we have three days to get this done.

All of this, however, is still dependent on Oliver's eyes looking stable at tomorrow and Monday's exams. As of this week, his eye dr felt he was at least a month away from surgery, and that he was stable enough to move to weekly outpatient check ups. That could easily change, but hopefully they're still looking that way

In 1-2 months, Oliver will also need hernia surgery. If at that time he still is using the feeding tube, his doctors are recommending placing a more permanent g tube for feeding. I'm praying this doesn't happen. Several nurses and even the physical therapist have said that getting away from the stress of the nicu can be enough for some babies to figure out eating. They did a barium swallow study this week, and it showed that when trying to swallow an unthickened feed, the milk moved towards his nose and close to his trachea before he choked it back down into a position where he could swallow it. The thickened feeds still gave him some trouble and he adds an extra step into swallowing, but it doesn't show the risk of aspiration.

Today should bring the car seat test (45 minutes in car seat, sats can't fall), room air challenge (he needs to fuss when oxygen is removed before sats drop below 80%) and an eye exam. If all goes as hoped, we should be on the final countdown towards bringing our baby home.

18 Weeks

Oliver is 18 weeks old now, or two weeks adjusted.  He weighs 8 1/2 pounds.  Last week David and I met with Oliver's medical team for a Care Conference.  We discussed the possibility of bringing him home even though he isn't eating by mouth fully yet.  Nothing could be decided for sure, since we were still waiting on another eye exam, but it was good to hear that we were getting close.

Oliver's eye exam was on Monday, and the left eye was looking great.  His eye surgeon felt that it still had several weeks before needing surgery.  However, his right eye needed action immediately.  While they had originally told us that the Avastin injections were one and done, they now felt that a second injection could possibly bring the right eye up to where the left eye had gotten to.  Or, they could go ahead and do the laser surgery on both eyes.  Surgery immediately meant that the frequent eye exams would be over, so we'd be able to bring him home as soon as he recovered.  But, it would mean a loss of peripheral vision that could be saved by waiting a little longer.  We decided that his vision was more important than bringing him home a couple of weeks earlier, so on Tuesday they injected the right eye with a second dose of Avastin.  Because Avastin is still in the research stages of retinopathy treatment, they can't give us any guarantees, but since the first injections helped so much, we're hopeful. 

As of his eye exam on Friday, his eye is looking like it's making more progress.  They will do another exam on Monday, and if it still looks good, we'll start discussing bringing him home. On Friday he weighed 8 lbs 11.5 ounces!

If we bring Oliver home in the next few weeks, he'll be coming home on a feeding tube.  He's still taking thickened formula for his bottle feedings, taking from 15 to 50 ml at a time.  Since he's now on a 4 hour feeding schedule, he gets 90 ml at each feeding.  So the remainder of what he doesn't take gets put through the tube.  Several of the nurses have said that almost as soon as the kiddos get settled at home they relax and get the bottle thing down right away.  Right now, every second to third bottle is given by someone different.  I'm there for his 1 pm bottle every day, David's there for 1 or 2 on the weekends, and then he has a different nurse come on every 12 hours.  They believe once it's just David and I doing all the feedings, he'll get the hang of it.