NICU Graduates

As preemies and NICU graduates our kids are under additional observation for a variety of delays.  One slight concern they have for children born early is eye and vision developmental delays.  Another concern is general developmental delays.  As preemies our kids are just at a higher risk for these complications.  So Friday we had two doctors visits as part of our NICU graduates program.  The first was the eye doctor.  They passed their eye exams in the NICU with flying colors so we had very little concern, but better safe than sorry.  Kelly went with me to help coral the kiddos and it was solidly a two person job.  Now that they are all walking we have to really work hard to keep them from:

a. Wandering off

b.  Getting into something they shouldn't

c.  Hurting themselves

d.  Getting kidnapped

So we arrived at the appointment and I had 12 pages of information to fill out (4 a piece) while we waited, which means Kelly had to coral them solo.  Then we went back and saw the nurse for some preliminary testing and to get their eyes...DILATED!  Honestly, I didn't know that was going to happen and was actually kind of funny...to us.   

After the first visit with the nurse we had to go to another waiting room to allow time for the dilation to take affect.  Jack was ready to go and tried to excape several times. 

I think Carter's eyes were the most dilated, when they reached their peak (did not get a picture of that) it looked like he had black eyes. 

Addie and Jack have very similar eye color so theirs was not AS bad as Carter's

After waiting in the darker waiting room we saw the doctor and he said their vision and eye devlopment looked great and we did not need to come back unless something changed.  So that was excellent news. 

After spending 2 hours at that appointment we drove around and let the kiddos sleep then headed to the next appointment.  I think I said earlier in a post that we rarely get them off schedule...well on Friday we did.  We felt that sleep was more important than eating so instead we took snacks and sippy cups to the Child Study Center to allow for maxium sleeping.  The folks there are so nice and a good source of encouragement for me.  They said that all three are doing great and we do not have to go back for another YEAR! 

This weekend my dad was over a bit and it is so funny how much Jack loves him.  He wants my dad to hold him, he cries when my dad leaves, he wants to wear my dad's hat, he is just drawn to his Poppy! 

Carter woke up from his nap first on Sunday to find Uncle Lance visiting.  He was excited to show off all his walking skills to Lance. 

Pretty Adelaide with her special puzzle pieces.