And the saga continues

It's been a tense week of watching and logging Abby's intake and outtake. Yesterday morning Mark and I headed down to PCMC in Salt Lake with Abby a little before 6:30 to admit her. She had only taken in around 7 1/2 oz during the previous 24 hrs and her urine output was about half of the minimum they want to see over the last 12 hours.
Of course, it was also Joshua's first day of Kindergarten, so I had to take him over to a neighbor's house so she could take him to school. Her camera was busted and when we picked him up I got a few shots. I'm not sure how they'll turn out since my camera has been acting up and is now dead too. I think someone probably dropped it. Joshua had a so-so day. Hopefully he'll have better days in the weeks to come.
So, Abby is on an i.v. and has a nasal feeding (ng) tube in. She's had some tests and has another upper GI sometime today to try and determine how bad her reflux is. No one knows yet why she won't eat. It's also a 3 day weekend, so all of the GI doctors are gone until Tuesday. I'm not comfortable with her coming home with the ng tube. She is notorious for pulling them out and she's just gotten too big and strong for me to put it back in, especially on a daily basis. Also, if she were to pull it partially out during a feeding without my knowledge, then she could aspirate into her lungs quite easily. The plan will be for a g tube surgically inserted into her stomach with a port on her abdomen. However, it could take at least a week to get tht arranged. So in the meantime, here we are. She would then most likely have the tube in for around 2 years until she can completely take in everything she needs by mouth.

9/5 months old

On Monday Abby will officially be 9 months old, but her corrected age is now 5 months old. She is acting like a typical 5 month old. She likes to roll on to her tummy anytime she's on her back. Unfortunately, she hasn't gotten the hang of rolling back yet. She also likes to stand when you hold her and is getting better and better at playing in her saucer. She started on cereal of couple of weeks back. She still isn't real big on it yet and she's still having trouble with eating over all. My birthday was Thursday and she started eating better on that day. She is still eating better, but not up to full feedings yet. We weighed her yesterday at Joshua's 5 yr. check up and she had put on weight, so I'm happy about that. She will have her 9 mos. check up on Tuesday and we will see what the Dr. has to say.

Joshua's birthday was a week before mine and he's enjoying being 5. The Saturday before we had his party at the local fun center where the kids could play on all types of inflatables, plus there is this other enclosed area for younger kids that has all kinds of ramps to climb up, slides, a rope swing, etc... He had a Superman theme, but wanted a number of the Planet Heroes characters from Fisher Price. They're pretty cool. He's learned almost all of the planet names already. Then on his actual b-day we all 4 went out to breakfast at Mimis. This was a first for Miss Abby, and she did very well. Then Joshua and Daddy went to a local bowling alley that also has an indoor miniature golf. Guess it's glow in the dark, and also has other arcade games. Then on Friday Mommy and Joshua went to the Tree House childrens' museum and Farr's Ice Cream shop up in Ogden.

Here are some photos of Superbaby, Abby's first attempt at eating, sleeping like an angel, and I finally got a good smile on film. Also one of her and her brother. Joshua loves his little sister and is always giving her hugs and kisses.

NeoNatal Follow Up

Abby had a weight check on Monday with her pediatrician and for the first time she lost weight-2 ounces. So we started on cereal on Monday. She's doing okay with it.

At her neoNatal check up today she saw a pediatrician, physical therapist and nutritionist. The pediatrician and PT were very surprised with how well she was doing for a 23 weeker. The PT said he saw a lot of positive things, but he is going to take note that she doesn't use her left hand and foot the same as her right. It's something he'll check out at her next appt. in another 4 1/2 months.
Both he and the nutritionist saw a red flag in the fact that she doesn't have very regular bowel movements. They are hoping that this is why she is having eating issues so we are going to try a few things to see if we can get her more regular. We'll see how that goes. She will also see a neurologist on the 18th of the month.

After her appt. we went over to UMC (just a few buildings away from the health dept.) to say "hi" in the NBICU. Almost everyone we wanted to see either wasn't there today or were in a meeting that they couldn't leave. Bummer. But we'll be back down there on Sept 11th for her pulmonologist appt. so we'll stop by again.

Getting out and about

So, we've finally started taking Abby out other than doctors' appts. We took her to the local 4th of July parade. She slept the whole time. Then a week later to our city's heritage days pancake breakfast, then the parade after that. They had SEVERAL emergency vehicles driving very slowly while their sirens were going off the whole time to start the parade. Joshua and Abby weren't too thrilled about this. She finally fell asleep in her stroller while Joshua had a blast collecting candy and other goodies that were tossed to the onlookers. The photo shows his candy score. More than he got at Halloween. I've also taken her shopping twice and run some other errands with her.

And we've taken her to church a few times. We've been meeting in a tent on our newly purchased property. You can see Mark feeding her in the bottom center of the other photo. We had some very strong winds this past week though and the whole tent flipped (yes, it was staked. They just pulled out) and some of the pieces bent. We will be meeting in the barn like building until the new tent we've ordered arrives and is put up. Eventually the barn structure will be converted into a sanctuary.

This week we have a couple of dr. appts., one of which is down in Salt Lake. This is her Neonatal Follow Up through the health dept. She will be seeing several different specialist including a nutritionist. I'm hoping they will be able to help out with her eating issues. She hasn't been eating well for almost 7 weeks now. She hasn't lost any weight yet. She has another weight check on Monday. She should be eating 2-3 ounces per pound of weight. She is now nearing 13 pounds and is only eating 12-14 ounces per day. We would appreciate any prayers in regards to this issue as it has been very stressful for me. She seems okay otherwise. However, she does sleep quite a bit during the day as well as at night. If she doesn't start eating better she may need to have a g-tube surgically inserted. We'll see.

reaching some milestones

On Wednesday, July 30th Abby rolled from her tummy to her back for the first time. She's only done it that one time, but we'll take it. She still can't figure out where to put her arms to get from her back to her tummy, but she's so close. She rolls onto her side and has been doing this for a few weeks now. She also has begun to grab her foot. So cute. Also this week I put Joshua's saucer together to see if she would like it. She can't reach the bottom yet, but neither could Joshua at this age. I put a folded towel down for him. I thought Abby might need a throw pillow, but I think a towel will do it for her too. She doesn't like to be in it for more than 10 or 15 minutes, but she's figured out how to spin around and check out the different toys. Of course I have to keep an eye on the oxygen tube when she spins. That's a concern I have when she does start rolling over too. I'm hoping that if I feed it down through her clothes and out the bottom she won't be able to wrap it around her neck.