In Keeping With Traditions

In keeping with the tradition of taking milestone pictures in the big green chair...

And a little time at the piano.

Six Months Old!

Hello!

Abigail turned six months old on the 21st.  Wow!  To god be the glory, great things he hath done.

We have been busy with doctors appointments and a home construction project, see We Must Protect This House!, so we haven't had much time to update the blog lately.  We extended our backyard, put a gate across our driveway and built a moat to secure the place. Well only a few of those are true.

Yesterday Abby had her six month shots and also had a visit to the cardiologist.  We got great news on both visits.  Her heart is doing great AND the MRI from a week ago showed NO ISSUES with a tethered cord or any other problems.  We are so relieved! Praise the Lord!

Getting ready for the EKG

Somehow enjoying her 12 lead EKG

All hooked up

Today Abigail took a trip to the GI doctor for a follow up appointment.  We meet with a nutritionist and they answered some of our questions about starting solid foods.  The GI doctor said we were doing great! He has stayed in contact with the doctor in San Antonio and they are both happy with her progress.  He also said to go ahead with solid foods.

So we headed off to Baby's-R-Us and got a high chair and some level one solid foods.  Abigail did great with the carrots we tried today and made sure to get them all over her face!  It was a great first effort and we hope it continues.  Many kiddos that deal with surgeries early on have an oral aversion so we hope she keeps up the good work!

Funny Girl

Yum!

Messy

All done

We have so much to be thankful for as we look back at her six months of life.  Thanks for checking in on our little girl.  Here are the few pictures of the last few weeks.

A visit from Aunt Lesa!

A visit from Aunt Marcy!

A play date with my cousin Evelyn!

Someone's ready for college football

A night out at the dinner table

Sleeping on Grammy

Playing in the bumbo

All of the essentials for a road trip

Tubes & MRI

Abigail made a trip back to the hospital Thursday for a pre-op appointment.  We answered the normal questions about things like allergies and medical history.  They had us stop feeding her Friday morning at five and go to pedialyte until nine where she would be NPO.

Waiting in the exam room

On our way out we stopped by the NICU to say hello to all of the good folks there.  It was great to see everyone including her neonatologists. It was pretty emotional walking in there but we were getting to show her off not come to visit her.  Seeing the reaction of the doctors and nurses was also great (Alex we were sad we missed you).  Happy moments like these are a great reminder of how far she has come.

A visit back in the NICU

The good doctor

Abby's MRI Friday was scheduled at noon and we arrived at 10:30am.  At 1:30pm she had gone into a trance from being so hungry.  They finally told us that she would be getting the ear stuff taken care of first and then get the MRI.  She was taken back and put under anesthesia shortly after and about 2:30pm or 3:00pm the doctor came out and told us that she did have fluid in her ears, it was clear (not infected) and that he put in the smallest tubes that they had.  Next, Abigail went for an MRI, still under anesthesia, followed by a ABR (hearing test).  The hearing test, which we were nervous about because of the drugs she was given in the NICU, showed normal hearing.  Hallelujah!

The MRI she had was to check to see if Abigail has a tethered cord.  This sometimes occurs along with the issue she has with her bottom that is called imperforate anus.  A tethered cord means that nerves wrap around the base of the spinal cord.  The tethered cord can cause a myriad of problems down the road in development.  We have to wait a few days before we hear back from our doctor who ordered the MRI. A radiologist will read and relay the information to their office.  Of course we are worried but we will wait and see what the MRI reveals and go from there.

Gown on, ready to go

Waiting

and waiting

and waiting

In the waiting room

All done, and really fussy

Feeling a bit better

Ready to head home

Much more aware of noises now that her ears are clean

Working on tummy-time

The PT is showing us some techniques

More work

As we wait for news of the MRI we keep marching forward.  Sometimes it gets lost in busyness of the day but we are so thankful for each day with her.  Abigail is doing great right now and we are truly blessed. 

A Nice Day

We had a nice day today.  Tried rice cereal for the first time. Funny. Didn't totally hate it.

Took a walk with the family. Didn't sweat too much.  Non-Texan readers its been hot here for a while now.

Had a visit from ECI today to evaluate diet.  Weighs 13 lbs 1 oz and is 25 1/2 inches long.  Keep up the good work.

Great-Aunt B

Great-Uncle Jerry

Got to meet Aunt B and Uncle Jerry for the first time.

Mom

Aunt Brittany a few days ago

We Must Protect This House!

Well we woke up Friday morning to this...

Yukon sitting on landscaping blocks

The front of our house sits on a nice quite cul-de-sac, unfortunately our driveway faces a busy street. We've lived here for almost six years now and this is the first time anything like this has happened. We were up late so it must have happened sometime in between two and six Thursday night.  It's pretty creepy thinking about people doing this crap while we were sleeping.  Apparently our dog is a heavy sleeper too.  I'm still mad at him about it.

Stephanie drives a Yukon and it has 20 inch wheels on it.  It was the car she always wanted and she finally got it a few years ago.

Stephanie's new car 2007

If you have one of your own, head's up.  We park underneath a carport which is a few steps away from our bedroom (and currently Abby's) so we were a bit freaked out.  Needless to say we are making a few changes for safety's sake. I feel like the Under Armour slogan "We must protect this house."

We have four landscaping blocks if anyone needs some.

This week Abigail will be making another trip up to the hospital.  She'll be put under anesthesia for an MRI, hearing test, and possibly tubes which we wrote about in the post Five Months Old.  We hope this goes smoothly and she doesn't have any hearing loss.

Here are a few more pictures of Abby lately.

I have a ways to go until my owl hat will fit.