Lots of pictures and appointments...

Hello all,

It's only Tuesday, but we've had a long, long week so far. Not a bad week, just very busy, and I'm super tired. We had a really good weekend which climaxed in Daxton giving me one more Mother's Day present...

Rewind 1 year ago to my first Mother's Day. We had been planning on trying to start Dax on CPAP trials after almost 2 months on the vent... Of course, Dax being Dax, he gets sick and we know ahead of time that we won't be getting extubated on Mother's Day. Oh well. We had Aubrie's memorial service the day before Mother's Day and then spent the night at the hospital so we could be close to our son... Needless to say, it was an emotional Mother's Day. At any rate, a very awesome doctor gave us a wonderful gift... We got to see Dax's face with NOTHING on it for the first time. Of course, he turned really purplish blue and had to be reintubated, but, still. We got to see his face. Every purple inch of it. What a special time. Soooo, for Mother's Day this year I took everything off Dax's face and for the 2nd time ever, we got to see all of his face. And it didn't turn purple :) What a difference a year makes, eh?

Oh, and I should mention here we heard this weekend that we finally, definitely, positively, will be getting our house. Should be closing the first week of June... I'll believe it when I see it, but... We'll see. Actually getting my hopes up this time!!!

So, fast-forward to Monday, Dax had his first cardiology appointment since his cath and his echo looked fantastic. That coupled with the info we now have from the cath=no more monthly visits to cardiology :) We're down to every two months now, whoo hoo!

So after that visit, Dax went on his very first grocery shopping trip. (Isn't this exciting reading?) I opted for Publix since it's less crowded, and I bleached down the shopping cart, covered the handle with a blanket, and keep clorox wipes with us to wipe down anything he might touch. All in all, a totally normal grocery run :) Oh, except that Dax was completely drenched in pity by the time we left, and an extremely precious little boy laid his hands on Dax and prayed over him in the check-out line. Other than that, totally normal...

Funny, I forget that other people see him as sick. We don't see him anymore... He's normal to us... It's all these kids without tubes that freak us out...

At any rate... Here's picture proof I actually let him to go the grocery store...
So, finally, today we had two appointments, one for me and Tyler, and the other for Dax. The day started off FANTASTIC, since I had to be NPO before my appointment and I, of course, woke up around 1:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. Just in case you're not aware, I don't do well not eating. I didn't grow this belly by counting calories!

(And this is an old picture btw... It's much bigger now!)


At any rate, I had a glucose test done this morning and we'll find out the results later on. As far as Tyler, he looks great and the stenographer said my cervix was "beautiful." *blush*



We left that appointment and headed to Vandy for the much anticipated eye exam. Keep in mind, preemies have vision problems, long-term oxygen can cause vision problems, Dax has already had eye surgery which has led to peripheral vision loss, he has a potential diagnosis of septo-optic dysplasia (which had still not 100% been ruled out), and he has nystagmus (where the eyes dance back and forth rapidly) from his missing cerebellum. So, again, vision has been a concern of ours. After a very thorough exam which Dax did not enjoy, not even a little, we have the following info:
A.) The optic nerves are perfect=NO SEPTO-OPTIC DYSPLASIA (and I will drop kick the next doctor that brings it up :)
B.) Dax has already learned to compensate for his nystagmus by holding his head at a certain angle, which allows him to better focus on what he is looking at. There is potential for him to be able to overcome that as e gets older, but if he's still doing that in a couple of years, they can easily go in and re-align the eye in a way that will move Dax's best focal point to the center of his vision, so he'll no longer have to crook his neck. Sooo, that's good news.
C.) Dax's retinas look fantastic, and there is no concern for his retinas to detach due to his history of ROP. YAY.
D.) Dax will have peripheral vision loss from his ROP, but, thanks to his nystagmus, he'll never notice, since his eyes are constantly scanning anyway. Funny how things work out. And, finally,
E.) He is significantly near-sighted and we are on the hunt for baby eyeglasses so our little man can finally see the world. The doctor estimates Dax can see clearly about a foot from his face, and anything past that is likely pretty blurry. We tried on a few pairs today, but, believe it or not, there is apparently not a huge market for glasses for 18-lb babies. We did find one really cute pair we'll probably go back for next week... They're absolutely stinking adorable!


I'm so excited to see how much progress he makes when he's finally able to see the world!


At any rate, I think that's all our news for now. Again, it's been a busy couple of days... But good days:)


Wanted to drop a couple of blog addresses before I go... We sick-baby-mama-bloggers try to stick together, and there's a few out there in need of some prayers and support right now...


Baby Kennedy is very sick.... Please check her out at http://kennedybonomo.blogspot.com/
Baby Kayleigh passed away yesterday. Their blog is http://kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com/
Baby April Rose will be born any day now and is not expected to live... http://littleoneapril.blogspot.com/

And, of course, please keep on praying for Baby Payton and for fellow preemie moms Tiffany and Laura...



Thanks all! We love you guys!


And we'll end with a few more pics! (Finally got off my butt and downloaded some...)

Recuperating after my cath. Poor guy.

Helping daddy drive the boat.

Trying to figure out how to put the fishing pole in my mouth...

I'm such a happy boy!

Naked pool time with my rubber duckies...