Tiny hand

Tiny hand
November 20, 2010 (one day old)

Lilypie Premature Baby tickers

Lilypie Premature Baby tickers

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

35 weeks!

As of Monday, Cayden would have been/is still considered 35 weeks along.  I've been thinking about how things should be right now - I should be hugely pregnant, getting excited that our baby would be here soon, and wondering when it would happen - day or night?  Would my water break in an inconvenient place?  Would he make it to his due date (February 28th, which is also our pseudo-anniversary, seeing as how we got married on Leap Day)?  I thought it would be kind of neat to have a baby for an anniversary present.  Guess I don't have to worry about any of that stuff now.  Maybe we'll get to bring our baby home for an anniversary present?

The big change on Sunday was that the docs decided to bump him up from 24 to 26 calorie supplement.  If he can tolerate it this time, hopefully it will help him pack on some more weight.  On Sunday, he finally gained some, up to 4 lbs. 7 oz.

Monday was an eventful day as well.  They increased the amount of breast milk he's getting at each feed from 35 ccs to 40 ccs.  I got to the NICU around noon and breast fed him.  He is doing so well with it!  This time, the scale said he ingested 11 ccs, which is reasonable.  After his noon feeding, Nurse Carrie gave him his eye drops to dilate his eyes for his bi-weekly eye exam, then we did some developmental therapy:  leg scrunches.  The therapist wanted to take it easy with him since he was having the eye exam soon.  After therapy, we snuggled up until I had to leave around 4:00.

Dr. Braverman did his eye exam after I left.  I called later in the evening to get the results, but despite the nurse's best efforts to explain them to me, I still had to consult my Preemies book for an interpretation.  Results are given for each eye in two parts:  stage and zone.  The stage ranks any developmental abnormalities on a scale from 0-5, with zero indicating no evidence of ROP and 5 being severe ROP.  The zone describes where it is happening.  The retinas develop from the center of the eye outward.  Zone I is in the center, where the blood vessels develop first.  Zone III is where the blood vessels develop last, around the outer edges of the retina.  Cayden's results were right eye: stage 0, zone III; left eye: stage 2, zone II.  So the right eye is in the clear, so to speak.  The blood vessels have pretty much fully developed and there is no evidence of ROP.  The left eye is still developing and showing mild signs of ROP, but according to the doctor, it's nothing to be concerned about at this point.  My book goes on to clarify that while the vessels are still developing, ROP can reverse itself and go away.  So since his left eye is still developing and showing only mild ROP, there's a good chance it will correct itself as it finishes developing.  If he comes away from this experience with no ROP, it will be one more big hurdle we've overcome and one more miracle we'll have witnessed.

And for one more dose of good news, he gained another ounce at his weigh-in Monday night.  He is officially 4 1/2 pounds!

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