Day 42 - Eye Can Go Home Soon?

Yesterday Milo weighed in at 4lbs 15oz. They weigh him every other day but I am confident today would mark his entrance into the 5lb club!

Today was the long dreaded follow-up eye exam. Milo was seeming to return to normal after the incident that caused us to find out he had anemia Monday morning but Shelly and I were both very worried that the eye exam would upset him like it did last time and set him back in his progress. He was scheduled for early this morning so I woke up and tucked my bed away so we would have room to move around and I could comfort him during the exam.

It was trippy to watch, they numbed his eyes and then levered them open one at a time with a tiny device. Meanwhile his nurse had him swaddled and held his head completely still and I tried to offer comfort the best I could by holding his feet. The hardest part to watch I think was when they put a tiny little instrument in next to his eye to move his eye into the proper position to see. These eye exams are done in a series and can sometimes take three or four but the Dr. doing the exam said his eyes are mature! She spent a couple extra seconds on each eye examining a different quadrant so we could be done with eye exams for good. Milo passed with flying color. It took about 10 minutes and he was less upset than he was the night before when we gave him a sponge bath. He was wide awake for a bit, had a really good restful period and was back to his normal self and ready to try nursing again in the afternoon. Looking back, it is kind of funny because I didn't even think to be worried about the results of his exam, I was preoccupied worry about his reaction to the exam.

We are settling into our routine here pretty well. The hardest part is feeding ourselves. We have a mini-fridge in our room that freezes everything and access to a communal fridge that works a bit better. We also have a microwave as our sole option for heating food and no garbage disposal (aka no good place to do dishes). Any time we are blindsided by the need for a meal we didn't pre-plan, we either order something from the cafeteria or have to venture out to get food. It is getting harder and harder to leave Milo. Even though the nurses always take good care of him, he is awake more and more and growing more likely to cry when he wants something. I worry that if we are not here, he may have to cry for a bit before anyone would notice.

Follow-up:
I fed him his bottle today. This marks his second venture into bottle-dom. He almost ate his entire feed! I think he had a couple ml left that he couldn't get out because it was the dregs of the bottle. We are so excited. He also gained 2.5 ounces since yesterday which puts him now at 5lbs 1oz. That is a huge weight gain and we attribute it to the fact that they aren't very good at measuring the amount of milk he gets at the boob so they fed him more than his allotment a couple of times.