It's a GREAT Monday!!!

Good morning Abby fans! It's Kelly here. First, let me apologize for not posting anything for a while. Choc took the laptop away from me the last three days that we were there. And this weekend...well....I was WAY TOO busy kissing, hugging, loving, tickling, laughing, and EATING with my family at home!!!!! Seriously....we had the BEST weekend ever and we didn't leave the house once!!! It has been so amazing just to be home together as a family again!!!! And EATING together as a family....all FIVE of us!!!

The last few days at the hospital were pretty good as far as Abby's meals went. And on Friday before we were discharged, we had a meeting with her feeding team. They told us that they all felt extremely confident that Abby will be a successful eater for the rest of her life! WOW!!! That was soooo awesome to hear!!! They told us to prepare and to expect some resistance and continued behavioral changes as she adjusts to her "new" life at home. But if we stayed the course and remained consistent that she would eventually be back to her old self. They expressed how important it was that we stick to the same eating schedule that we had been doing in the hospital for the next week or two. No vacations, no long outings, nothing that would get us off track. So pretty much we are home bound for a bit. But, like I already mentioned...that is TOTALLY fine with me!!!! Our home beats a tiny 10x14 hospital room any day!!!! So for the next week or two our schedule is as follows....

8:00 Breakfast
10:00 Snack
12:00 Lunch
3:00 Snack
6:00 Dinner
8:30 PM snack

Each snack/meal has to be sitting down at a table with her bum on a chair. We are allowed to go out to a restaurant or have a picnic at a park or the beach as long as she sits down on her bum on a towel or blanket. We tried it Friday night after we were discharged. (oh ya...so I guess we did leave the house once!) We went to BJ's pizzeria in Laguna Beach with my parents. She did great!!! And it was sooo nice to be out in the real world eating yummy food!!! Hospital cafeteria food for 3 weeks was almost torture!!!!

Since we have been home, Abby has been doing pretty well. She does great for the first 15 minutes and then the next 10 to 15 minutes can get pretty hairy. She is constantly up and out of her chair. Slow and steady, right?!!! We are working on it!!! Some times she'll throw us a curve ball and not want to eat at all. So we dig into the bag of tricks that her therapist taught us and we can usually get some kind of volume down her.

Ryan and I, NOW have the confidence that she CAN do this and do it well. And we also NOW have the confidence that we know how to support her in doing so. This program has been amazing. We have learned SOOOO much. And so much of what we learned can transfer over into other areas of parenting. It has been amazing. Really challenging, but amazing. We thank our Heavenly Father for answering the many hundreds of prayers that were said on our family's behalf over the last few weeks. We are so grateful for our Faith in Him. We are so grateful for the Faith that you all have in Him. We are so grateful for the power of prayer. And I am especially grateful to my Father in Heaven for my most AMAZING husband. He has been my rock for all of the ups and downs that we have experienced these last 9 years of marriage. He is the most selfless man I know. He ALWAYS puts us first. I love him more than I could ever put into words. He makes me so incredibly happy and he makes me feel so safe even in times of trial and hardship. I am soooo excited to spend the rest of my life with the man I am so privileged to call MY husband. I love you soooooo much Bubbs!!!!!!

We are definitely going to keep posting about Abby and her continued progress. And about how wonderful our life is without feeding tubes, syringes, feeding pumps, etc....WOW. I still can't believe it!!!! We are sooooo excited and feel sooooo blessed that we are over the hump!!!! This hump anyway!!! I'm sure there will be more to come!!! :o) But for now, we will enjoy the calm in the sea....

With all our love,

Kelly and fam XOXOXOX!!!!