Abby update

Written Tuesday night, July 22, 2006

Okay okay!
So I lag. Yeah yeah, I’m sorry.
Anywho, let’s move onto Little Miss Magic. On Sunday, she continued to recover well from her shunt surgery and the same goes for Monday. The neuro team came down to check on Abby’s new shunt which is working wonderfully. She is doing okay on her feeding, which is now the biggest item on the list o' things for our Abby Girl. As you all know, she needs to be up to full feeds in order to come home, which means she needs to be able to feed from a bottle every 3 hours. Right now, we’re only giving her a bottle 3 times during the day and once in the middle of the night, or 4 times every 24 hour period. A "full feed" is 38 cc’s of milk. Last week Abby took a full bottle a couple times but spent most of her efforts only taking around 15 cc’s. Today, she took the full bottle in the morning, 20 cc’s at 2PM and 24 cc’s at 8PM! So, that’s definitely a step up. It’s not the full 38 cc’s but she is improving.

She is now back in the "feeder grower" room too, which is where they send the low maintenance babies. Abby is low maintenance! Nice huh? Let’s see, what else? Oh yeah, her eyes. Still nothing new and we’re not sure when the eye doc will come back to give her another exam. It probably will not be until next week. As of the last eye exam, the laser surgery was doing what they had hoped.

To all of you guys that we’ve met at CHOC, we love you all. The love and care that Abby has received there has been unbelievable. Thanks to each of you for all that you do and continue to do. I know we’re not out of the woods yet but Abby is getting closer to coming home. It’s actually starting to become a reality lately. We’re hoping she’ll get home in a few weeks, but we need all your good thoughts and prayers to get her there. Specifically, please keep her feeding situation and her eyes in your prayers.

Take care everybody.

Kelly and Ryan