Ahoy, Matey.

Nate picked up Croup on Thursday. It seems like he's been sick more often than not in the few weeks that Lewis has been home. He's on the mend now, but, since Croup is very contagious, we've been trying to keep Lewis and Nate separate as much as possible. Its like two single parent families in one house. Anyways, Jenn tells me that Lewis had quite a busy week and even managed to fit in an appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist early this morning (Saturday).

Earlier in the week, Lewis had a followup with an orthopedist about his hips. There had been some initial concern in the NICU that he might have some hip problems. After a hip ultrasound and a consult with an orthopedist at Georgetown, he was given the 'all clear'. At least that's what we thought. On the discharge report, it notes that the hips continue to be an area of concern. So Jenn took LJ to the followup appointment earlier this week. That didn't go so well. The doc spent a couple of minutes with Jenn and Lewis and prescribed a pavlik harness, full time for several weeks. No new ultrasounds or x-rays. To date, we've been pretty good about following doctor's orders for Lewis. This time, we're seeking a second opinion straight away. Pavlik's harness was designed by barbarians to torture their enemies. Lewis wore it for two inconsolable hours before we changed course. It is complicated to put on and difficult to adjust. Despite claims to the contrary, you really can't change a dirty diaper around it. We're not about to use it as a prophylactic for a month, just in case.

On a brighter note, speech an OT got started in earnest this week. Now that Lewis is less congested, he's back to working on sucking to develop positive associations while he's being fed. We're already seeing a little bit of improvement in his sucking this week.

As we mentioned in the last post, Lewis' left eye was a concern when he visited the neurologist - it is crossed and not tracking with the right ere. This morning's doctor visit was the first to address that. The eye doc diagnosed Lewis with strabismus. The treatment is to patch the good eye and force the brain to use the eye that is not tracking properly. The good news is that the eye seems to be well formed physically, so there's a decent chance this treatment will correct the problem - he's supposed to wear the patch 2 to 4 waking hours (more or less all day, for a 3 month old) for a month. Luckily, it doesn't seem to bug him too much. We're off to hijack some ships. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for a good pirate name.