Written Tuesday Morning August 15th, 2006

As I sit and type this, Abby is right here next to me with Mommy. She is so adorable. She’s getting breakfast through the G Tube since she is so tired and didn’t want to wake up. Feeding Abby has proven to be quite the challenge. The goal is to try and feed her with a bottle each time and then give her what’s left through the G Tube. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, there’s more to it. As you can see from the picture in my previous post when she is in her swing, we rigged the giant syringe that is attached to the G Tube to the mobile above her. This is where we put the rest of her bottle in. In theory, gravity is supposed to take care of the rest. But as soon as a bit goes into our Abby’s tummy she grunts and fusses and pushes it right back up. So her milk goes in her tummy, then out, then back up the syringe, then back in her tummy. This can go on for 2 hours if we let it. We have tried to plunge the milk down with the other part of the syringe and then cap off the G Tube, but Abby doesn’t do to well with that.

We do have a pump that hooks right up to the G Tube and we can set it to give Abby her milk very slowly over a half an hour. We’re actually trying this method right now. Keep your fingers crossed that Abby tolerates this because as it stands now, it ain’t workin’! We have to feed her every 3 hours and when it takes 2 to feed her, that doesn’t leave time for much else.

So that’s the technical stuff. Now on to the good stuff. She is so much fun to have home, even with all that’s going on. I now know why every parent says their child is the cutest thing in the world, because I quite literally believe that Abby is indeed the CUTEST THING IN THE WORLD. We gave her a bath the other night, which as quite an adventure. She wasn’t too into it but it was fun nonetheless. And just this morning, we had some great daddy daughter time as she took a snooze on my chest. It’s nice when she is calm because she is very fussy a lot, so this was a treat. Along with Daddy’s chest, Abby also loves her swing. Put her in that thing and she’s out. It’s great.

The latest feeding status is that Abby is taking on average of 20 to 30 cc’s each time she accepts the bottle. I’m happy to announce she took just shy of a full bottle last night, which is 48 cc’s. We’ll take it! Baby steps! We’re on Abby Time here and that’s what I need to remember.

Thanks to everyone for helping to bring Abby home. Your continued prayers are welcomed and very much needed. Especially regarding her feeding. Please pray that Abby be able to feed 100% from the bottle for every feeding so we can get this G Tube out of her!

Love,
Ryan and Kelly

PS – I thought I’d have more time to write these updates and maybe I will in the future but right now…ha! What was I thinking? Hang in there with me. I’ll try to write them more frequently.