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.