Abby needs to gain weight

Hi Abby Addicts,

Our little girl needs to gain weight. Her docs are growing VERY concerned that she is 17 months old and still hasn't passed the 16 lb mark. They have told us that if she isn't growing and gaining a sufficient amount of weight, that her brain cannot grow and develop correctly, thus the increased concern. Abby has a very sensitive stomach and we have tried so many different formulas but each one seems to be worse than the previous one. Not to mention, these were no "over the counter" kind of formulas. These were the super dooper, only use it on extreme patients because it's so expensive and hard to make kind of formulas. Most of which are "pre-digested", so they are super easy on the tummy...but for one reason or another, our little baby girl doesn't tolerate them. (She throws most of her feedings up.) She has her GI docs baffled. So, the next step is a J Tube. Yep...there's another kind of feeding tube my friends. The J tube bypasses her stomach all together and goes straight into her small intestines which keeps her from throwing her food up. It's a short fix to get some weight on our little angel. After 6 to 8 weeks we would go back to the G Tube. I am told the procedure to put the J Tube in is not that big of a deal. It would be an out patient procedure and she would be under "twilight" anesthesia.
Abby and Kelly (and Eddie for moral support) will be headed to the GI Doc(gastrointestinal for those of you just tuning in) tomorrow for a consultation. So it looks like we're at that time again. It's prayer time everybody. Abby is very well known for her magic and pulling some wild Abby Cadabra kind of tricks out of her proverbial hat, but we all know those tricks rest on the shoulders of many prayers and well wishes.

As for Eddie, he is doing pretty good. He's 12.2 lbs and cute as ever. He is smiling and cooing and laughing a bit now which I love! Actually, the first time I got him to smile and coo I didn't even mean to. I was giving him kisses and just smiling when I realized a piece of peach was in the middle of my front teeth. So, like a lizard, I tried to push it out with my tongue. Well, the face I made while sticking out my tongue made Eddie smile bigger than I had seen yet! And you know me by evidence of my Abby laughing video, when I get my kids laughing on something, I'll continue to do it, regardless of what it is. So there I am, sticking my tongue in and out like a lizard and loving each and every smile I got from it. Ironically, he's not into that anymore. Just like his sister. What's funny today is most certain to be boring tomorrow. That just means daddy has to get more and more creative and I am up for the challenge.
Eddie is refluxing really bad still though. The doc said that his sphincter, or circular muscle at the bottom of his esophagus isn't contracting or closing up as much as your and mine do. It's wide open and stays open instead of closing up a bit to keep milk from coming back up. We have tried two medications which haven't done anything so he's off of those. Eddie is scheduled for an "Upper GI" Test where he drinks some fluid and they will x ray him to see what happens with the fluid. This will tell us for sure whether or not it's reflux and if in fact the sphincter is open. The good news is that he is ahead of the curve developmentally and kids usually grow out of this reflux problem over time, and since he's ahead of the game he will most likely grow out of it quicker.

There's a lot happening over here! Daddy's new job is going fantastic and Kelly is doing a great job at keeping these kids on track. Her mom, Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Cliff continue to come over and help out A TON, which is fabulous. Thank you so much mom and dad!

And now...the moment we've all been waiting for....picture time!



Here are Abby and Eddie...Now you can REALLY see how small Abby is because Eddie is almost just as big as her!

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Check out Momma and Abby!



Family Photo



Eddie all snug and ready for a night on the town.



Here is Abby with her cousins! Tristan is holding Abby and Caden is to the right! They're the coolest nephews EVER by the way!



Here is an older pic of the three of them from their visit down here



Here's Abby and Auntie Jocelyn (Tristan and Caden's mom)



Here's Abby when we were out to lunch. She doesn't eat much be she LOVES to go out and sit in her high chair at the table



Check Eddie's little smile!