Nov 4, 2009

Reese is on the right in both pictures!

Day 32 - 1 Month Old

We can't believe the girls are 1 month old today. Time is going by really fast which is good. Our goal is to have them home by Christmas. The girls are both doing great. Yesterday they had their first eye exam. The doctor comes to their bedside and dialates their eyes and checks for ROP (retinopathy of prematurity). ROP is caused by growth of retinal blood vessels which may result in scarring or retinal detachment. There are 5 stages of ROP (0-5). The girls' results were 0. The eyes are checked weekely until they are mature (Zone 3). The girls are at Zone 1 right now. Not sure when they will be to Zone 3 the doctor said it just depends on how the girls develop. They will get checked every Tuesday morning unitl they are at Zone 3. We will keep you posted. The awsome thing is, if the doctor sees that the girls have ROP, he will bring a surgical team to their bedside and do laser surgery. I was reading and Stevie Wonder was born premature and had ROP.

Reese: weighs 2lbs 14oz and is 16.35" long

Riley: weighs 2lbs 9oz and is 15.75" long

The nurses we have are GREAT!! I know I have said this more than once. Peggy is a nurse practioner. There are 4-5 nurse practioners and they work directly with the doctors and do all the procedures... Peggy is a Nebraska fan. Everytime I see her she talks about Nebraska. She was looking for a football that plays the fight song to put at the girls' bedside. She came across some N tatoos and told me she almost bought them to put on the girls. Instead of buying the tatoos, she bought them sleepers that are so cute. I had Tug (my brother) send me something OU to put at their bed and he sent me dice. It won't be long and they will be missing and something Nebraska will be in their place. Stacy (nurse practioner) comes by and checks on us everytime she is on shift. She told us she just "loves" our girls. We told her there are 50 babies in here, she has to love all of them. She looked at us and said, "love is a strong word". Last night, Amanda dressed the girls in matching onsies that I brought in. She went and found a blanket to match. Too cute! We are able to set up primary nurses for both day and night shifts. We talk to the nurses and write their names on a list. When the charge nurse does the schedule, they refer to our list of primaries and makes sure we get one of our primary nurses. It is so nice to have the same nurses all the time. They know the girls and they know us. This is very important to Tom and I. We know they are in good hands and are with nurses that are familiar with them and their medications...

We can't thank the nurses and doctors enough for what they have done and are doing for our girls!