Abby news

Happy Monday Friends,
My soul has been touched deeply this weekend. The service for Emma and Madelyne on Saturday was beautiful, spiritual, and of course, extremely emotional. The talks, the prayers, the music and the love that was all around was amazing. It is so nice and so comforting to see how much our girls have touched so many lives in this short time. I thank each of you that attended and I appreciate your support for my family. There is no way....NO WAY.... we could have gone through this without you guys.

Now on to our little Abby. She is growing and eating and doing well. She is on a very low setting on the nasal cannula this morning. In fact, last night, she even had it taken off! That’s right! No breathing assistance of any kind whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Zip. The nurses wanted to see how she would do and she did pretty well. She was doing great without the cannula until around 10:30PM at which time she started spelling quite a bit. Nothing too drastic and some were self resolved, meaning she would all of a sudden remember to breathe on her own. So her nurse Jeana put the prongs of the cannula back in her nose and that light, little puff of air is all she needed. Jeana seems to think that she’ll do better today since there is typically a lot more going on in the room during the day which will keep her stimulated and remind her to breathe on her own. Her feedings are over 12 cc’s today and she is gaining around 20 to 40 grams every day. She weighs 1,310 grams which I guess is around 2 lbs, 14 oz! Not too shabby eh? Almost 3 lbs! So far it looks like good weight gain and not just water retention. She is getting these chubby little cheeks too which are ridiculously cute. We were able to get a few pictures while she was off the cannula and hopefully one of those will have a good shot of those cheeks. I’ll send it out later. The broviac (the PICC line or IV that goes in through her chest) is still in. How soon the neurosurgeon wants to put in that new valve in Abby’s shunt will determine whether or not the broviac stays in or comes out. If he doesn’t want to do this for a while, it will get taken out. I’d like to take it out…less "stuff" in Abby. The other factor regarding taking the broviac out is whether or not Abby is on "full feeds" which means that she is getting all the nutrients she needs from mommys milk and doesn’t need the supplemental nutrition we’re giving her through the broviac. She’s not up to full feeds yet, but she’s getting there. The shunt is still working well. The nurses measure her head circumference every shift and it has increased a bit but the soft spot is still soft and Abby is still doing well and acting healthy so they’re not worried.

Thanks again to EVERYONE for EVERYTHING.

We love you, but then, you already knew that.

Ryan and Kelly