Bright Eyes

I forgot to update this amidst all the CPAP excitement (which, by the way, all of us on the CPAP are still rocking it) but the babies had their eye exams on Monday. Being born early puts babies at risk for something called Retinopathy of Prematurity (affectionately known as ROP), which is where the blood vessels in their retinas don't get to finish developing normally and can become "disorganized". ROP can cause vision problems at best, and retinal detachment or blindness if it is severe enough. All preterm babies are at risk for ROP, but especially babies with extremely low birthweights (um, check and check) and babies that have high oxygen reqirements for any amount of time (check there for Grayson too, from back when he was on the oscillator).

Needless to say, we were kind of holding our breath for this exam.

And while we were anxious to get the exam done and get some answers about the babies' eyes, the timing was horrible for it. The exam can be kind of stressful for the tiny ones, and I can totally understand why because their nurse gave me a very graphic description of the proceadure and I am SO glad I was at work and missed it. But I worried because when babies are so tiny like my babies are, stress can affect their respitory funtioning. And and I hated that this stress was coming so soon after their transition to CPAP - about 24 hours for Audrey and only 30 minutes for Grayson.

I was terrified that one (or both) would end up back on the venitlator.

They proved me wrong.

They both handled it with composure that would rival someone ten times their size (because seriously? I don't think I would have handled that well). The hated getting their eyes dialted but uh, does anyone like getting their eyes dialated? And afterwards they both bounced back well and settled down quickly and no one ended up back on the vent.

Oh, and the icing on the cake? Both exams came back well within normal limits. No ROP!

I should have never doubted my babies.