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.

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