Emilia's eye exam

Emilia had a Zone 2, Stage 0 result from her eye exam this morning. This is a very good result... meaning the blood vessels are growing normally in her eyes. However we still need to wait and see if the blood vessels will continue to grow normally into Zone 3 also. Her follow up exam is in 2 weeks. Hopefully her vision won't be impacted. I am just glad that she tolerated the exam well and has not developed ROP at this point.

Why is Stevie Wonder blind?

Why is Stevie Wonder blind? He was a preemie too, though only by 6 weeks, not 15 weeks like Emilia. Nonetheless, he had a condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). ROP is caused by abnormal growth of blood vessels on the retina of the eye, which in severe cases causes the retina to detach. Also, in the 1940's and 50's, a lot of preemies became blind because of high concentration of oxygen being blown into their lungs. At that time, they thought oxygen was good for preemies with breathing difficulities... little did they know that excess oxygen could cause ROP.

Tomorrow, Emilia will get her first - yes, the first of a series of - eye exams. The eye exam is to check whether she has developed ROP and how sever it is. Normally this is checked after 32 weeks of gestational age or 4-6 weeks after birth, so tomorrow is about the time she should get her eye exam. I already read about ROP a while ago and knew an eye exam was coming soon, but I cannot help worrying about it already, knowing that Emilia has been swinging a lot in her oxygen saturation level.

An angel sleeping on my chest

(Pictures from today's Kangaroo Care)

Even with the CPAP mask and hat, doesn't Emilia look like a cherub taking a nap? How does this littlest baby know she can put her hands together like that and sleep on them. This was one of the most beautiful and amazing things I have seen her doing.

I know... when you first look at NICU babies, they look pitiful and you feel sorry for them. With so many tapes, probes, mask, and tubes attached to them, they look sad. But after a while (for me it took about 3 weeks), when you look at your baby, you see only the baby, and all the tubes, tapes, wires, and IVs just disappear. You only see the adorable baby of yours and admire their little hands and feet all day.

This is the first time I have shared a picture of Emilia because I didn't want people to look at Emilia as a sick baby who needs sympathy. However, today I want to finally share because I think she is just so adorable as she is.

Emilia's daily dose of caffeine

Emilia gets caffeine popped in her milk everyday. This is prescribed in order to prevent apnea of prematurity. She "forgets" to breathe once in a while because her brain is still premature and doesn't know she has to. Babies in the womb don't breathe so it is understandable. If you know me well, you know how much I love coffee. Throughout my pregnancy I stayed away from coffee, coke, and even green tea. Because I am pumping milk, I am still not drinking coffee except decaf. But Emilia gets her own shot of caffeine... She needs that jolt. Sometimes I wonder - what was the point of all the efforts to avoid caffeine??

Week 5 Update

Tomorrow, Emilia will be 5 weeks old. Yes, her stay in the NICU is agonizingly long but at the same time, the time has gone fast in retrospect. I hope time just flies by for the rest of her hospital stay.

She now weighs 1.2 Kg. I am not sure about her length - probably the same.
She is on full feeds - 16 ml of milk every two hours. On average I make about 750 ml of milk each day, so I am still way ahead of her. My freezer at home is full and so is my bin the NICU freezer.

She is still on Biphasic CPAP. She has been doing really well on Biphasic. Much much better than when she was on the ventilator. She is getting 26-30% O2. Hopefully we can wean and approach the room air (21%). However she seems to have gotten a bit tired today. Her breathing pattern looked a bit irregular and also her O2 saturation was swinging so often, between 99% and 69%. She has had very few spells past 5 days.

I put some black and white pictures on her incubator walls so that she can look at them when she opens her eyes. Apparently simple geometric designs in black and white are the best at her gestation.

She's been sleeping a lot lately. But I can't complain because that's what she was supposed to be doing any way. Also the brain develops in the deep sleep state so I try not to disturb her too much when she's asleep.

Her cranial ultrasound result was not too great but Mommy and Daddy are not too worried about it. We are hopeful... and are ready to overcome any obstacle that comes with problems of her premature birth. We are happy that she's healthy and she is with us.

Looking at her through the incubator used to break my heart at first but now I am enjoying every moment with her. I hold her hand, take her temperature, do her diapers, wash her face, and take lots of pictures.

OH, we finally registered her birth. One month after her birth date. Her full name is Emilia Kaylyn Lee. She also has a Korean name too (예지, named by her paternal grandfather).