Basically, Jack got tricked this Halloween. No treats, just eye surgery. Bummer.
To add insult to injury, he got all dressed up for the occasion with every intention of scoring some Snickers and Candy Corn. For this years outfit, Jack chose the ever popular Emily Puskar couture. Once again, the house of Puskar has done it. Their preemie hat line is tearing up the fashion runway, as you can clearly see below.
And you thought this was a political post, HAH!
Jack’s ROP progressed. He’s getting laser surgery as I type this on the hospital’s crappy COMPAQ from 1982. Basically, the surgery cauterizes the malformed blood vessels in his eyes, stopping the progression of the disease.
What does this mean long term? Well, as with everything, we don’t know. He will likely have 20/20 vision, with glasses, and will need to be in specs by the age of 3, maybe earlier. He’ll be nearsighted and will be a candidate for Lasik surgery when he has stopped growing.
He has alreadly lost his extreme peripheral vision (the kind of sight where, if you extend your arms next to you, you can still kind of see your hands), and he’ll never be a fighter pilot. Which I am cool with.
Update: The surgery went well. He will be followed closely for the next 10 weeks and may need a follow up surgery depending on the aggressiveness of the disease but right now, that doesn’t look like it will be necessary. Considering all of things that could have gone wrong in the past two months, a little near-sightedness I can live with…
Jack weighs 5 pounds and 3 ounces. He had his vaccinations. His eye exam is tomorow to check on ROP. I am nervous about it. Here is a photo essay on Jack’s afternoon.
1. Sneak peak.
2. Cross-eyed bottle action.
3. Milk drunk.
4. Stinky diaper.
5. The Nuk!
So this evening, I did something I wasn’t really expecting to do. It’s a right of passage that every father must face, and while I knew that I would be up to the task, I wondered if this day would ever come.
I am of course, referring to the unboxing and assembly of Jack’s crib.
It was amazing, and all joking aside, I really wondered if the day would every come. I mean, until recently, we didn’t want to have too much baby stuff in the house, ’cause if it went to the other way, I don’t think we could have faced a room full of baby stuff. But anyway, things are going pretty well, and so last week we bought a crib, and today I took the plunge and built the thing.
Also, today, at the hospital, while I was kangarooing with him, something big happened. Sarah saw Iris, who was one of our nurses while Sarah was in the hospital in the lead up to Jack’s arrival. Iris stopped by to ask if Sarah would speak with a couple that was in a similar situation to ours. 27 weeks pregnant and having a scheduled c-section either tonight, or tomorrow morning due to pre-term labor. They needed to see that there was some hope for them.
That really struck me. Jack was providing hope. Wow. We’ve come a long way.
I really wanted that to be the end of the post, but I forgot to mention that Jack is now a 5 pound and 2 ounce baby who is off the cannula. Also, I know that all you care about is pics, but I left my camera at work, so you’ll have to survive on just my feelings until tomorrow.
I find myself bone tired today. I fell asleep in the NICU holding Jack, the nurses thought it was funny, I was too tired to laugh.
I am sure that someday I will look back on the last 2 + months as a life-changing event and I know we’re living through something extra-ordinary, but right now I just want a slice of normalcy. Jack is the last baby of his “class” in the NICU. All of the babies that he entered with, Baby Jones the Baby Zahn’s and little Jackson & Quinn are long gone. It’s just us and I am not a fan of being alone.
Anyway, enough about me, I’ll snap out of this after a good long nap.
Jack is indeed back on the Cannula, but it’s clear that he still needs it to be comfortable. He’s “nippling” all of his feeds, which means no more Gavage tube, it’s all bottle from here on out. As a side note, anytime a nurse says “nippling,” you can just see Arch restraining a little giggle.
All the hard work that Jack is doing eating is keeping him from gaining weight and flipping over to the 5 pound mark. I suspect they’ll increase his feedings tomorrow and we’ll get to that milestone pretty quickly thereafter. Oh and Jack’s ROP is indeed progressing. While no one has said “yes” he needs surgery, we’re clearly being prepared by the neonatologists for that eventuality. The wonderful Dr. Klien has spent a lot of time explaining what the issue and why he may need laser surgery. That will be a seperate post as I am just pooped over here.
We’re almost there folks, it’s close, it’s just not close enough.