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.