Abby is finally feeling better

What's happenin' my friends,

I hope all of you out there in Abby Land are doing well. I'm happy to report that our little munchkin is doing a lot better. She doesn't have much mucus build up anymore and is sleeping a lot better lately. Kelly did have to give her that breathing treatment some more though and at first we were worried that having a mask on her face would freak her out. But momma just held the mask over her mouth and sang her songs for 10 minutes while she gave Abby the breathing treatment. Surprisingly, our wiggle worm actually sat still. Not only that, she was absolutely consumed by her momma and just stared at her. Below is a picture of this scene....except for the fact that Abby is looking at me, but that's only because I called her name...



Abby has also been eating a lot better. And by that I mean that she actually takes consistent bites of her food while she is in her high chair. Before, she wouldn't take a bit of ANYTHING. It was pretty bad there for a while. Now she eats little bites of her food one after the other, which is GREAT! However, she does "chipmunk" her food a lot. That's the term Kelly and I give to Abby when she stores her bites in her left cheek. It's hilarious because she whines and hits her high chair tray for another bite and then another and another, but all she does with it is put the bite in her mouth, chew it for a bit, and then push it over to the side with the other bites. The first time we noticed this was only after bite number 1 million or so, because she had a HUGE bulge coming from her left cheek! Kelly forced her to open her mouth and sure enough, out came a whole winters worth of food. It's really funny. I'll try to get a picture of this soon. Some of it must be going down though because she has gained some good weight. And let's not forget about her faithful J Tube. (Stay tuned for why it's called the "J Tube") This is the REAL reason she's gaining weight. The J tube as you know, shoots the formula directly into the first part of Abby's small intestine, which is called the Jejunum. (That's why!) The J Tube has to be pretty small to do this, which means that it will most likely get clogged. We were told we'd get 6 to 8 weeks out of the J Tube before it would get clogged but it's been just under 3 months since Abby had her J Tube put in, and it is still working. Not bad huh? We are extremely grateful for this because she is now 18 lbs, 10 oz! She is actually getting a little meat on her bones. I love it. We need her to get to 20 lbs ASAP so we can turn her car car seat around and let her face forward. She's getting pretty tall and her poor legs don't have much room, but the car seat regulations say you have to be 20 lbs. We'll get there soon I hope.

We put Abby's feeding pump back pack on again to see if she would warm up to it, but she still doesn't like it. Last time she couldn't even move with it on, but this time she had a bit more success. Still though, she was bothered by it so we took it off. I pulled all my tricks out to get her to smile for me for this picture but she wasn't havin' it....AT ALL.




I do hope she'll get used to this thing though because if she does wear it, that's just more formula she's getting which means even more weight gain. And that's pretty much it for our Abby Girl. She is a bit of pistol these days with momma. Lot's of screaming, throwing her food off of the high chair and some serious strong willed personality stuff. Kelly's mom is loving it because apparently...thats EXACTLY how Kelly was!

As for Eddie, he's a happy little guy. He has a great smile and he LOVES his ExerSaucer. Check out these shots of my little bowling ball...





He has found his screaming voice....which I'm super dooper excited about. Kelly is too. She loves it when both Abby and Eddie are screaming like crazy in an attempt to get her attention. It's tons of fun. You all should come over some time to experience it. Eddie is also rolling around a lot. He prefers to roll to one side though, so instead of doing one or two rolls one way and then heading back the other other direction, he insists on continuing his path in the same direction and is now finding himself lodged up under the ottoman, or his cradle swing, or by the couch or under the rocker chair. Wherever he ends up, he's sure to twist himself in some fashion that only leads to more of that screaming I was talking about. I have to admit though, it's funny to watch. He just rolls and rolls and rolls... I think I might push the furniture out of the way and just let him roll forever and see how far he goes!

That's all for now you crazy, whacky Abbyaddicts. I love you deeply.

Here are few more to enjoy....

Abby is home!

Hola Friends,

Abby is home. She came home Friday. She is still sick though. Yesterday the Pediatrician noticed that she was still wheezy so she got a Nebulizer (sp?). Anywho, the Nebulizer gives Abby the same breathing treatment that you saw on the video, only with this deal she has to actually wear the mask for 10 minutes. No bueno. She is NOT going to like that. What baby would?

So I'll keep you posted on that one. No pics today. Working on a new Eddie video though. Should be good. Have to use a wide angle lens though...the kid is a chunker!

Have a smashing week friends. Live it up.

Starting to feel better

Okay,

So it's looking like Abby will be able to come home Friday. Yahooooo! We can't wait for that but I am also anxious to get MY baby home. Poor Kelly has been there this entire time and is running on MAYBE 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night and is exhausted, so we need to get her home too. Last night I guess Abby decided to have another party in her crib from 2 to 5AM. What makes it so hard for Abby to stay asleep is all the junk that builds up in her throat. As it it sits there and accumulates she starts to choke on it. She gets nauseous too because all she has in her tummy is all that junk and it doesn't set well. The good part about being at the hospital is that they have an electrical pump kind of gizmo that goes into her throat and suctions everything out. She feels so much better after this happens, but it's no picnic. Kelly said that the first time they did it, they had to go in through her nose and poor Abby screamed her head off at a level that Kelly had never heard before. Although each time there after, the nurses have only gone in through her mouth and down her throat instead of through her nose. She wasn't too excited about those suction episodes either but they weren't as bad as the other way.

So ANYWAY...my point is that we can't bring her home until all the junk and gunk clears up because we don't have a fancy shmancy gunk and spit sucker upper gizmo at home. And if she doesn't get the gunk out, she is miserable. If she is miserable, she isn't sleeping, and if she isn't sleeping, she isn't resting and getting better. Instead she is bouncing around and guess who is entertaining her? Momma! So that means momma ain't sleepin' either...!

Some good news is that the J Tube is still hanging in there and they have been feeding her 24/7 basically, which means she has actually had some good weight gain since she's been there. Some more good news is that Eddie seems to be doing much better with his RSV and is pretty much back to normal. He has been so great during all this. It's pretty easy to figure him out. He is either tired, hungry, or has to go poop. It's funny because I have the same grumpy list....well...I actually have one more to add to my list but other than that, he and I are exactly the same! I'm sure he'll add this one later too...!

While we're looking good, it ain't over 'til it's over so keep the positive thoughts, well wishes, prayers and all that good stuff coming until the little thing actually comes home.

Many thanks to Grandma Cindy who took time off of work to help out and Great Grandma Bette who dropped everything out in Sunny La Quinta to come out here and help as well. This would have been a very difficult situation without you guys and we can't thank you enough.

Below is a short video I made up from some footage I got using my old school digital camera so please excuse the grainy appearance. We had to wake Abby up to give her the "breathing treatment." The breathing treatment is given by a nurse that holds this tube that blows air in her face. The air is cool and full of stuff that helps Abby's lungs expand and take in air easier. She has really gotten to like this stuff. Kinda makes you wonder what's in it!

Enjoy and thanks for checking in.

Ryan

Welll...she FINALLY got it...

Friends,

Abby is in the hospital. We admitted her last night and the tests came back positive for RSV or Respiratory Syncytial Virus...or...REALLY STUPID VIRUS! It's not the worst case they have seen but her Blood Saturation Levels are pretty low. It's like this...when we breathe we put oxygen in our blood stream and that level of oxygen is called your blood saturation level. This is usually in the high 90's (97 to 100). When your "blood Sat's" are below 93 or so, it's not a good sign. At urgent care last night Abby's dropped down below 93 and with all the vomiting and the crackling sound in her lungs...we weren't comin'home. Once she was in the Pediatric Ward, her sats went into the 80's and so they gave her some oxygen to breathe and they went back up. The goal here is to get her off the oxygen and her blood sat's to be in the upper 90's on her own...and not with the oxygen. Until that happens we will be in the hospital for the duration.

Eddie has it too, but for a full term baby, it usually isn't as worrisome. That little tank is going to be just fine. And he was GREAT for daddy last night. I'm telling you, God definitely gave him a pep talk before he came to us and said, "now Eddie, you're going to have to be very understanding during your first few years and just go with the flow. You're going to have to be an easy baby that doesn't fuss around and smiles and brings joy to your parents worried faces. Your job is to make them relax when they see you." AND THAT'S WHAT HE DOES. He is so laid back during these things. It's like he knows something serious is going on and not to bother us. He is our new burnin' hunk o love and I do love him very very much.

Okay then. You guys know what to do. Prayer time. Knees and all. The whole 9.

Hit it.

All my love and visions of a white sandy beach.

Ryan

The Strike is FINALLY Over!

I have GREAT NEWS! The Abby Blog Writer Strike is officially over. I have finally reached an agreement with my crazy life and we have come to a conclusion. The deal is that I will no longer sleep....ever. Seriously though, I think I just needed to adjust to my new job, let the holidays come and go, and give myself a little rest for some much needed energy to recharge my blogging battery. I'm pumped for 2008. A lot is going to happen with Abby and I'll get back to the every 2 week update. I may even go crazier than that, but let's not count on this just yet.

Alright then, on to the update. Abby's J tube is still going strong. Because the tube now extends into her small intestines, the tube itself is smaller and tends to get clogged every 4 to 6 weeks. So the fact that Abby is at 2 months and the tube is still working is GREAT because she has gained 2 full lbs! That means she's 18 and a half lbs now. This is by far the best weight gain she's had since we took her home from the NICU. Once it does get clogged, we will have to take it out, and we will absolutely put another one in since it's working so well.

Christmas was fantastic. Abby was more interested in the boxes and the paper than anything else. Eddie didn't know what was going on either. The major downfall has been that Abby is STILL sick. In fact, I'm typing this at 1AM because she threw up again tonight. Imagine having a stuffy / runny nose and having all that gunk get caught in your throat and not having the ability to spit it up or anything. You just have to sit there and deal with it until so much accumulates that your body forces you to throw it up. Well...that's Abby....every single day. The poor think is miserable at night when she sleeps.

In the day time however, Abby is doing great. She is really getting close to walking and getting more and more brave when she finds something to help her stand up. After she's on her feet, she'll let go for a split second. Kelly and I are having so much fun watching Abby progress so well in this regard. Her left arm, hand, leg and foot seem to be doing alright as well. We have a brace for her left hand now which forces her thumb open and allows her to grab on to things better.

Eddie by the way is 17 lbs 4 oz. He is getting quite the personality and is rolling over and everything already! He's doing great and I can't wait for when they're both older so I can watch them interact with each other.

Good night friends. Be sure to check back more often from now on. I promise to do an update more often than every month.

And because of my ultra slackingness, I have really gone crazy with the pics.

Enjoy and we love you! Say some prayers for Abby so she gets over this cold.

Love you all.

The Gaya's


Check out these two of Abby and Eddie sittin' on the couch together






Christmas Pics! Here are a couple of Abby and Eddie with Santa. The best part was when Kelly came to take Abby off of Santa's lap, Abby grabbed onto Santa and refused to get off his lap! Santa was very pleased and said how refreshing that was. We were to promise to bring her back next year!





We couldn't help ourselves... the bow was just begging to be put on Abby's head!



Eddie scored for his first Christmas!



Here is Abby's cousin Caden reading to her. Abby LOVES books



uh.....hmmm....Soooo, THIS is my job when we go shopping?



Check out Abby taking a bath in Grandma's sink. She was loving it!



And of course, here's another shot of the "O" Face



It was FREEZING up north so we really bundled the kids up.



Kelly bought Eddie an awesome beanie!



Here's another one from a different night when Kelly got our Abby all bundled up in that cute hat.