Cardinal Cadette actually kept the surgical dressing on this time until Dr. Lipsky saw her this morning.  (Not the eye shield, but at least the dressing.  He said he made it more compact this time.)  So now we do the eye drop regimen again, and she can see out of her left eye now — at least some, but she won’t be wearing her contact lens in that eye for at least a week until Dr. Lipsky checks it again.  He checked the prescription of her lenses while she was under anesthesia, and it sounds like the pair we get next month will be a bit stronger.

The eye looks more sore and tender this time than either did with the previous surgery — but the left eye did look more tender than the right after the initial surgery.  It makes me really hate putting those drops in.  But at least today she’s not fighting me as much as usual.

Hopefully there will be no more surgeries that require an overnight stay.  Ideally, there will be no more eye surgeries at all.  (From the way Dr. Lipsky talks, I’m not so sure of that.  He says he thought about our Cardinal all night.  I know he’s concerned about glaucoma.  It’s a standard risk of cataract surgery, but she seems to be at higher risk because of how small her eyes are.  So far no sign of it.)  But if we can go at least 8 weeks before we need another one, we should be able to do it as an honest to goodness day surgery — in and out.  We know surgery to remove her extra toes should be in and out in a day like Agent Murphy’s was.  We’ll have our initial consult with the orthopedic surgeon in late October, and she’ll be plenty old to not need overnight observation following anesthesia.

Poor little girl has had to go through so much already.  And she’s such a good baby.

Tired is the basic state of existence right now.  And busy.  I’m calling our insurance company seemingly every day, so add frustrated to that.  Will be glad of the day when the mail doesn’t routinely contain a medical bill or statement of some sort.

Agent Murphy has had a veritable explosion in verbalizing, which is very good and lots of fun for us.  But he still has lots of work to do.

I have thus far managed to get Cardinal Cadette’s contact lenses in and out as needed.  Initially she had extended wear lenses so I was only dealing with them once a week, for which I was greatly relieved.  But that size wasn’t working for her and the size she needed to move to isn’t available in extended wear.  So as of Friday afternoon we’re dealing with them daily.  I guess at least we’ll get used to it more quickly this way.  Right now, we’re still at she cries, I cry…  Also on Friday afternoon we learned the Cardinal will have to have another surgery on her left eye — which means another overnight in the hospital for the two of us.  If her doctor has his druthers, the surgery will be this Thursday.  I guess if that doesn’t work, it’ll be next Thursday.  I have to talk to the surgical coordinator on Monday, and then we have to figure out what to do with Agent Murphy during the times I’m at the hospital and Mr. Tldz has to be at work.

Yesterday we had the complete baptismal rite for Cardinal Cadette, to round out the basic sacrament she received on July 4.  It was a nice afternoon visiting with a few friends.  Some were unable to join us due to other commitments, and some we never heard back from — including people who always respond one way or the other — so we’re hoping our e-mail invitations actually reached everyone we sent them to.  We are very glad Grandma and Aunt Katherine (the Cadette’s godmother) were able to be here from Chicago.

We’d been doing pretty well with the drops at home.  My technique got better and it was going along pretty well.  Then Tuesday or Wednesday the Cadette decided she’d had enough, and now she’s really clenching her eye shut and fighting me a lot.  It’s really unfortunate, too, because the left eye looks more sore and tender to me after surgery than the right eye did.  Maybe it’s just that she got the dressing off so soon.  It also looks more goopy than the right eye did.  But Dr. Lipsky examined her this morning and said the eye looks good and just to watch it. If the discharge increases, we’re supposed to call him.  Otherwise, we’ll see him in the office in a week.  Her contacts may be in by then, too.  (He was ordering them as he was walking down the hall after surgery to come talk to me.)  Heaven help me, we’ll see if I can get the contacts in her eyes.  He’s commented on how small her eyes are, even relative to other babies.  I guess I’ll have to pick my poison: try to do contact lenses when she fights me even on drops, or try to keep heavy glasses on her when she won’t even keep the little eye shield on.

Dr. Lipsky said that in 20 years he hasn’t had an infant get the shield off so quickly.  And while he was examining her this morning he commented that it’s amazing how much control she has already of her arms and hands.  Makes it challenging for us!

Next week we do it all again on the left eye.

Fortunately her doctor says “no harm, no foul” if she doesn’t keep her eye shield on — because it keeps coming off!

So I consider that my “dry run.”  Cardinal Cadette has a pre-op appointment with the ophthalmologist first thing in the morning, and then we have to swing by Scottish Rite for an anesthesiology consult.  I didn’t want that to be my first time driving in two months, while also sleep deprived.

And, yes, that means I’m settling into a largely sleepless (okay, spurts here and there) routine with the Cadette.  And that’s with nearly full-time help this week.  We’ll see how I do next week with only part-time help.  And then after that I should be on my own with both kiddos.  Yikes!

Our future for the next few weeks will be feedings and sleeping in snatches where possible, punctuated by a series of doctor’s appointments.  But it’s good to have our little girl home!

We arrived for Cardinal Cadette’s 3:00 p.m. feeding, which included a consult with a feeding specialist.  It was with the woman I really liked from the day before.  She observed both me and Mr. Tldz feeding the Cardinal and said we both did beautifully and our little girl didn’t have any problems during that feeding.  Cardinal Cadette and I moved to the nesting room starting with her 9:00 p.m. feeding.  When the nurse practitioner called she hadn’t explained any of this, so I’d thought I’d be camped out in the recliner in the Cadette’s pod.  But it turns out they have a private room/bath for these “nesting” sessions.  It’s still in the NICU and the little one was still on monitors with the nurses, but we were somewhat removed and on our own — a lot more like what it will be like when she comes home.  I fed her in the nesting room at 9:00 p.m., 12:00 a.m., 3:o0 a.m., and 6:00 a.m.  I had to pace her a few times when she got to guzzling, but mostly she paced herself.  And she didn’t have any desats or drops in heart rate during these feedings.  Maybe Mommy’s familiar heart rate, breathing, scent, and all that help her to regulate herself.

Although she did so well, because she had such a hard time Friday night/Saturday morning, they want to watch her for another day.  We’re hoping she’ll be able to come home tomorrow afternoon.  Oh, and I should mention that her cord stump fell off yesterday.  Hooray!