"eye" 'm all stressed out

Mary Jane is censoring me on this one. I want to talk about how their eyes might pop out of their head at any moment. If they did, they would likely shoot out like tiny rockets across the room. She thinks I am being extreme. So I won't say that. Instead I will just tell you that the girls had another eye exam on Monday. We thought this would be the last one, cause they have done well on the others, however this one ended with more of a hmmmm then a looks good. When asked to explain that we were told they would really like to see their eyes again next Monday, because they are not developing quite as well as might be hoped. What does that mean? Heck if I know. Probably nothing. Cute coke bottle glasses are not guaranteed to be in their future because of this. (but dad is sure their eyeballs are set to go flying across the NICU.)

Meanwhile...the doctors are still trying to get a handle on Emma Jane's high blood pressure. They have her on a more long term drug now and have upped the frequency of the doses (though I think she is getting a smaller dose each time). This is something we want them to narrow in on sooner rather than later. They will not let the "h" word happen until it does.

On a completely different note. The girls room is finally ready. There is one other thing Mary Jane would like to get hung on the walls, but other than that...here it is

Should be a fun for them.

Blessings

"Weight" till Thursday.

Well, Emma Jane has yet to get her first dose of blood pressure medication. They wrote an order to give it to her if her blood pressure went over 120. And...like magic she was going up to 117 (still way to high) but not going over 120. Then they decided to write the order for if it goes over 110 and...she shot down to 107ish. It reminds me of when I was little. When I was a kid I almost got glasses. My vision wasn't so hot and they said next time they checked me they would probably need to get me glasses, and the next time they saw me...didn't need glasses. Then there was the time they were going to take my tonsils out. I was getting tonsillitis all the time and the next time I got sick they were going to remove my tonsils...and I stopped getting sick (for a while...these days I get tonsillitis all the time and Mary Jane wants me to get my tonsils out). I guess Emma Jane is just taking after her dad. For now....
Of course Emma Jane looked like this all day, and her blood pressure was only barely under the medication stage, so there is a good chance we'll be all medicated as soon as she wakes up. Meanwhile Parker looked like this all day:

Which I think was her way of saying: Medication? What's medication? I want some medication! Why can't I have medication? I'll raise my blood pressure....watch! Where's my pacifier? Where are you? Who are you? Want to see me poop? Hey what's that? Can I hold it? Can I touch it? Does it go in my mouth? Does it go in yours? Want to change my diaper? Can I help? How about that medication? Pick me up. Put me down.....

After a couple day self imposed sabbatical, dad was back to holding kiddos. Seeking to make up for lost time he went for two at a time.

You remember the old Charlie Brown book "Happiness is"?

Happiness is...two babies asleep on your chest.

If it’s not one thing…it’s high blood pressure

Emma Jane has high blood pressure. This is something we have been watching for a little while now. When the doctors first brought it up they joked that if it was Parker they would probably chalk it up to Parker being…well…Parker, but it’s Emma Jane, and it’s high even when she’s fast asleep. So the doctors have been doing all sorts of tests and stuff on her. They did another heart echo, and her heart looks fine. They did a full renal workup and found her kidneys to be fine. What it all comes down to is Emma Jane has hypertension due Chronic Lung Disease. As I mentioned a while ago (at least I think I did) the girls were on oxygen long enough to officially be diagnosed with Chronic Lung Disease. At the time I said we had no idea what that meant/would mean. We still don’t, but we may have just found the first symptom of that. For some reason that the doctors admit they can’t really explain, there is some type of link between hypertension in preemies and Chronic Lung Disease. Emma Jane is going to be trying out blood pressure medications over the next couple of days to find one that works well for her. She could be on it for days, weeks, months, years, or even the rest of her life. The chances are good she’ll be on it for somewhere in the years category. This isn’t great, but it’s nothing to fall apart over. Hey, at least now she has something in common with my dad, Mary Jane’s mom and dad, and just about all of the baby-boomers out there.
You go girl.