Lucy got a new splint yesterday made by the occupational therapist. They don't often have to make splints this little! She manages to get her hand out of the straps pretty quickly though so they might have to make some more modifications. Lucy will likely need to wear this for a few months, her arm is fine after the surgery, but her wrist is droopy & she doesn't move it much. They recently did an ultrasound and determined that she still has her blood clot, even after four weeks on blood thinners. The doctors have given her an additional medication to help the effectiveness of the blood thinner, & hopefully this will work. On Tuesday, Lucy will have surgery on her eyes. She has developed to stage three retinopathy of prematurity, which can lead to vision troubles and potentially blindness. This was not unexpected as one of the causes is high, uneven levels of oxygen. Whenever Lucy was sick she needed a lot of oxygen support and the levels often went up and down quite dramatically. It is a laser eye surgery and in the majority of cases halts the progression of the disease.
Lucy stays awake for hours at a time. We bought her a mobile to have something for her to look at and listen to - she seems to enjoy it quite a bit. One of her nurses calls her "nosy," always wanting to know what is going on. In this last 3 days, Lucy has started to learn how to nurse and she is doing a great job. She is now 4lbs9oz - starting to really grow!
Ella is still not able to take any milk yet, but we are waiting on some test results today that might allow her to slowly restart her feeds. One of the worries over the last week is that her bowel might tear, but that seems to have been avoided. If her bowel had perforated it would have meant surgery and a very long recovery, so we are very thankful. Unlike her sister, Ella loves to sleep. We only see her eyes a couple of minutes at a time when she is being changed or bathed, although she does her best to sleep through those disruptions as well! She continues to grow and is now 6lbs3oz! It is hard to believe we have a six pound baby! She has a double chin and lots of rolls. Her eyes will be checked next week and we will know then if she needs to have surgery(at her last 2 check-ups she was only at 1/2 stage retinopathy & holding).