Only one more sleep til Christmas!
I don't feel organized at all really, it's just been so hectic with everything going on I havnt had time to finish my Christmas shopping!! So now we will be one of those silly people at the mall on Christmas eve frantically buying the last minute bits n pieces.
While I was pregnant with Lucas, I had visions of Christmas day with our little newborn and my sisters baby together. In theory we do have a 7 week old baby but his actual age is nearly 5 months! 21 weeks to be exact, and what a ride we have had in those months.
For anyone who has never been into a neonatal intensive care unit (nicu)there are 6 rooms at Christchurch womens. Room one being the very sick, low birth weight babies round to room 2 which is kind of a less attention needed room, then rooms 3,4,5 are babies born premature that need a couple of weeks of learning to feed and just getting bigger really. These rooms are also where Lucas would have gone on his journey around on his road to home.
The room 6 is the last room where babies are getting ready for discharge.
We never made it to anything past 2 as we transferred to Tauranga to live when Lucas was 35 weeks, but we stayed in room one for 9 weeks. The experience is that of a rollercoaster ride. One day your up, the next down..and I had a few of those down down days. There were days if pure joy too, like the day I gave him his first bath at 3 weeks old, the day he graduated to a cot from the incubator, the day I got my first cuddle and even the milestones which is something parents of full term babies would never experience such as...when our baby boy didn't drop his oxygen levels in the blood for 5 minutes or when he overcame an infection, when he coped off the ventilator and started breathing on his own! Now THAT was a huge one.
Anyway I think you get the point..
So our latest news. Yesterday we took Lucas to get another eye exam. Now these exams are just horrendous! They insert a speculum underneath both lids of the eye to pry it open do the ophthalmologist can have a good look. Each visit Lucas has to receive two lots of eye drops to dilate his pupils. This takes around 40 mins to do. Then the worst part.
Some mothers worry about a wee jab in their loved ones thighs... Piece of cake for us! Lucas has had more blood tests and jabs than the average adult. It never gets any easier though and I still cry every time they squeeze blood out of his heel while hold him screaming in pain. Now that he is getting bigger and more aware it's even worse!!
I'm rambling again...so yesterday he had a horrendous blood test before the eye exam. The nurse took 3 files of blood which seemed to take a life time, while poor Lucas absolutely screamed the place down. So this was traumatic enough and then on top of that his eye test :( I was beside myself. Lucky I have a wonderful supportive husband who is calm and optimistic most of the time.
So we paced the hall while Lucas had his test. I have seen him get this done twice and before anyone judges me for not being in with him, know that it makes absolutely no difference to him as regardless he screams the whole time. It's just too hard to watch and I'm such a wreck at the time. John agrees it's much better for both of us if we leave it to the professionals then we can comfort him as soon as it's done.
The doctor came out and the nurse handed us Lucas who had his eyes closed and breathing very fast. He told us his right eye looked 'lovely' and the retina was still attached Yaaaay!! And the left eye had improved a lot too! The retina had reattached also without surgery, but there was a small bleed behind the retina which will go away on it's own!
Best Christmas present wecoild ask for :):) still have another exam in Auckland again next week and then the week after in Tauranga if all still looking good. Fingers crossed!! I burst into tears of relief...did I tell you I cry at the drop of a hat now?
So now we can relax and enjoy our big family Christmas at mum and dads. Our first one as a family of 3 :) can not wait!!!
So to all my loved ones that follow our story, have a wonderful safe and happy Christmas from the Thomsens. I will post again after Christmas.
Jenna xx
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