It’s been another really good day for our girl!  She is such a little trooper!!

We found out last week that her little hips are quite tight due to the fact that she spends her entire day (and night) all curled up in a little ball.  Because of this she isn’t able to put her leg down straight.  She can straighten her leg out – the problem is not in the knee, but she can’t lower her leg down from the hip.  It’s not a big deal, but she has to work on it by doing stretches every day.

Today her physical therapist came by to do her stretches and while they were doing that, the nurse came over to give her eye drops to dilate her eyes.  Poor girl. . .she was sleeping so soundly before they all started messing with her!  The reason for the drops was that they were doing the eye exam today.  If you didn’t see the update on the last post, this was a big deal.  They are checking for something called ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity). 

A little about that – (from http://telemedicine.orbis.org/bins/content_page.asp?cid=1-1809-1874):

Retinopathy of Preaturity is a potentially blinding disease which in the United States affects several thousand premature infants each year.  It was unknown prior to 1942 because premature infants did not survive long enough to show the effects of ROP.  With improvements in the medical care of the smallest premature infants, the rate and severity of ROP have increased.  The diagnosis of ROP is made by an ophthalmologist who examines the inside of the eye.  Premature infants qualify for eye examinations based on their birthweight.  Although the majority of examined babies will show some degree of ROP, most will not require surgery.  Nevertheless, premature babies require lifelong follow-up by an ophthalmologist because of their increased risk for eye misalignment, amblyopia and the need for glasses to develop normal vision.

Anyway, this was something that I had been very concerned about since she was born.  Luckily I was there when they did the eye exam, so I got the results immediately.  The ophthalmologist said that her eyes looked really good and that, as of right now, she is not showing any signs of ROP.  They will do another exam in two weeks, but he said that he doesn’t foresee that she will develop this due to her size.  I’ve said it before, but I will say it again – GOD IS GOOD!

She has also finally got her little voice back.  Due to the tubes that had been down her throat early on, her vocal cords were swollen and she just made a little raspy sound. . .until this week.  And let me tell you, it’s a beautiful sound.  I don’t want her to cry, but I sure love that sound when she does!

She is now up to a whopping 2 lbs, 13.5 oz.  and is eating almost an ounce every three hours.  On top of that she now gets one of those feedings in the form of the bottle instead of the feeding tube.  As she gets better with that they will replace another feeding with a bottle (and so on until all her feedings are bottle).  We are able to choose which feeding she receives the bottle, so we are there for it and allowed to be the ones to give it her.

We are getting ready to head back to the hospital soon and will keep the site updated as things are happening.  Lately (until today) not too many things were changing, which was a good thing!

Thanks for everything!!