After The Tenth..... When The Fun Really Begins

There are times in a parent's life where you have to decide whether to be an activist on behalf of your kids or to just follow what everyone tells you to do. I'm hoping that we always find the courage to be activist; and this week we were. Annie took Laney (and Macy) to get their eyes checked today at Nova. Conventional wisdom is that preemies eventually all catch up by age two and we should be patient with Laney, but if we can be proactive and check a few things out, then why not?

The medical profession typically waits until 6 months to perform eye tests and I'm sure there is a good reason for waiting, but we just weren't ready to wait. Preemies are prone to eye issues and her visual signs aren't quite matching what they say she should be doing based upon her adjusted age. Annie spoke with the Ophthalmology department at the Nova medical school and they were totally open to checking Laney out even though she's only 4 months. Since Macy was going to be there anyway, we had her checked out as well.

I wasn't able to attend the test, so I'm going to try and relay the events as they were told to me. You've all heard of the South Beach Diet, right? Well, when Annie arrives at the clinic, she's met by the South Beach Doctor (on a budget). The doctor was dressed like he planning on leaving work after the test, to try and get past the red ropes at a cheesy South Beach club. Luckily his attire had no correlation to his doctoring skills and his patience. At the beginning of the visit, Macy refused to look at him, so he began making animals sounds to try and entice her. While making bird sound, reinforcements arrived and also tried to entice Macy to participate.

One of the two late arrivals was a young doctor who was overly excited to test out his skills on a newborn. If these doctors were out in the real world, they would have earned their pay today. But since they were students, they just got some great work experience.

Once Macy warmed up to the doctors, she really gave them a treat. First they performed a set of tests and then they had to repeat the tests with dilation. To get the pupils dilated, they had to add drops that burned. Annie asked Macy to lie still and promised her chips and her binky. So as they began applying the drops, Macy just lied there sucking on her binky and when they were done, she pulled out her binky and calmly asked for her chips. The supervising physician kept comparing Macy to her own 2 year old and was continuously amazed at her behavior and maturity. Go Macy!!!

Laney, on the other hand, couldn't be bribed with chips and binkies and wasn't as cooperative. One of the doctors took Macy out of the room with her, since Laney's crying was upsetting her. In the end they both made it through their tests and the results were basically positive. Macy's eyesight is fine, which didn't surprise us. Laney's test didn't result in any final conclusions but they did determine that structurally everything is perfect and while she's not as advanced as they would like at this time, there is nothing to be concerned about. The suggestion was similar to other answers we've gotten and that is that Laney just needs some more time. They did ask for us to bring her back in 2 months for a follow-up, but I'm confident that they'll notice a marked improvement in her as I'm noticing improvements every few days.

As a reward for sitting through my story, here are a few pictures of the girls from their eye test visit:

Quick update out of the Sznitken household: Things Are Still Hectic!! (big shock there)

Laney is coo-ing more an more each day and is continuing to show signs of development. Things aren't happening quite a soon as we would like, but we know the pace will quicken over time. Today was the first time I saw her really lift her head way up while doing "tummy time", which brought a big smile to my face. She is tracking auditory sounds well; visually she is still catching up. Our feeding concerns are a thing of the past as she's shot past 12 pounds.

Macy is also showing tons of developmental advances and now makes a smacking sound when she gives you a kiss, usually at the right moment, but not always. Sometimes she smacks her lips moments before she actually makes contact.

In a real surprising move, Macy used her potty to go number 1 three nights ago. I'm not really up on the timing of things, but I have to believe that 20 months is pretty early to use a potty. She was going diaper free in the house and made motions to Annie that she might be ready. Annie took her down the hall, let Macy sit on her potty and away she went. Don't get me wrong...we are no where near ready to potty train her, but for one night she was really a BIG girl. (I wrote this paragraph a few nights ago and didn't get a chance to post it until tonight before I could post, I have an update) Last night Macy used her potty again. This time she marched down the hall; sat down and started to go almost right away. My daughter is a bathroom genius! 

In a completely unrelated matter...it seems that South Florida is officially out of Hurricane Irene's "Cone of Death" as it is commonly referred to down in these parts. The models show us getting some wind and some rain in the next two days, but nothing to write home about. Seems like she's going to spare us, but might cause some problems for our friends in the Carolinas and possibly even on the Island. Here's hoping everyone stays safe and dry...... 

Grandma has inspired me to break out my Photoshop skills (as limited as they are) and "touch up" some of our photos. So in honor of that, here are some post-production images.