Abby site is under construction

Hey Team,

Sorry about all the funkiness on Abby's site lately. I am trying to get it all handled and will have it looking all snazzy and ready for comments again soon.

Abby is doing GREAT BY THE WAY! She is a walking machine. I have some video of her that I took from my camera so I will get that up as well.

Take care everyone.


-Abby's IT Department

Surgery went well

Hey gang,

Really quickly, I just wanted to give everyone the update that the surgery went well. It took less than an hour and she was out an hour after that. By this evening, she was acting like she didn't even have a surgrey. I do need to say that my diagnosis as to how she got them was way off. I heard Kelly say that whole car seat thing, but that was just her theory at first. it wasan't what the doctor said like I had thought. Oops! I guess she just had these since birth apparently.

Anyway, I will check in soon with some more pics.

Did I mention that Abby can now stand up all by herself? Before she needed someones leg, or a chair or the wall to support her as she stood up....but not anymore!

Abby is going to be in the newspaper!

That's Right Abby Fans,

Our Li'l Abbylicious has gone and increased her fan base even more. She will be in The Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 edition of the Orange County Register. Man, our little munchkin has a knack for this stuff, doesn't she?
So how did this all come about? It's like this; Abby's acupuncturist Dr. Ruth McCarty works with CHOC on top of running a very successful practice in Aliso Viejo. One day, she got a call from a friend of hers that works in the PR Department at CHOC and they start talking about Abby. And if I'm not mistaken, this particular lady had recently spoken with Greg (the writer of the article for the OC Register) and decided to call him to tell him about Abby. He then reached out to Ruth who set up the interview.

As you all know, my goal and major incentive for keeping this blog going has always been to try and make our story one of hope and love with the intention that it's heard by families in our similar situation. Greg and the OC Register have done a great job at helping us out in that regard and for that we are very thankful. The title of the article is "The Triplet who survived is a tiny, surprising fighter" Pick up a copy of the OC Register on Wed., or click this link here and check it out.

Here are some pics of when Greg came over to learn Abby's story.





So on to the update: Abby is doing great. She is really starting to walk everywhere now! She still uses the wall for support a lot and likes to grab the hand of whoever is nearby to help walk her around. When nobody is there she manages to take a few steps on her own from one chair to the next, or from the ottoman to the couch. If nothing is there she'll test out a few steps and then plop down on her bum. She is still very inquisitive too. She is all about figuring out the clip on her high chair safety belt for example. She will sit there for literally 30 minutes sometimes and try to get it undone. I have encouraged this in an effort to support her curiosity...but it backfired. She figured it out! So now I can't just leave her in her high chair and feel comfortable that she won't ACTUALLY undo her safety belt. That little stinker can unclip the thing. (I'm secretly super proud of her though!)

She also opens and closes doors again and again and again, she likes to draw (or scribble), and she loves to do her best to push Eddie around a bit. He still loves her, but he's starting to stand his ground so it will be fun to watch that situation progress.

On Thursday morning, Abby is onto surgery number....uh....15? 16? Ahhh who cares. Anywho, it's a surgery to get rid of a hernia. She got the hernia over months and months of car rides. How's that you ask? Well, when Abby is strapped in, she arches her back and grunts in an effort to break through the straps and free herself from the car seat. Yes, it sounds cute at first, but after doing this a gazillion times, she gave herself a hernia. Nice!

There are actually some more things on the horizon as far as surgeries go... but this update has gone on too long and you guys just want some pics.



Alright alright. I have a few new ones...

Hello From Abby Town,

Today Abby has a surgery. Nothing too major. She needs to get her GJ Tube replaced. This one only lasted 3 months and it already broke. So this morning, Kelly and Grandma Cindy are on their way to CHOC. Abby will be put to sleep and the doc will have to guide the end of the GJ tube, which is called the catheter, through the hole in her tummy, go past the Gastro or stomach area and into the first section of her intestines, or the Jejunom. While the tube itself goes through the hole in Abby's tummy the doc uses a scope that goes down Abby's mouth and throat, and projects the image on a monitor so she can see what's going on.

The surgery itself takes about 15 minutes. But it's all the stuff before and after. The IV stick is a nightmare because Abby is a very hard stick and usually gets poked about 5 times before they get it. Then of course coming out of anesthesia is terrible and nauseating. So Abby is pretty miserable for the rest of the day.

But it must be done right??!!! We need her to keep growing and this is how she gets fed.

Here are some fun pics to tide everyone over.

Abby LOVES to go into Eddie's crib in the morning. Here are some old shots taken before we moved Eddie into his own room. Abby loves to jump all around and they inevitably bonk heads or trip or something and fall down. The falling down of course causes all kinds of giggles and laughing. It's great!







Here is Eddie at a friends birthday party.



Look at my little guy! I love this little chunker so much! He is truly the best thing that could have happened to us and to Abby. His timing is so perfect. He LOVES his sister so much and is so good with her. I love him I love him I love him. I wanna squeeze him!




Remember how we said that Abby loves the taste of food but hasn't quite gotten the whole swallowing thing down? Well, here is an example of that. Notice the bulge in her left cheek. She chipmunks her food in the left cheek for ever before she gets to it!
But even with a cheek full of food, she is still cute isn't she?!



Momma is very patient with Abby when she tries to "help." Like every other kid who likes to "help" Abby only slows down the process. But again...she's super cute so what can you do?



I mean, come on! I love these hat backwards pics.





Alright then,

Give it up for the Abby Followers! I know you guys are still out there and I love that Abby continues to touch your hearts and you remain faithful to her progress. As long as you all are still watching, Dadda will keep typing. It means the world to me....

Seriously. You have no idea.

I love you.

Abby's Birthday Pics

Here you go Team,

They are fantastic!




Look who's standing! Can you believe it?!








We took a little family trip to see Emma and Maddy. It was a beautiful day. Abby was in a great mood and Eddie was snoozing in the car.





She did this all on her own too...Just when Kelly and I thought she couldn't melt our hearts anymore, she goes and does this...
LOVE HER!



They love going for rides in the new wagon!

New Pics and Updates On the Way

Hello From Abby Town,

It's been crazy over here lately. We had Abby's B Day party and she had a great time! But then she got sick and so did Eddie. In fact, Eddie got Croup...aaarrrgghh. He was coughing and wheezing and it was terrible. He's better now, but it was over a week of constant crying and fussiness during the night. We got zero sleep but worse than that, our poor little Bubba was in pain.

I have some great pics from Abby's B day that I'll try to get to soon.

On a side note, we got Eddie and Abby some Fig Neutons. I have no idea why those fell off my grocery list. Fig Neutons ROCK! We got some animal cookies too. Oh man... And graham crackers, and apple juice, and Ritz...oooooohhhhh the Ritz. Daddy loves them Ritz. Why I ask, why did these fall off my grocery list? These are all classics!!! If you haven't had a Fig lately, go ahead and pick yourself up some. I'm telling you, you'll be glad you did.

Happy Birthday Girls!

Wow. It's been so long I have no idea where to begin. Oohhh, I know....How about this? HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY! Today, April 29th 2008, our little Abby Girl is 2 years old. Her sisters, Emma and Madelyne are no doubt celebrating with her. Happy Birthday you two. Mommy and Daddy miss you both very much. Thank you girls for watching over your sister and now your brother too. You are sure to have your hands full!

Okay then, let's start with Easter. We went out to La Quinta (Palm Springs area) to stay with Great Grandma and Grandpa, aka "G.G." and "G.Pa" The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast.

Take a look at Abby and Eddie with their Easter Baskets...



We put M & M's inside the Easter Eggs and Abby was having so much fun just shaking them like a maraca...



Whereas Eddie was more interested in his basket and spent most of the time trying to get it opened. The packaging provided much more entertainment than we had anticipated!



We also went to the pool. It was the first time for Eddie and Abby's first time this season. Last year she was not a big fan at all, but this year she is loving the pool!




Ah yes, the O Face....a classic indeed



Eddie couldn't get enough of the pool.



Look at this guy! What a little tank. At this very moment, he's plotting his course and in two seconds he'll dart in the direction he's looking. However, he'll take off so quick that his little hands can't get in front of him quick enough. So his master take off plan will turn into a barrel role instead.



Unfortunately, both Abby and Eddie got sick over the Easter weekend. Eddie was able to shake it off after a week or so but Abby wasn't so lucky. She got a terrible case of nausea and diarrhea. The diarrhea made her incredibly dehydrated and thirsty. Abby has really come a long with the sippy cup and would drink a lot of water to hydrate herself. However, since she doesn't have that sphincter at the bottom of her esophagus, the water just came back up. She would dry heave and everything. It was not pretty and Abby was in a lot of pain. Finally, one morning she woke up looking terrible and pale and acting lethargic, so Kelly took her to Urgent Care. She was admitted immediately due to dehydration and severe diarrhea. Since she was so dehydrated, the nurses couldn't find a vein for the IV, and our little munchkin got poked over 6 times before they found a vein that would work.

After that, she was pretty out of it... Take a look...



The docs think she may have contracted a form of the rotavirus. (google it for more info) There is of course a vaccine for this virus as of this year, but Abby didn't get it. Anyway, as usual, momma didn't leave Abby's side and Grandma, Grandpa and GG and G Pop came to the rescue. Between all of us, Kelly was able to stay with Abby while we all played hot potato with Eddie. Thanks guys...AGAIN....for helping us out!

Finally we get a smile



Since she had the IV hooked up at all times she couldn't move around the way she wanted to, so keeping her attention became a real challenge. Uncle Steve managed to keep her interested in his bubbles for quite a while.



Eddie managed to keep himself occupied with all the new hospital toys...especially Abby's IV Tube.



Grandpa and Abby in the hospital right before going home. Finally she started to feel better.



As for the other stuff, Abby is doing GREAT. She is taking steps on her own now. They are a bit wobbly but she's taking them! Here she is helping Daddy push the stroller and as you can see, she is not holding on to anything! She does this a lot now. She can stand on her own with no problem for quite a while.



She is also saying, "Momma," "Dadda," "Papa," "Eddie," (kind of) and others that I can't remember now. It's great. She has learned some sign language too. She knows the sign for "all done," "more," "want," and I think some others here too which again, I can't remember. (It's 2:30AM...cut me some slack will ya?!)She is supposed to point to what she wants, and then make the "want" sign. Her preference though is to still simply point and yell, "eeeeehhhhhhhh!" And these days, the "eeeeeehhhh!" has gotten incredibly loud. Eddie has taken up the role too now and he has a crazy set of vocal chords! That kid can yell with the best of them. He is also quite the adventurer. Check out his favorite new play area...





And here is Eddie's little escapade to the bathroom the other day. Abby quickly followed little brother in, but not to escort him out. No no, she was all about it. Together they finished up the role! Nice.....!







Thank you to all of you for following Abby and sending your prayers and well wishes during these past 2 years. As you all know, she has been through so much, had so many surgeries, so many "close calls," and so many colds, flus etc... and I can honestly say that I'm not sure how we would have gotten through all of it without all of you.

She's 2! I can't believe she's 2! Today is a good day. Wait no...today is a GREAT day.

I hope you are all having a great day too.

I know you know this, but I love you all very much. WE love you all very much.

- Abby's Management

Alrighty then,

I suppose I should jump right into it huh? Man, a lot has happened. I really do need to post more often! Let's see.... a few weekends ago, we all went out to La Quinta (Palm Springs area) to visit Kelly's Grandparents. On Saturday night I was taking Abby out of her high chair after dinner and her J Tube Extension, which is the plastic tube we hook up to that button on her tummy, got caught on something on the high chair. The button has a little plastic donut hole that the J Tube Extension snaps into, and that part ripped out of the button. Abby wasn't hurt, but everything from her tummy was dripping out of her at a very fast pace. So WHAT NOW??!!!!

We actually knew this day would come. When Abby had the J Tube put in, we were told that we would leave it in as long as possible, which meant we would leave it in until it either broke or got clogged. When that day comes we would slowly pull the button and the J Tube out of her tummy and then insert a regular G Tube temporarily. So the doc ordered us the spare G Tube and that was that.

Well, that day was upon us, but there was one problem. The spare G Tube was at our house and we were 2 hours away in the desert. Not to worry! It had been quite a while since my little bride got out of the house and I didn't want the weekend to end just because of this. So I drove home and back that night and we popped the G Tube in and called the doc for the next move.

On Tuesday of the following week, they got Abby in to get another J Tube placed. This has to be done endoscopically which means they use a scope that has a camera on it to see where they're going. The J Tube was a lot longer than I thought it would be. When Kelly pulled it out of Abby's tummy, it just kept coming, like spaghetti! No joke. The sucker was like 10 inches long. Nuts. Anyway, since it's kind of a big deal to put this J Tube in, we had to do the whole pre operation thing....get an IV put in, wait forever and then go into the OR. And while we're in the OR and the nurses are getting everything ready, I notice there's no anesthesiologist so I ask the nurses what the deal was. "Oh yeah" they say, "we're just going to put her under a little bit, so she's in a bit of a twilight state. But we're not going to knock her out completely so we don't need an anesthesiologist." Hmmmmmm....I know what I was thinking and I'm sure Kelly was thinking the same thing, which was, "Yeah right! You think Lil Miss Crazy is going to sit still with a just a wimpy dose of twilight juice? You gotta be joking!"
Sure enough...the juice wasn't enough. They couldn't keep her still. We were told we'd have to come back the following day. Fan Stinkin' Tastic! Yabba Dabba Pooh. So back we went on Wednesday, did the pre op thing again, but this time everything went well. They knocked her out her out before the IV went in which was great because she hates that so much. The J Tube was placed with no problem and we also found out some additional news.

Before I get into that news, let me offer a a quick refresher course. Abby would always throw up her formula, even in the NICU. We could never give her a lot at one time like other baby's with G Tubes because it would come right back up. This is why she was having so much trouble gaining weight. The J Tube is the short term fix to this problem because it takes the formula past the stomach and into her small intestine where it doesn't have the opportunity to be thrown up. Okay... so now, here's what the GI Doc found...

The doc took some time after placing the J Tube and looked around her stomach area a bit and noticed that something was missing. A sphincter. Yeah... you heard me...a A SPHINCTER. Apparently, you and I have a sphincter at the bottom of our esophagus right before our stomach. This sphincter is what keeps our food from coming up when we gag. It only opens up when our body absolutely needs to get something out of our stomach and we put a lot of force on it. Well.... our little Abby is fresh out of that sphincter. So what now? Well, there is a surgery we can do that will basically jerry-rig a sphincter called a Fundoplication, AKA, a FUNDO. But we're not very excited about this because all of our research on the surgery was coming up pretty negative. Google that one and you'll see what we're talking about.

So the plan for now is to keep putting a new J Tube back in and not go back to the G Tube after all. We're only going to hook her up to the pump at night now with some new super SUPER dooper strong formula and feed her normally through the day. She doesn't eat much now on her own but without being fed from her pump during the day, she should get a bit more hungry. Also, Abby is getting close to walking and will most likely be walking on her own in the next 3 to 6 months. The more vertical she is, the better she will digest her food.

Speaking of walking, some pics on the slide show below (ooops, there goes the surprise) show Abby using a walking contraption. She doesn't use this all the time. This is just at therapy and she loves it because she is "walking" without the help of any of us. And our Little Miss Magic is all about doing it on her own.

And then there's Eddie. He is the coolest little guy ever. I love him so much and am so thankful for his trooper attitude. He cruises with momma and Abby to all her appointments and is really good about everything. He's usually in a great mood and yes, he still loves his sister! He is starting to crawl now and is loving his new skill. Kelly thinks he's going to be a lefty like his daddy but I'm not so sure. Of course I think that would be great to have another south paw around the house, but I'm not getting my hopes up. We shall see.

Phew! That was a long one. But it was worth the wait, right? If I'm still in your dog house, watch the video. That should get me at least a FEW brownie points!

Good Night Abby Town. Sleep tight.

Love,
Daddy, Momma, Eddie and Abby

Now we know!

Hello Hello my Fellow Abby Goers,

Before I jump into the meaning behind the title of this post, let me get a few updates out of the way. Abby is doing better, but she is still a bit sick with a runny nose and still throws up just about every morning. Sometimes we can run in and catch all the "goodies" before they land on the sheets but other times, like this morning, we're not so lucky. I have to say though, we have the whole process down pretty good. Kelly grabs Abby and starts pulling her clothes off while I grab new jammies and proceed to yank the matress out of the crib to put a new set of sheets on. The key though is to NOT get too excited or move too fast, because then the Abbers only gets excited too. And at 5AM, that ain't what we're looking for.
Today, Abby was in a great mood. She was making all kinds of sounds with her voice today too. All kinds of Bah Bah sounds and Mah Mah sounds and Dah Dah sounds (none of which were purpose though I'm sad to say.) Oh! She has learned to stick her tongue out too! This is so great! I picked her up Saturday morning from her crib and she just started sticking her tongue out at me. I loved it! This is good because Abby as you all know has trouble eating. She has trouble eating because she can't get her muscles in her mouth or her tongue to work as well as you and I can. And sticking out her tongue ON PURPOSE means that neurologically she has a stronger ability to control the actions of her tongue. Lets not forget that she is SUPER CUTE when she does this. We're still learning it though, so it's hard to get a picture of it. I can't get the tongue on cue like I can the O Face, or Kissy Face, or Very Serious Face. Have you guys seen the I Don't Know Gesture yet? Shoot, I don't think you have. I need to get that one too. Alright, lots to do.
Abby has become EXTREMELY needy and clings to momma like velcro. It basically goes like this: Abby wakes up, momma gets Abby out of bed and takes Abby downstairs. Momma puts Abby on the ground to play....but no. Instead, the Waaaaambulance comes screamin' into town. The sirens turn off only when momma picks Abby up again. This is so much fun I can't even explain it. Thank Goodness Eddie is so calm and sits up on his own now. Kelly can sit him up with some toys and he'll be okay for a short while and won't move. Unless of course he topples over. Then he proceeds to roll like crazy, inevitibly smashing his head into whatever lies in front of him. It's usually a chair leg, a toy, the ottoman or a wall. Either way, the impact of said smashes don't seem to phase him. The dude just keeps on rollin'. He's just a happy go lucky spirit.
Okay...J Tube update. Luckily, the J Tube which was suppose to last 8 weeks is still hanging in there. We have a J Tube replacement surgery scheduled for early March. We hope this J Tube will last as long as then. If it stops working, Kelly is supposed to take it out and put the spare G Tube we have in. That's right, Kelly does this. She's done it before. Crazy huh?
We are hoping the new J Tube will be as successful as this one has been. Abby has really gained some good weight and we think we're close to the 20 lb mark, which means we can turn that car seat around and Abby can face forward.

Okay, so I'm light on the pics, but the one I do have is PRICELESS! Now we know where Abby gets her O face.....

So here is an all time classic O Face picture of Abby....



AND HERE IS KELLY AROUND 2 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



How great is that? I love it!

That's all for now. I hope this blog takes care of your Abby fix for now. I'll work on the tongue picture and the I Don't Know Gesture picture too.

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....