Ending the year with a BANG!

Yay!  This year is going out with a bang!  Joshua had his last eye exam today!!!!  This was the first eye exam that I watched and I have to admit it was hard to see my little son's eyes pried open with paper-clip type tools and another thin tool being slid behind his eye inbetween his eyelid.  The ophthalmologist looked at his eyes for a while and looked at each eye twice which made me a little nervous, but when it was all said and done he said, "That's it!  They're fully developed.  He doesn't need another exam for a year!"  YAY!!!  I clapped and cheered.  What a relief!  That has been one thing that has been looming over Joshua for a while and I felt like he was doomed for surgery.  But praise the Lord we can move on from that!

In rounds, the doctor said to wean Joshua's flow to 0.5 at 100%.  This is VERY close to an amount that Joshua could go home on.  The doctor explained that we want to get him a little lower though just in case he were to get sick at home, then I could bump Joshua up without getting re-admitted to the hospital.  Fair enough.  So far he's handling the change well especially since he just got bumped to 1.0L yesterday!  Two big improvements in two days!

We still have a ways to go on feeds though.  He gets very, very tired and is too tired to take in the amount of calories he needs to grow.  I spoke with the doctor at length about feeds and Joshua's growth chart, fortified calories and mL/Kilo, ad lib and on demand feeds...and I'm glad I was able to clarify and communicate some things - we seem to be more on the same page now...at least until the next doctor comes on Friday.  Joshua has been taking on average half of his volume by mouth and half get gavaged through his NG tube.  Joshua breastfed really well today though which was a relief after this past weekend.  He's ending the year on a great note...Here's to a much better 2014!!!

Our nurse last night made a fun photo for us!