Happy 3 Months, Abby!

Written Sunday Night, July 30th, 2006

Go Abby! It’s your birthday! Go Abby! It’s your birthday!

Saturday was Abby’s 3 month birthday. And she celebrated with a nice, rather uneventful day. She is still working on her feedings and while she’s progressing slowly, she’s not where we need her to be. Kelly and I are confident that Abby will eventually be able to take a full bottle every three hours eventually because she is taking more on average each time and she is beginning to take a full bottle more frequently lately.

Our main goal though is to get her home! And that means putting in the G Tube I mentioned in my previous update. The G Tube is a tube that will literally stick out of her side and go inside to her stomach. Each time Abby doesn’t take a full bottle, we’ll give her the rest of her bottle through the G Tube. It is temporary thing too, which is good to know. How temporary is anybody’s guess. That’s Abby’s call. So this week, Kelly and I will be discussing with the docs our options about when to put the G Tube in and the details that go along with that.

I don’t have much else to report. The eye doc hasn’t come by yet to do another follow up on Abby so there’s no news there. She is looking all around and you can tell when she’s looking at you, which are all good signs.

We love our Abby and her 3 month birthday comes with joy and sadness because we also love and miss her sisters terribly. And while today was sad as we remembered Emma and Maddy, we know we’re lucky to have our Abby, each other and all of you praying for us. We love you all and yes, we still enjoy the comments so please keep them up.

Have a great Monday and enjoy the new pictures.
Ryan and Kelly

Abby news

Written Thursday Night, July 27th, 2006

Abby has been doing better with her feedings the past few days but still taking her sweet Abby Time to get adjusted to it all. She’s averaging around 20 to 25 cc’s each feed and busts out every once in while and takes a full bottle, which for her is a whopping 38 cc’s. We need her to bust out a bit more frequently though, and that’s where our super favorite Developmental Therapists, Karen and Kathy, who call Abby "a burnin’ hunk of love" come in to play. They have decided to kick Abby into high gear. She now gets bottle fed twice, then one feeding via the nose tube thing, (called a core pack), then two times from the bottle and so one. Before it was two times via the core pack and only once from the bottle.

We’re stepping it up for two reasons. 1 – To help our Abby Girl get the show on the road. 2 - We’re running out of time and we’re running out of reasons to tell the insurance company that we need to keep her in the NICU. See, Abby is doing pretty well in every aspect except for feeding. Unfortunately, there is a way around the feeding problem and if her feeding issues are the only thing standing in the way of Abby going home, the insurance company will push for the docs to use it. That "way around it" is called a G tube, which is a gastric feeding tube that gets placed in Abby’s side and she is fed via this tube. Many have asked, "why not just send her home with that tube that goes in her nose since that’s how she gets her milk now?" Good question… The problem with that though is that she can pull that out and once it’s out, you can’t just shove those things back in and hope all is well. You have to get an x ray done to make sure it’s placed in the belly and not the lungs. I don’t have an x ray machine lying around my house and unless you guys do and can roll that puppy on over, that option is out. So yeah, it’s on to the G tube. Kelly and I were really hoping that with all Abby’s been through, she would be G tube free but it’s not looking that way. And frankly, we’re really warming up to the idea because we know we would get to take her home sooner. Besides, the G tube is a temporary fix and when she becomes too tired or fussy to take the bottle, we can use the G tube as a back up plan to get her the necessary milk she need. Many many little ones go home on G tubes and many live with them and are doing great. And again, if it gets our Abby home sooner, I’m all about it.

So there it is friends. G Tubes. Google that one for yet more higher learning if you want. I can’t wait to get Abby home. She is indeed a burnin’ hunk of love and I adore her more than words can describe.

We love you all!
Us

PS – To Karen, Laura, Jennie and Jeana, Abby’s primary nurses whom we think the world of…we miss you guys! We’re back in room 210 these days so hurry up and get back to work!

Abby update

Written Tuesday night, July 22, 2006

Okay okay!
So I lag. Yeah yeah, I’m sorry.
Anywho, let’s move onto Little Miss Magic. On Sunday, she continued to recover well from her shunt surgery and the same goes for Monday. The neuro team came down to check on Abby’s new shunt which is working wonderfully. She is doing okay on her feeding, which is now the biggest item on the list o' things for our Abby Girl. As you all know, she needs to be up to full feeds in order to come home, which means she needs to be able to feed from a bottle every 3 hours. Right now, we’re only giving her a bottle 3 times during the day and once in the middle of the night, or 4 times every 24 hour period. A "full feed" is 38 cc’s of milk. Last week Abby took a full bottle a couple times but spent most of her efforts only taking around 15 cc’s. Today, she took the full bottle in the morning, 20 cc’s at 2PM and 24 cc’s at 8PM! So, that’s definitely a step up. It’s not the full 38 cc’s but she is improving.

She is now back in the "feeder grower" room too, which is where they send the low maintenance babies. Abby is low maintenance! Nice huh? Let’s see, what else? Oh yeah, her eyes. Still nothing new and we’re not sure when the eye doc will come back to give her another exam. It probably will not be until next week. As of the last eye exam, the laser surgery was doing what they had hoped.

To all of you guys that we’ve met at CHOC, we love you all. The love and care that Abby has received there has been unbelievable. Thanks to each of you for all that you do and continue to do. I know we’re not out of the woods yet but Abby is getting closer to coming home. It’s actually starting to become a reality lately. We’re hoping she’ll get home in a few weeks, but we need all your good thoughts and prayers to get her there. Specifically, please keep her feeding situation and her eyes in your prayers.

Take care everybody.

Kelly and Ryan

Weekend Abby Update

Written Saturday night:

We got up this morning thinking it would be another good day with Abby. Boy were we wrong. We immediately noticed that Abby’s soft spot was a bit more full than normal. In fact, we noticed this the night before, but the doctor said it was still soft and felt fine. Kelly knew something was up though. Abby was lethargic and she had been pretty fussy the past couple of days, which are all signs that pressure is building up in her head. So we got the neurosurgeon that was on call this weekend to come down to have a look. At this point, Abby’s soft spot was even more full than the morning and after the doc tried unsuccessfully to pull fluid from the shunt by poking a needle in it and pulling back on a syringe, she determined that it was indeed clogged and needed to be changed. And just like that, Abby was headed down to the O.R. for brain surgery number 3. Nurses were running around, getting the mobile isolette ready to take Abby down in, preparing the paper work, making phone calls, and in about an hour, we were off to the O.R. Kelly and I couldn’t believe it. Our Abby was going into surgery…again. And that meant the breathing tube went back down her throat. We were scared for this because the last time Abby had a shunt put in, she took forever to come off the ventilator after the surgery. How long would it take this time? How would Abby recover? We’d just have to wait and see. After an hour or so, the neurosurgeon came out to greet us in the waiting room. The surgery went well and sure enough, Abby’s shunt got clogged, which is pretty common in the shunt world. The good news was that Abby was already off the ventilator and breathing on her own by the time we went in to see her after the surgery.

We got her back to the NICU and she was already doing better. With the pressure off her head, she wasn’t as fussy and she even started back on her full feeds at 9PM. We just called (12AM) and she is doing well. She’s comfortable and sleeping.

We’re hoping Abby has a better Sunday and gets back up on her bottle feeding. She’s our little fighter, our little Million Dollar Baby. Her strength and resilience is unbelievable.

As for me and Kelly, it was another emotional day. The roller coaster ride continues. I will say though, Abby has her sisters and her Father in Heaven in her corner. It’s not every day that a last minute surgery can happen as fast as it did today and on a weekend no less. A lot of people had to be in the right place at the right time to get Abby the attention she needed. Our thanks to all of those involved today and of course to our Heavenly Father.

Keep the prayers up that Abby continues to have a speedy recovery from the surgery, for her eyes, and for her ability to eat from the bottle.

And finally, SHE’S 4 LBS 8 OZ’S!!!!! Nothing can stop our Abby!
Enjoy the pics

Abby update

Good Morning Abby Heads,

So, where did I leave off? Wednesday huh? Okay then, here we go.

Wednesday was a good day for Abby. She was doing great with her bottle feeding. She was alert and looking around and things were peachy. Kelly and I went to dinner and came back at 8PM sharp because Kelly gets to bottle feed her now at that time. But we were stopped in our tracks! Abby’s nurse, Jamie told us the Eye Doctor was coming by in a half an hour to check her eyes. What??? Why so soon? No clue. But he was coming so we held off on the bottle feed and waited for Mr. Eye Doc to show up. Of course now we’re nervous. Did the laser surgery work? Will Abby be able to see down the road? Our minds were racing. And because this guy was late, Jamie had to put drops in Abby’s eyes to dilate them twice! The drops don’t hurt, they just kind of blur her vision apparently. Anyway, Mr. Tardy Eye Doc strolls in close to 9PM as opposed to 8:30PM and does the eye exam. It’s a horrible situation. A couple nurses held Abby still while the doc put this clamp thing to keep Abby’s eyes open. Kelly and I were across the room and could barely stand it to hear her cry and scream. But it was over after about 5 minutes and the eye doc was happy to report that so far, everything looked good. He gave the following analogy; "The laser surgery’s job is to block the forming of any more blood vessels, like a wall of sand bags blocks rain in a storm. You stack up the sand bags and hope that the stack is enough to do the job. We’re hoping that the laser surgery is enough to do the job with Abby’s eyes, and block those blood vessels and keep them from growing." So with that, he said he’d be following up with Abby next week as well as the week after that. While each eye appointment will give us a better idea for how well the surgery worked, we won’t know for sure if she’s out of the woods for about a MONTH! What stinks is that Abby doesn’t do well after these eye exams. She was NOT in the mood to take a bottle at all after the exam. And that clamp thing irritates her eyes so they get swollen. It’s a pretty bad deal all around so we’re not looking forward to these eye exams in the weeks to come. It’s a necessary evil though I suppose.

Alright, so on to some good news. Abby seems to be responding well to the vital stim treatment to help her feed from a bottle. Even though she hasn’t taken as many cc’s of milk in the past few attempts, her quality of bottle feeding has been a lot better. She’s more calm, she’s awake, and she swallows the milk better after she gets it in her mouth. The developmental therapists have increased her bottle feeding attempts each day to give her more opportunities to learn. It will take a while they said, but she is making some good progress.

We’re definitely on Abby Time here. We can only go home when she can feed from the bottle 100% and only Abby will tell us when that will be.

One thing is for sure though, she’s more cute than she was yesterday and I’m sure she’ll be even more irresistible tomorrow than she is today.

Have a good weekend everyone,
Ryan and Kelly

Wednesday update

We have great news to report this morning friends.
For the past 2 nights, Abby has taken her full bottle! 37 cc’s both nights. And last night she did it without spilling a drop. As you all know from my last report, she is going through that vital stimulation or "vital stim" therapy and it is most definitely helping. Each morning, 2 little pads that are connected by a wire to a remote control get taped below Abby’s chin on her neck. Twice a day, the remote is turned on, and little electric waves stimulate Abby’s sucking muscles during her feeding. Ironically, she doesn’t do so hot when the vital stim device is actually on. The therapists are pretty sure it’s annoying her, but also know that it is working. For example, yesterday she only took around 15 cc’s from the bottle each time she was feeding while the vital stim was on. But it’s no coincidence that she’s all of a sudden taking a full bottle at night, so even though the vital stim is bugging her right now, we’re okay with that because it is teaching her to use those muscles.

Some more good news is that Abby now weighs 4lbs 2 oz’s! She’s doing great in that department. Her spells are still very few and far between. A few a day at the most. It’s a good day! Now if we can just get some news on her eyes! I hate waiting on that one. Kelly and I are so anxious to know if that surgery worked or not! But for now, we’ll take the good news on the feeding and continue to pray along with you guys that the eye surgery worked and her eyes are okay.

And lastly, today is MY mom’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA PAMMIE!
Tons of love,

Ryan and Kelly

Abby update

Hi Team,

Not much to report today. Abby was out like a light for the entire day. She didn't really wake up this evening either. She did okay on her suck swallow breathe coordination today but not fabulous. I will say that she's making progress though. While she still isn't taking the full 35 cc's from the bottle, her average has increased quite a bit. At first she was taking between 5 to 10cc's and the occasional 15. Now she's taking around 10 to 15 with the occasional account's. She'll get it. She's just on what I now officially call "Abby Time."

We still don't know if an eye doc is going to come by later this week or next week to examine Abby's eyes, but will be sure to let you all know when that happens.

Prayers for the eyes and her ability to feed from the bottle please. Lots and lots of them...!
We love you all.
I'll get some more pics up soon.
R n K

Sunday Night

Hello my friends,

As I sit here and type this update from my Blackberry, Kelly has our little girl in her arms. Its quite a sight! Abby is doing well today. Her eyes aren't nearly as swollen from the eye surgery and she is opening them up and looking around again. We won't know if the surgery worked for a couple of weeks though, which is frustrating for everyone. That's alright though because we have plenty to work on in the mean time, which brings me to her eating situation.

As we know, Abby's suck, swallow, breathe coordination is coming along slowly. She is now on a treatment called vital stimulation or "vital stim." The developmental therapist places little elctrode pads on her neck below her chin. These pads are connected to a remote control device with wires which send small electronic waves to stimulate the muscles Abby needs to use to swallow. So far it seems to be working pretty well. And today she took 16 cc's of milk with mommy holding her. That's a personal best for mom so she was excited about that.
Abby is growing a ton too. She is almost 4lbs!

That's pretty much it for now. The two topics of interest are her eyes and her eating. Please keep these issues in your prayers.

I know I've said this a few times but I need to say it again. Kelly and I are so touched at just how many of you check in on our baby girl. We got another glimpse of how far reaching the story of our three girls has been. We are lucky to have all of you and appreciate each and every kind thought and prayer.

All our love,
Ryan and Kelly

Abby news

Hola amigos,

A quick update because I’m pooped.

I left off on Tuesday night. So on Wednesday Morning Abby’s eyes still looked like Rocky’s after he fought that Russian dude in Rocky IV. She was very agitated and fussy just about the entire day. It was difficult for Kelly to see our little Abby Girl so uncomfortable. In fact, she even threw up so much that it came out of her nose and gave Kelly this wide eyed look that screamed “help me!” It was heart breaking. By the evening though, she got a little better and we were finally able to pull ourselves away around 11:30PM.

Today she made some more progress. Her eyes aren’t as swollen any more, she is a bit more calm and less agitated and overall, seems to be more comfortable. She doesn’t like to open her eyes though. She tries, realizes it still hurts to open them, cries a bit, then shuts them.

Abby also did some bottle feeding today. She took 13 cc’s in the morning and 16 cc’s with mom in the afternoon. As an FYI, a “full feed” for her is 35 cc’s, so she has a long way to go, but we’re getting there. Her spells were pretty much nonexistent as well which is a good thing.

Attached is a picture of her after the surgery with the CPAP back on. And the other one I just took tonight after we tucked her in.

I have to say, holding my little 3lb and 14 oz baby is the most peaceful thing I’ve ever done. My favorite is holding her so her head is on my shoulder and I can hear her take her little preemie breaths. It makes me melt. I’ll have to remember this when she’s 2, running around the house and screaming like a maniac!

Have a good weekend friends.

Eye Surgery Report

Tuesday, July 11th, 2006 – Eye surgery day.

It’s 1AM and Kelly and I just got home. The surgery started at 2PM and went well. We won’t know if the surgery was a success or not for a couple of weeks.

After the surgery is a different story. Abby was under so much anesthesia that she started to spell a lot. She wasn’t remembering to breathe on her own. They were pretty bad spells too. The nurses had to “bag” her quite a few times to get her heart rate back up. Finally, Abby was given some anti-narcotic medicine, which literally reverses the affects the anesthesia was having on Abby. Abby went from being free of pain and knocked out, to in a lot of pain and wide awake immediately. It was crazy. This was obviously better than her spelling but it was terrible to hear her scream. To make matters worse, the anti narcotic medicine didn’t really work. She only lasted a short while with her heart rate up, so the docs put her back on the CPAP ventilator to help her breathe. Not the little nasal cannula, the big CPAP. Abby hates the CPAP! She was miserable.

Kelly finally put her finger in her mouth to serve as a pacifier and it worked to soothe her for the time being. She stayed on the CPAP machine until 10PM. Abby had an IV put in to get some nutrients during the surgery and the nurse was able to take that out around 11PM and she started feeding again around 11:30PM. Only 10 cc’s of milk to start with, but she’ll be back to full feeds (34 cc’s) by tomorrow afternoon.

When we left, Abby seemed relatively calm and getting back to normal. Her eyes are very puffy and blood shot and have a lot of goop coming out of them. She looks like she just went 12 rounds in a boxing ring. Let’s hope the surgery worked. We do NOT want to do that again.

Thanks everybody for your positive thoughts and prayers.

Abby Scheduled for Eye Surgery Today at 2 PM

Update as of Monday night July 10, 2006

Alright Abby Fans,

Abby's eye surgery is at 2PM today, Tuesday. Prayers people. Pray like crazy. We’re told it’s going to take a few hours so it’s a big waiting game. I hope the eye doc will be able to tell us what his gut feeling is afterward and how he thinks she’ll turn out, but I’m assuming he’ll give me the old, “we’ll just have to wait and see” line. Gggggreeeaaaaatt!!!!! Another “wait and see!” Sweet. Super. Okay, so anywho, on to some good news. Abby woke up at 2AM Monday morning, chomping on her fingers, smacking her lips around and looking for food. So her nurse grabbed a bottle and decided to try bottle feeding her. She took 20 cc’s! A new Abby record. Her previous was 15 cc’s by the way. And she did great coordinating her suck, swallow breathe stuff too. Way to go Abby. But the nurses were right about this bottle feeding being a roller coaster too. At 11AM that same morning, she only took 2 cc’s. Then at 5PM she took around 13 cc’s mommy feeding her. Mommy was super excited that she was able to do this. Why you ask? Well, feeding a preemie is a bit of an art. Abby has to be held in a specific way, at a specific angle and straight so her tiny airway doesn’t get kinked, you have to watch her closely to see if she’s breathing, if she’s not, you have to pull back on the bottle to give her room to breathe, but don’t pull the nipple out of her mouth if you can help it, and on and on…. I’m supposed to give it a shot too some time this week too. We’ll see how that goes. So that’s all great stuff. She hardly spells throughout the day now and she poops like nobody’s business. She gets pretty backed up though and she spends a lot of the time grunting and even starts crying because she’s so uncomfortable. It’s heartbreaking to hear, but then all of a sudden, after her tummy has calmed down, she just falls right back to sleep. The bummer is that tomorrow, she’ll stop her feedings, go back on an IV, go through this horrible, irritating and painful eye surgery, and only after she recovers will we be able to get her back on the feeding schedule. We’re making such great strides lately and it’s so upsetting to know we have to put it all on hold. You gotta do what you gotta do though and Abby’s eyesight is obviously the most important thing on the list right now. We love you guys. Shoot some good positive thoughts and prayers to our Abby tomorrow.
PS – The Cow Outfit is back!

Abby news

Abby’s eyes are getting worse. The ROP or Retinopathy of Prematurity is basically abnormal blood vessels that form in Abby’s eyes. Sometimes these blood vessels just stop growing and no treatment is needed, but in Abby’s case they continue to grow and are getting bigger. If this continues, Abby can go blind. The treatment is laser surgery that will kill these abnormal blood vessels. The eye doctor says this works 3 out of 4 times. Abby will lose some of her peripheral vision from the surgery but it will preserve her central line of sight vision. The surgery will happen sometime this week. We’re not sure exactly when. Abby will have to stop her feeding and have an IV put in for some supplemental nutrition fluids after she recovers from the surgery. Thankfully, she won’t have to have the breathing tube put back in her throat, but this is definitely a big step backward.

Abby is also continuing to have a bit of trouble with her suck, swallow, breathe coordination. She is picking it up, but very very slowly. The developmental therapist has increased Abby’s bottle feeding attempts so she gets more practice. She is taking a bottle twice during the day shift, and once at night. On a positive note, Abby is still gaining weight each day, she is still breathing on her own and she’s getting cuter every minute. We really need everyone’s prayers…again, to get through this eye surgery. Kelly and I are both very worried about the whole thing.

Please pray that the surgery will go well and be a success.
Take care, Us

Abby update

Yo!
Abby Girl is doing well today. She didn’t have hardly any spells today and she made some great progress on her suck, swallow, breathe coordination. She took 15 cc’s from the bottle today and didn’t spell once during her feed! To back up a bit, she was only taking 5 to 10 cc’s before and she would spell a lot during the whole ordeal. She spells because when she sucks on the bottle, her mouth fills up with milk and she gags on it because she’s not sure what to do with it. Eventually she’ll either swallow it or spit it out. When she can’t coordinate everything, she gets stressed out and we’re told she feels like she’s drowning. How horrible is that? This is why we’re so glad that she is finally making progress on this. And as I mentioned before, Abby feeding on her bottle is a pre requisite to her coming home!

Tomorrow is Abby’s eye exam. This is another topic we’re anxious about. Our hope is that the ROP hasn’t gotten worse. There is a possibility that the ROP can cause Abby to go blind. She is a stage 2, grade 2 right now, which isn’t "that bad" from what we’re told. It is common that the ROP will stop on it’s own and Abby’s eyes will continue to grow. If the ROP doesn’t stop, there is a laser surgery that will happen but that only has a 50/50 chance of working.

Other than that, Abby is doing really well. Her shunt is working well. She is gaining weight and her tummy and kidneys and heart and lungs and everything else are working well. Oh! She’s back in her old room! She actually moved back there the SAME day she was moved to the quite, not so sick room I mentioned a few days ago. As it turns out, she wasn’t THAT healthy. Hilarious. It’s not a big deal. Abby is still having a few spells a day, and apparently to be back in the "feeder / grower room" Abby has to be pretty much spell free. That particular day she was quite fussy and had a lot of spells. We’re happy about it though because we like all the parents in her old room and enjoy it there more.

As promised here are some more pictures.

We love ALL OF YOU. POP IN TO SAY HELLO ON THE SITE!!! IT'S STILL SOMETHING WE VERY MUCH LOOK FORWARD TO.

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Just a note to let everyone know that the website that hosted the message board isn't working for some unknown reason. So, over the next day or two I'll be setting up a new message board. It'll be up and running shortly, so check back again soon and please post away when it's back up!

-"the webmaster"

Abby news

Hey Team,

Sorry for the lag time here!
I’m at work right now so I don’t have too much time to ramble on like I usually do. Abby is doing well for the most part. We don’t have any further information on her eyes but she is getting an exam some time today or tomorrow. We’re really hoping that the ROP hasn’t gotten worse. Also, she isn’t really progressing on her suck swallow breathe coordination too well. This is also very important because she needs to get this down in order to come home. Her spells are doing better though so that’s good news. She spells a few times a day on her own and when we’re trying to feed her with a bottle but that’s it. What else what else…. Oh yeah. Abby is still gaining weight and digesting mommy's milk well through the feeding tube in her nose. She does have some reflux from time to time though still and we’re hoping that these little spit up episodes remain as few and far between as possible.

Everybody asks when she’s coming home. The general answer is that preemies usually go home around their original due date, which for Abby, Emma and Maddy was August 4th. Abby has a lot to accomplish from then until now though so we need your prayers. Specifically, her suck, swallow breathe coordination. And while her brain bleed outcome and eyes won’t determine when she comes home, those are two good topics to pray about as well.

Abby’s story continues to reach a lot of people and touch many hearts which in turn touches ours. We’re over the 2 month mark in the hospital now and Kelly has been there all day, everyday until we leave around 11PM or so. She is amazing. Abby knows her mommy so well and it warms my heart when Kelly comes back in the room and starts to talk because Abby will more than likely open her eyes and look for her. That is, unless she’s totally out and snoozing. Stamina my friends. It’s called stamina, and Kelly has tons of it. She is my amazing wife and I love her more than I can possibly explain.

Stay tuned for some awesome Abby Pics with her 4th of July outfit that a friend of mine from work bought for her. She’s way too small for it, but it’s still super cute. We even paraded her around the NICU to show her off. Needless to say, she was a hit.

Happy 4th Abby

Happy 4th of July weekend friends. Kelly and I are here at Camp Abby in the NICU where not too much is going on, which is a good thing. She is still in her big girl crib, she is maintaining her temperature well and she is still accepting her feedings well through the feeding tube down her nose. She is having some reflux though after her feedings. It’s not that big of a deal for a full size baby to spit up most of the time, but for Abby, when she spits up, it’s a big deal simply because she needs EVERY CALORIE we give her. Yesterday she did well with this and didn’t spit up once. She is still around 3 and a half lbs, and maybe even a little bit more.

I haven’t spoken too much about her shunt lately and somebody asked me how that was going. It’s working very well and there haven’t been any problems with it. The shunts job as a reminder is to drain the CSF, or Cerebral Spinal Fluid that gets produced in Abby’s brain to her abdomen. Abby’s brain bleed at birth has blocked the passageways that allow the CSF to leave the brain area to the spine, which is why the shunt is there. Without it, her head would blow up like a balloon with all the CSF. The shunt is still very visible in the back of her head but as she grows older and grows some hair it won’t be noticeable. I still pray that someday, somehow, someway, Abby won’t need the shunt at all anymore. That would be quite a miracle!

Abby is still working on the suck, swallow, breathe coordination this weekend. She is doing a bit better than previous attempts but there is still a lot of room to grow in this regard. I am happy though that there are moments when she does coordinate it all, so I am hopeful that she will get it down soon.

We just called in this morning to check on Abby to find that she has been moved to another room in the NICU. We were super bummed! Not cool man. We have become friends with the parents of Luke who is right next to Abby, we know all the nurses there and quite frankly Abby is the life of the party these days. Now we’re back in the quiet part of the NICU. The good news is that she is back there because she’s doing well and they need Abby’s old spot for a more critical baby. But still, we’ve become very close to everyone and very used to that room so we’re sad to leave. Yeah yeah, look at the bright side…she’s healthy enough to even leave that room so we should be happy and blah blah blah. I know, I got it! And I'm sure we'll get used to it.

So to recap:
Temperature = good
Eating = good
Growing = good
Shunt Function = good
Breast Feeding = okay, could still be better.
Cute scale = OFF THE STINKIN’ CHARTS!!!!!! CHECK HER OUT.
We love you guys.

Have a SAFE AND FUN 4th of July! We’ll gladly let this one pass us by as we cuddle with our Abby and look forward to next year and getting out and about with all of you.