ex machina
the eric update - day 34: no ROP (yet)! a kilo! wet dogs. and flowers.
eric seems to be stabilizing quickly. he only had 6 alarms today, which is a lot better than the 36 he had just a few days ago - and many of those alarms were induced the nurses "meanie" sessions where they due all manner of not fun things to him. and he's continuing to pack on the weight; tonight he weighed in at 1020 grams which is 2 pounds 4 ounces and means that he's finally, officially hit the kilo mark! hooray! his breathing also seems to be getting more regular and stronger, which means that they'll probably try to put him back on the nasal cannula soon.
we were also surprised to find that his eye specialist came by for eric's initial visit to assess whether or not he any signs of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). we were surprised because we weren't expecting to see the eye doctor for another week or two. i guess they like to check micropreemies early and often. the absolutely fantastic news is that the doc says that his eyes are "perfect" right now! that said, the doctor cautioned us that it's nearly a certainty to see some manifestation of ROP in a micropreemie, so they are going to keep a close eye on him ( ahem! it's an eye specialist joke! ) in the coming weeks.
other than that, all was quiet on the nicu front. we still haven't been able to resume the kangaroo care, but hopefully that will change over the next day or so.
and i have photographic proof that kris and i are trying our best to regain some semblance of our normal schedule. today, we had a little free time and we went to the dog park. our city isn't very dog friendly, in terms of official dog parks, so we had to become members of a private dog park; prior to eric's birth we were dog park "regulars", but haven't been able to find time recently for all the obvious reasons, much to the dismay of our two dogs. so, today, we were finally able to enjoy a little time away from the nicu with the dogs.
and we even stopped to smell the flowers. even if they weren't roses.
8/07/2004 11:34:00 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Awesome news and beautiful photos! Just what I like to see on Eric's 5 week birthday. :)
C
By 
, at
8:01 AM
Great news on the morning of his 5th week birthday!! Good to see that you and Kris (and the dogs) were enjoying a beautiful day at the park. The pictures were beautiful as always. I did notice that you were able to get that macro lens you were hinting at. Perhaps now we can all see the close-ups of Eric IV's eyelashes...I am hoping that today you will walk in and be able to start the Kangaroo care again. Oh yea...I will have to get a BC sweatshirt in the mail too...can't have him just wearing a Penn sweatshirt. The boy has to have options...LOL. All my love. Monica
By , at
9:13 AM
Great news on passing the kilo mark! When did you EVER think we would cheer for a Snowdeal to GAIN weight [except maybe 30 years ago :-)]? I also know that I have trouble breathing when I gain weight. Maybe E4.0's rapid weight gain is affecting his a's & b's?
Hope you smelled that particular flower veeery carefully ;-) I know we all are going to enjoy your macro lens... but what do I get you for Christmas now? I am sure you can start a list, eh? LOL Dad
By , at
10:31 AM
thanks and thanks! yeah, i did end up getting the macro lens. i can't go spending a $1,000 on a top o' the line nikon macro lens, so i had to compromise and get a quantaray 50mm macro ( it's a little known fact that quantaray 's are just rebadged sigma lenses, which is nice because sigma is know for their quality ( good for your average hobbyist, but certainly not the same as the gold standard nikon lensess ).
the piglet photo was taken with the lens, but not while in 1:1 macro mode ( where the photograph is the same size as the subject - e.g. see "aphids munching), the results were pretty good, but as always, it's tricky in the low-light nicu conditions to get a good shot. maybe soon we'll be seeing a nice shot of his eyelashes :-)
Funny, we were at the dog park today, too...
Andy's first ROP exam was excellent. As stated before, not so good after that. I pray this (and other issues) do not come about.
I did a lot of research on the Doctors before Andy got to that point, so I know that the people that worked on him were the best available. We had some surgeries (laser) in the NICU, and some once we got out. We would have traveled to Mayo if needed to get good treatment.
Andy's current eye surgeon/doctor just moved here last year from the University of Michigan. If you want to bounce names off of him for an opinion, I would be happy to make the connection. Again, not that I want it to EVER get to that point.
Happy 5 week Birthday, Eric IV! Rest up this week and grow, grow, grow. I can't believe that you are a whole kilo! Love, Gwanmanman Sherry
P.S. Eric, I have a quantaray tech-10 macro lens (70 - 300mm) 1:4-5.6 Macro for my minolta. I got it about 5 years ago for around $120 and it's been great. Even for your techno-idiot Mom. I know you'll get a lot of use from the lens.
By , at
6:26 PM
Andy's current eye surgeon/doctor just moved here last year from the University of Michigan. If you want to bounce names off of him for an opinion, I would be happy to make the connection.if and when we get to that point, i'll be sure to take you up on your offer.
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this site chronicles the continuing adventures of my son, odin, who was unexpectedly born on the fourth of july at 25 weeks gestation, weighing 1 pound 7 ounces.
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