Happy 2 months Abby!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!! SHE’S 2 MONTHS OLD AS OF THURSDAY, THE 29TH! AND WHAT A BIRTHDAY IT WAS….!!!! A LOT HAS HAPPENED.

So get this. When Kelly came into the NICU yesterday morning, Abby wasn’t there! Her isolette was gone and had been replaced with a big girl crib. The crib is great news, but where was Abby? Another nurse decided to take her out and give her a little tour of the NICU! It’s great to know she is doing that well that she can actually get carried around for a while. Of course we love the fact that she was showing our Abby offf too. And the crib is great because now we can simply lean over and kiss her whenever we want.

To go along with her big girl crib, Abby has been upgraded to big girl diapers too. Well... she now wears the normal preemie diapers that you can buy in the store instead of the super small ones. She is swimming in them and we have to fold them down a couple of times.

And…she’s off the nasal cannula! She is breathing totally on her own and has been for the past day. Take a look at the pictures! A lot has happened to our little Abby recently and while we’re excited we’re very nervous. We want to be sure she can maintain her breathing on her own and we don’t want her to tire out.

Something she’s not doing so well on is her suck, swallow and breathe coordination when we try to breast feed and bottle feed her. The developmental therapist isn’t too nervous, but would like to see some improvement soon. We’re anxious for her to learn how take a bottle because this is something she needs to know how to do to come home.

Another big concern is Abby’s eyes. The eye doctor came by Wednesday and said her eyes were getting worse. She has ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity). Google that if you want. Basically, she is growing abnormal blood vessels which are thought to be a result of the increased level of oxygen Abby got at the early stages of her life. She is a zone 2 and stage 2. That will make more sense if you read up on ROP. If you don’t, just know that these aren’t the worst conditions of ROP but it’s enough for the doctor to want to start seeing Abby every week. The ROP can stabilize and Abby’s vision could be relatively normal. If it doesn’t the docs can do laser surgery to kill those abnormal blood vessels. This will ruin her side vision somewhat, but the hope is that it stops the ROP before it affects the important part of version, which is the central line of sight vision. The scary part about this surgery is that it only has a 50/50 chance of working. If this doesn’t work, the ROP can continue to get worse. Since Abby is off the oxygen now and breathing on her own, we’re hoping that helps. It's basically a wait and see situation at this point.

Man, if it’s not one thing it’s another. The nurses were right….this is definitely a roller coaster. But let’s focus on the positive too. She’s in a crib, her tummy is accepting her feedings through the feeding tube well, she’s growing, and she’s breathing on her own! The suck swallow breathe coordination and obviously her eyes are what we need to pray for. We’re very worried about her eyes right now but have faith that Heavenly Father will hear all your prayers.
We appreciate each and every one.

Enjoy the pictures.