Taking it slowly

Abby has been throwing up a lot lately. We were nervous that she may be sick or that perhaps her shunt got clogged again. If the shunt gets clogged, the fluid builds up and puts pressure on her brain, which causes her to throw up and feel lethargic. Luckily though, she wasn't acting lethargic and she didn't have a fever either so she wasn't sick. But why was she throwing up? Well, her GI (Gastrointestinal) Doctor asked us to increase her feeding to 120 cc's which is about 4 ounces every 4 hours. Kelly was pretty confident that this was the cause of the recent cookie tossing sessions and she was right. She backed down Abby's feedings to 110 cc's and that seemed to do the trick. For those of you that know the cc measuring table you know that 10 cc's is hardly anything. But that just goes to show how particular Abby is! She knows what she wants and doesn't want and she knows when it's too much.
We had another family bath with Abby tonight. She loved it just as much as before only this time, she didn't take nearly as long to start smiling and splash around. Soon after she got wet, she started spazzing out, splashing water everywhere, including her face. It didn't bother her one bit. At times, water went down her nose, but all she did was stop for a minute, sneeze, re group and then she got right back to the splashing. It was fantastic! I also made her laugh a bit doing playing a game of peek a boo tonight.I've tried this in the past and only tonight did she respond to it. I can't wait for her to laugh more often because it's so adorable.
Abby's therapy sessions continue to go well. I included a pic below of her accupuncture. Check out the needles in her head! it's amazing that they don't bother her. I also included some recent feeding pics. Nothing has changed too much here. She still hates the bottle but loves to eat prunes as shown here and all the other flavored mush from the spoon. Abby just ain't into the bottle thing. We tested her out on a sippy cup and she liked that a lot better. That may be the next step.
And finally, there's an oldie but a goodie. Remember this outfit? This picture was when Abby was just under 5 lbs in the NICU.

That's all for now. Take care everyone.

PS - Abby has a new smile! I'll try to capture it with my camera soon. If i do, I'll post it right away.

Holding Steady

Hey Everybody,

Not much to report this week. Abby is still doing great and is as cute as ever. Kelly found this pink hat that was a gift for Abby a while back but was too big at the time. Now it's perfect and adorable so we got picture happy. Abby has gotten better with using her hands to find things and she certainly found this hat. Every so often she would pull on it and it would get pulled down below her eyes. Of course then she would start crying because she couldn't figure out how to pull it up again. She also has this little whiny cry face which I've posted here. It's one of my favorites.
Abby's little wrist brace came in the mail this week for her left hand and arm. The occupational therapist is going to show Kelly how to put it on and use it this week. Guess what color it is? Pink! I couldn't believe it. Actually, who am I kidding? Yes I could. In fact, I should have expected it. Hilarious.
Mommy is doing well with the pregancy still. The nausea still creeps up on her at random times though which is no fun. She is starting to show a bit too.

Have a good week everyone.

Thanks for checking in.

The Gaya Family

FINALLY!!!!!

Written Monday Night January 15th 2007

Aaaaahhhh!!! I love it. You guys are fantastic. Thank you for your continued love and support. But seriously, let’s clear this up here. When there’s a three day weekend, I’ll be writing my update on MONDAY night... capiche? So just to clarify, when Memorial Day and Labor Day roll around, you can bet there won’t be an update Sunday night.

Okay, now that we have that straight, let’s move on to the goods. Abby is still hovering around 11 lbs 8 oz. Last night Kelly and I took all 11 lbs, 8 oz of her into our bath tub. At first, Abby wasn’t too sure about the situation. Kelly held her in the water while she spent about 5 minutes just staring down until finally she lowered her head and dipped her little chin in the water. She looked up and smiled ear to ear at mommy, then turned around and did it again. And then she did it again, and then again and again! And her smiles turned into little excited yelps, and her hands started to move which splashed drops of water on her face and excited her even more. She started kicking too and was basically going crazy with excitement. By this point Kelly and I were both laughing as hard as Abby was. It was hilarious. And the best part was that it really tired her out. By the time I dried her off and got her ready for bed in her PJ’s, she was out.
Today, since I had the day off, I was able to go with Kelly to see Abby’s acupuncturist. Abby did great. She didn’t even notice when she got poked with three different tiny needles in the top of her head. The acupuncture will help with brain function, brain development and Abby’s left arm that she has trouble with.
As for Kelly and our new little one, everything is going well. Kelly is coming up on week 12 of the pregnancy and her nausea is slowing down a bit. She goes in tomorrow for another check up.
I mentioned before that Abby likes to sit up. Below are some pics of Abby in her first big girl chair. We have to put a towel in it because it's not made for girls as small as she is. You can see that she is clearly too small for her high chair as well. But that's our Abby. She's ready to sit up now and so that's what she is going to do. It's no secret that our Abby is a little firecracker and this is just another glimpse of that.

That’s it for now!

Have a great week.

A Good Week

Shhhh! Abby's asleep!



Uh Oh...look who woke up!



Hmmmm.. Abby's not too sure about sitting on mommy's knees...



Hello Everyone,

It's been a good week for lil Abby. She is now a whopping 11 lbs, 8 oz and she is still doing well with her eating. She loves everything we give her with a spoon and like I said before, she's actually doing better with drinking the formula from the bottle too. She's starting a new thing at night though that we're not exactly doing back flips about. Abby is going through that "I'm so tired I don't know what to do, nor do I know what I want so I'm just going to fuss and squirm and fuss some more" stage. The cure is usually a pacifier while holding her in our arms and bouncing and patting her little bum. Mommy definitely has the touch and can calm her within minutes. Daddy on the other hand has to work on it for a bit. But eventually she gives in and falls asleep.
Another new thing for our Abby is that she likes to sit up. (see pic). One day, when none of my usual tricks were working to get Abby out of her fussy stage I notice that whatever I did with her, she was trying to sit up. Sure enough, after propping her up with some pillows on the couch, she was back to good old Happy Abby. It was hilarious to see her just sit there and check out everything. Her therapist was extremely surprised by this because 4 month old babies (which is Abby's corrected age right now) usually aren't into sitting up. Abby is though. She wants to sit up and be a part of everything.
And lastly, Little Miss Magic is teething too. She spends a lot of time with her first two fingers in her mouth and sometimes she even gags herself. If she gags herself too much, she actually throws up. In fact, she tossed her cookies on Grandpa tonight by doing this! Aaaaahhh!! Fantastic. Sorry gramps! He was good about it though. There isn't much Abby can do to upset anybody just yet. (Yeah yeah, I know...all in time)
Mom is doing okay. The nausea hits her at random times during the day and some days are worse than others. We had a doctor's appointment on Thursday and we got to see our little peanut in an ultrasound. Everything is going well thus far. The next check up is in three more weeks. Once we get further along though we'll be going in every two weeks. Doc is keeping a close eye on Kelly in order to ensure a nice, FULL TERM pregnancy!

Have a fantastic week everyone. Thanks again for popping in and all the prayers. They are indeed working and we appreciate each and every one. Especially the ones from all you little ones. Each day I hear about somebody else's son or daughter that keeps Abby in his or her prayers. I am blown away at the faith of these kids. And so I say again, thank you guys. Keep them coming!

Gitty up.

The Gaya's.

Happy New Year Everybody!

Alright, so daddy’s resolution is to post more pictures more often. How’s that one? Abby is really doing some fun things lately so it shouldn’t be too hard to capture some good moments.
Abby is now 11 lbs and she is doing very well eating from the spoon. She has loved everything we’ve given her thus far which includes bananas, pears, peaches, prunes (yummy), and some others that I’m forgetting at the moment. She is actually doing a bit better from the bottle now too because the muscles she is using to eat from the spoon are getting stronger and are more able to control the thin consistency of the milk. Oh yeah! Today is the last of mommy’s milk. Can you believe that? Remember the freezer? Well it’s empty. Unbelievable. Now we’ll be feeding her formula along with her baby food.
As you know, Abby’s left arm and more specifically her left hand has had some problems. She doesn’t like to use it very much and it spends a lot of time in the closed fist position. It’s gotten better though and this past week she also got fitted for a little preemie size hand brace that will encourage her to keep her hand open.
That’s pretty much it for now! Enjoy ALL the pictures. You deserve them since you’ve been so patient.
Stay tuned as I plan to update on Sunday nights.

Have a great week.


Ryan and Kelly and Abby