Appointments

Im not sure if Virginia has been doing alot of growing in the past week or maybe her weight was down a little while she was sick, but in the past week she has gained 9 ounces and now tips the scales at 16 pounds.  Im hopeful that she will make it onto the growth chart for her actual age by her first birthday. 

Virginia was released by the retinologist back in May after 6 months of being followed for Retinopathy of Prematurity.  At our final appointment the Doctor suggested that Ginny be seen by a pediatric opthamologist to be checked for other vision issues that preemies are at risk for.  Despite her upset look in the picture above, she was a perfect patient and did very well during the exam.  The doctor noted that she does have some farsightedness in both eyes but nothing out of the range of normal for her history.  He doesn't need to see her again until she is 3!  Admittedly I spent part of the week worrying about this exam and the possibility of her needing glasses (how on earth do you keep glasses on a 10 month old?!), so I was quite relieved with the good report.

Virginia came with me to my Ob/Gyn appointment today.  She sat with my doctor  (who delivered her) while we hashed out all the different opinions from several different specialists regarding Virginia's early birth and how I may be treated should we decide to have anymore children.  After all of the complications before Virginia's birth and after, Heath and I are so thankful for his knowledge and skill. I often talk about the amazing care that Virginia received in the NICU but of equal (or more) importance to Virginia's outcome was the care that I received from my OB team.  They were realistic (even when realistic opinions were quite upsetting at 22 weeks) yet supportive and did everything they could to keep me pregnant as long as possible.  Most importantly, my doctor made the decision to take me in for my c-section before the emergency situation turned into desperate situation.  I firmly believe this is why Virginia was able to avoid infections and brain bleeds in those early critical days.

He checked in on Virginia often while she was in the NICU, but this was the first time that he held her since he handed off her tiny 1lb 7oz body to the pediatricians last October.