Green Lights to GO!

We are ready to go on our first family road trip tomorrow! We have seen all of our doctors in the last week and each of them gave us the green light to go.  Everyone is so impressed with how well they are doing, it is almost too good to be true...

Yesterday, they went back to the eye clinic and repeated those dreaded exams.  We ALL survived:)  And the exam showed completely normal development and no risk for retinopathy of prematurity (one of those big items on our risk checklist).  We do not have to go back to see them for one year, which is wonderful. And when we do go, the exam will be nowhere near as invasive.  They will need annual exams until around the age of 8 though, as preemies are at greater risk for developing vision problems.  No big deal.

Today, we headed to Georgetown to followup with the NICU clinic and download Paige's monitor.  Our wishes came TRUE and we officially disconnected her for good at 1pm today!  She did not have one real event in the last month - so proud of our girl!  They both got weighed today, as well, and we learned that Andrew now weighs MORE than his sister!!!  He is amazing.  She weighs 8 pounds 11.6 ounces and Andrew weighs 8 pounds 12.4 ounces.  We are all a little nervous about the fast pace they are gaining though, so we are backing off on both of their calories - we don't want super fat babies!  They also want Andrew off one of his reflux meds that has a nasty list of side effects.  While his reflux is still miserable for him, I am not crazy about the drug either.  We are going to try adding rice cereal to weigh down the milk and slowly back off on the unwanted drug.  If his symptoms get worse, I'll call them and there are a couple other options we can try.  Eventually, he will outgrow the reflux, but this could take a while...

They both were super alert during their appointment, too, which impressed the clinic team.  We did a quick developmental screen and they seem to be slightly ahead of their adjusted age (3.5 weeks).  We all hope that they will slowly advance faster than their age to catch up completely by a year or two.  They will go to the developmental specialist in mid-February though, and she will do a thorough exam and outline goals. 

I know I'm behind in pictures -- we will post some new ones while we're down at the beach.  Wish us luck on our first road trip - we are hoping for sleeping babies, little traffic, good weather, a clean McDonalds or two for diaper changes, and a decently rested mom and dad for a safe drive and memory to bring the crazy amount of things we need!