Getting Adjusted

Hi everybody,

It's been a crazy week and a half! Thankfully, Kelly's mom and dad and grandma were here to help so that Kelly could recover from her C Section. At first we didn't think Abby really cared much about Eddie. Then she noticed how much attention Eddie was getting from momma and things changed. All of a sudden Abby would start whinning as if to say "Hey! I'm over here!" Every parent of two or more kids can attest to this I am sure. What's funny is that Abby never breast fed but since she sees Eddie on momma's chest so often, she will often spit out her binki and put her head in momma's chest! She will also reach towards Eddies mouth to take his binki because she thinks it her binki. It is all pretty fun to watch.

Abby is getting very close to crawling these days! It's fun to watch her with her new sense of confidence. In fact she has more confidence than skill. She'll reach forward for something and topple over on her left side. Her left arm is still pretty stiff and her brain doesn't tell it quickly enough to extend it out to break her fall. If she falls to her right, she's good. Her arm goes out immediately. But her left is another story. That's okay though because it is getting better.

She hasn't been doing so hot on eating though. Well, let me take that back. Her QUALITY of eating, ie her ability to chew and control the little bits of food we give her is going great. It's her QUANTITY that stinks. She just doesn't eat very much at all. As you know we use the G Tube to supplement what she doesn't take, but for some reason if we give her too much too fast through her G Tube, she throws up. Here's the catch though, the rate and speed that are feeding her through her G Tube is very small. She shouldn't be throwing up because of it. So this is the topic for the week. Why doesn't Abby want to eat very much on her own, and why does she throw up after only a small dose of milk through her G Tube?

We love you all and thank you very much for sharing Abby's stories with others and checking in. I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet, but when everything happened with Abby and she was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus, potential Cerebral Palsy, and poor social and physical skills because of her brain bleeds, the first thing I did was google those key words. I stumbled across some blog sites of other children and their stories of hope and love and it often times those stories really helped. It is my hope that others in my shoes with a little one like Abby will find this site and know that stats, odds, and whatever mean jack.

Anyway, sorry for the tangent. Enjoy the pics below!

 

 

FINALLY! The Pics Are Here!

Check out Abby Kissing Momma's Belly... "Hey little Brother! Can't wait to meet you!"

 

Check out Momma! At this point, to say that she is anxious for Eddie to come out would have been a HUGE under statement!

 

Here we are, ready to go into the OR...Man, am I cheesed out or what? Check me out with my video camera! I can't tell you how much I didn't care. I was SO PUMPED!

 

And here's momma and Eddie, looking like a million bucks of course, happier than ever with her little baby boy in her arms...

 

PROUD POPPA!


Is he cute or WHAT?????


No seriously, take another look!


Daddy and Eddie working on a poop together...


Here's momma and Eddie the next day. So, did Kelly REALLY Just have a baby? She looks GREAT huh?


Here is daddy gettin'in some snuggle time with Eddie


Here's a close up of some more snuggle time with Daddy


Oh man....!!!!


We're finally on our way home! Check out lil Eddie in his new car seat...


A family shot right before the ride home...


Go ahead...just say it...adorable, super cute, future lady killer...they all fit!


And there they are...FINALLY.

Thank you all for your love and support during these crazy couple of years.

Stay in touch for future Abby updates.

All our love from the two happiest parents on the face of this planet.

Eddie is doing great!

Well, my lap top took a poop, so the pics will have to wait. Eddie is doing fantastic! Its amazing to watch him eat...without ANY trouble! Momma is recovering well and we are scheduled to go home tomorrow.
This has been a great weekend! As I type this with one hand on my blackberry, I have Lil Eddie in my other and let me tell you, he is amazing.
Abby has been with her Grandma and Grandpa this whole time which has allowed me to be here with momma and Eddie. We miss her terribly though and we are both anxious to get home and see how we do with two!

We love you guys...

Sorry to lag on the pics! I will post some as SOON as I get home.

Edward Ryan Gaya is here!

He's here!
6 lbs 11 oz, 18 inches long.

And get this.. When Eddie was being born the song on the radio on this fine Friday the 13th morning was Stevie Wonders "Very Supersticous". Awesome! It couldn't have been more perfect.

Oh yeah, he's a handsome little guy too!

Pics coming later..

we're almost there....!!!!!

We are very excited over here everybody. In less than 9 hours, little Eddie will be here! I can't wait...!

I will post an update from my blackberry tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Yahooooo!!!!!!

Eddie is coming! Eddie is coming!

So get this... On Tuesday, Kelly had her 2 week appointment with her doctor for her pregnancy with Eddie. As he was asking her how the pregnancy was going she kept saying how she wished she could get him out sooner rather than later. Kelly has been very uncomfortable lately. She even has carpal tunnel in her wrists because she is so swollen and sore from all the fluid. This happens to a little less than 20% of all pregnant women, so it's not the most common thing, but it does happen. And lately, it's been keeping Kelly up at night because it hurts so bad. Thankfully, her doctor told her where to buy some wrist braces that she puts on at night before she goes to bed which seem to work well. The braces keep her wrists from swelling up with fluid.
Anyway, back to the appointment. Kelly's doctor kind of dismissed her requests to move the delivery date up until he realized that Eddie had done quite a bit of growing in the past two weeks. As of last Tuesday, Eddie was already 6 lbs and 12 oz's! Nuts huh? He also noticed that there wasn't much room left for Eddie. So he decided to grant Kelly's wishes and agreed to take him a week earlier than planned. He called the operating room to schedule the C Section, but it was booked up... all except for next Friday. That was the only day in the next week that was wide open. Why you ask? Because it's FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!! I love it....! Thanks to everyone's superstitions, we have a green light to bring Eddie into this world. Kelly and I don't much believe in that stuff, so we said to put us down. At 7AM Friday Morning, Edward Ryan Gaya will be born. Lil Eddie is coming team! Abby's little brother is almost here.

And now on to Abby. After all this is HER blog site. Her G Tube site seems to be doing well. She isn't nearly as irritated with it and it looks like it's healing up well. Her shunt is still working fine too. Sometimes I forget to mention her shunt, but trust me, no news is good news. So if you don't hear about it for a while, that means it's doing fine. And finally, I am happy to announce that Abby has been doing quite well with her eating lately. We even felt that she had eaten enough one time to forego giving her any more milk through her tube. That was basically a first! Speaking of firsts, Kelly is FINALLY off of bed rest we took her out on the 4th as well as this Saturday and she did fantastic. She loves to be out and about. Abby's favorite thing to do when meeting new strangers is to give the "O face." This is the only funny face that she knows how to make and her goal is to make whomever she is looking at to do it too. See below for another shot of the "O Face."



She is also doing pretty well with her left arm. I'm not sure if I've shown a picture of her brace that we put on to help her use it correctly so here is one below. Take note of it's color. Pink...!!! There's a shocker.



Here are my girls at the beach!




And here we are at the 4th of July festivities in our neighborhood. Does Abby look patriotic or what?!



And finally, here are mommy and Abby having breakfast at Coyote Grill in Laguna Beach on Saturday Morning. She loves to be up in those booster chairs with mommy and daddy. She was having a GREAT time here.




Abby certainly has her challenges but she is doing so incredibly well for a baby with a GRADE 4 BRAIN HEMORRHAGE it's unbelievable. I've said it before, but the docs said she was basically going to be a vegetable. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Thanks to you all for checking in again this week... and be sure to stay tuned because Abby's world is about to get even more interesting with the arrival of her new baby brother!

We love you all!

Abby and Eddie's Daddy

We're Almost There!

As of this Friday, Kelly will be 36 weeks which is where she needs to be before the doctor said she could be off bed rest. She is VERY excited! In fact, Kelly is already starting to ease into her "no bed rest" status and made it to church today. Abby was in a great mood and so was I because I finally got to have my two girls with me at church.

Abby's G Tube is continuing to do well. Her bandages which were covering up the scar from the old G Tube sight came off this week and they didn't look too bad. Over time they should heal up just fine. As far as her eating goes, she hasn't really been blowing us away by any means. And by that I mean that she hasn't begun to start gobbling food up like there's no tomorrow yet. I guess that's what I'm looking for. But Karin, her feeding therapist, reminded us about the smaller accomplishments like how much better she can control little bits of food in her mouth now and how she can take little bites of things like watermelon. She LOVES watermelon by the way! Well, at least she loves to put her lips to it and pretend like she's eating it. She takes little bites and eventually figures out how to chew it and swallow it. And when she's done with the high chair and eating things on her own, we take her out and play with her while we give her milk through her G Tube. That usually takes another 45 minutes or so.
Yep...! It's still quite the task to feed this little one. I'm hoping that her "Daddy's Eating Habit" gene kicks in soon. Once that happens, we won't have ANYTHING to worry about.

Alright, so here's a picture from the last 4 of July. We were in the NICU and a friend of mine got her this outfit.




My what a difference a year makes huh?

And here she is now! Please excuse the difference in lighting on these shots. I was messing with my camera an I changed some settings by accident. No worries though! She is still as cute as ever...

Have a GREAT 4th Of July everyone!