Quick Update & Alabama Visit

All is good, I think everything is behind us now post-surgery. We did end up with another ear infection this week (I know, really??)... but this time we were given some simple ear drops to clear it up topically instead of oral antibiotics. This is a much better alternative! And he's eating GREAT, we are back up to 20 pounds (the number we just haven't been able to break since September). Gotta keep going and catch up further to appease the GI doctor though.

We got our last Synagis shot for RSV this week, did I mention these things are $2500 a pop? He's had 5 of them, thank goodness insurance approved us for this year, but we still have to pay $200 each shot. This will probably be the last year he will get approved. We may have one more month if RSV sticks around for the season another month, they will let us know. He really cries with this shot, so I'll be glad to be done with them. He has to get two--one in each leg, as soon as he calms down from the first one, they get him in the other leg.

We went back to the ophthamologist last week and finally had a positive appointment with her. I was happy Bran took him this time, I really despise going to this doctor. But she had all good things to say and remarked on his alertness, visual tracking, and just overall improved deameanor. We gave her a copy of the report from Dr. Roman (the CVI expert in Pittsburgh) and she was excited that we sought out this doctor and are working on fully understanding his condition and specific ways to help his vision become more functional. I need to share some of the comments from that report on the blog, we were very happy with it.

Lucas had his first dentist appointment on Tuesday, our little man. We noticed that his teeth started discoloring a few weeks ago, and they've really been slow coming in this past year. He has some that are about half way in and appear to have stopped. Preemies tend to have a lot of dental challenges to add to the list of issues, so I was really worried that he could be having missing enamal or decay issues (I've been scouring the Internet looking for answers again... I should know better by now... I had him diagnosed in my head with all kinds of horrible scenarios from looking up "discolored teeth"). But we got good news today, the enamel is just fine and the greying is just from too much iron, which is superficial and can be removed on our next visit. We weren't able to identify where he's getting the excess iron, but she said the greying could also be from antibiotics. She wasn't concerned about his delayed teeth, so that was good too. She did say the ones on the bottom may stay irregular in size though (they are three different heights several months after erupting). These teeth may not have been able to form properly due to being born so early. I absolutely LOVED this dentist, she was very sweet. My friend, Courtney, gave me her name (who has the 25 weeker too), they went to school together and have known each other since childhood. I'm relieved we don't have anything to add to the "worry list" right now and we get to go back for a "checkup" in 6 months like everybody else!

We took a trip two weekends ago to Alabama to visit Bran's family - he's hanging out on Mima's recliner in the picture above. Since Lucas and I couldn't make the trip at Thanksgiving due to his surgery, its been about nine months since seeing everyone. We had a very quick couple of days, but got to have dinner with Red & his adorable daughter, Arden; spent time with Jimmy & Joanne (& fam), and were happy Jackie and Bruce delayed their trip for the last Auburn game by a day to see us. We didn't tell Bran's grandmother, Mima, we were coming and tried to surprise her. We put Lucas in his car seat on the front porch and rang the doorbell. Here's a couple cute videos of our arrival and playing...

Special Delivery

Playing Pattycake

Kisses

Hanging out with Jimmy & Joanne

Lucas did all of his tricks for Mima & Aunt Betty