Eye exam

Cayden had his first eye exam today.  ROP (retinopathy of prematurity) is one of many possible complications preemies face.  The blood vessels of the retinas don't completely develop until just before birth in a full-term baby.  After a premature birth, they may not grow as planned.  If the retinas don't develop normally, it can lead to something as mild as a lazy eye or nearsightedness to something as severe as blindness. (Stevie Wonder's blindness is a result of ROP.)  Anyway, Cayden's exam showed that his retinas aren't yet fully developed but that so far, there aren't any signs of ROP.  He will have an exam every two weeks until his retinas are fully developed, so we're not out of the woods yet with ROP, but so far, so good.

In other news, at his noon cares today, Nurse Shawna didn't like the look or feel of his belly and she thought he looked a bit pale.  She mentioned it to the docs and they decided to play it on the conservative side, thinking maybe he wasn't tolerating the recent increase in calories, and dropped him back down to 24 kcal supplements for now.  When she did his 3:00 cares, she thought he looked better and by 6:00, better still.  I just spoke to the night nurse who did his cares at 9:00 and she said she thought he looked good, his belly girth was good, and he had good bowel sounds, so hopefully it won't be an issue.  I also just read something in my book, Preemies, that said, "After the eye exam, don't be surprised if your baby has a big tummy for a few hours or doesn't tolerate her next feeding.  [It can be] a fleeting result of the medicine in the dilating drops, which can slow down the movement of gas and food in a baby's gut."  Given all of the information, I feel pretty confident that this episode shouldn't be a big deal.

His weight had dropped a bit last night (down to 2 lbs. 13 oz.) but tonight it was up to 2 lbs. 15 oz.

Since I see him every day, sometimes it's hard for me to see the big changes in him. I see and am aware of the little changes that happen day to day, but the overall change doesn't seem as drastic to me.  My friend, Sue, came to visit us in the NICU this afternoon.  She hadn't seen him since very soon after he was born so when she saw him today, she was happy and surprised to see how much better he looks.   It's comforting to be reminded that in the past month, there has been such improvement.