Olivia's Progress

You would not believe the change in Olivia after her surgery. It is amazing. She is grabbing onto her toys and shows interest in everything around her. She is also sitting up completely on her own for long periods of time. I continue to be blown away. How can this be? Well, I ran across the following article.

Babies' Development 'Catches Up' After Surgery To Fix Crossed Eyes

Here is one of Olivia's first attempts to sit up completely by herself. What a big girl!!

Monday, September 8, 2008 - Update

Crabby, crabby, crabby. Olivia woke up extremely irritable and has remained that way for most of the day. I ended up calling her eye doctor because her right eye looks just awful. As long as it's not actively bleeding or draining, I guess we're okay. Anyway, nine hours and two naps later, Olivia seems a bit more content.

We met with PT this morning and she cried during the entire visit. She wouldn't even roll over for her. I can't say that any of the exercises that I've done with her have helped. Olivia seems to do things when she feels it's time. Her PT does not believe that her delayed development is anything physical. She should be capable of moving, her mind just hasn't wrapped itself around the idea. I'm supposed to put her through the motions in hope that one day she will get it. I wonder sometimes how much doctors and therapists even know about 23 weekers since they make up such an extremely small percentage of the population. Are we expecting too much for her or not enough? On days like this, I feel defeated. I am dreading the upcoming RSV season as we will have to go back into hibernation (for hopefully the last time.) It's like a dark tunnel that I'm approaching. I'm still struggling with extreme fatigue and being stuck inside the house all winter most likely will not do much to help.

Sunday, September 7, 2008 - Update

Mommy and Me
Hangin out with dad.

Jumping on the bed!

Olivia's right eye does not look very good today. It is very red. They gave us this ointment to put in her eye four times a day, which we do faithfully. We are supposed to pull down her lower lid and put a "ribbon of ointment" along the bottom. That's easier said than done. When she's thrashing her head about and squeezing her eyes tightly shut, we are lucky to get some on her eyelashes in hopes that it makes it into her eye. Couldn't we have gotten eye drops as well? We also have to keep her from rubbing her eyes, which we can do when she's awake, but I don't know what she does in her crib. We could have gotten arm restraints, however, Olivia calms herself by sucking on her hand and the arm restraints would prevent her from doing that. Her doctor suggested putting socks on her hands, which we are currently doing. I'm sure that might help for a few minutes at least. It's hard to do because we're trying to encourage her to use her hands more. Any suggestions? I'm pretty stressed about the whole thing. Olivia, however, still seems to be her usual happy self which I am thrilled about.