20 Weeks Old

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Abby is now half as old as my pregnancy was long - I'm not entirely sure that sentence made sense, but whatever, I am very tired. Jameson and I are also celebrating our seventh anniversary today! Last year we had to forego any celebrations due to my out of control morning sickness, so we're excited to let my sister and her husband hang out with Abby for a bit while we get out for a fancy dinner.  Hopefully the munchkin will behave herself!

Abby has had a weird week. 

Highlights include:

- Celebrating her first Christmas! She was awarded a brief trip out of the step-down unit to see the hospital in all its decorated splendor. She also received a multitude of lovely things from her many admirers around the continent, thank you everyone!

- Visiting with family in from out-of-town. We had some of Jameson's family here over Christmas, and some of my family are here now. Abby has loved hanging out with everyone, and we haven't minded it too much either ;)

- We've been enjoying lots of sweet smiles, baby babble, and seeing Abby actually show some interest in a few of her toys!

Less awesome things (Lowlights?) include:

- Abby starting a serious puke-fest Christmas afternoon that continued through the weekend and on into today. Turns out her white blood cell count was very high, and a urine culture suggests that she has a urinary tract infection. :( She's been started on antibiotics. 

- She had to have an MRI to assess whether or not the code event caused any noticeable brain issues - while the results came back looking ok, she screamed through the whole thing. It was pretty dreadful. My poor pumpkin.

- The oxygen saturation levels in her blood have been dropping in her sleep (de-satting). We're not sure why this is happening all of a sudden or if it's related to some of her other respiratory issues, but she's on the list to have a sleep study done.

Other things:

- We're working on re-establishing Abby's pacifier sucking skills. Since heart surgery she has wanted absolutely nothing to do with the pacifier or bottle. While this sort of oral aversion is pretty common after a long period of intubation,  for kids like Abby who have never really been able to eat by mouth, it's very important to keep up with the use of these muscles. Little by little she's coming around to it though. She's at least shown lots of interest in her fingers!

- We've also had the opportunity to start working with Abby in something called a tumble form chair. It gives Abby the chance to work on her sitting skills without having to hold her head up completely on her own. She has a very difficult time with head control, so this is great for her.

All in all some ups and downs, but she's stayed pretty happy through everything, and we pray these new challenges will remedy themselves quickly! Our holiday celebrations continue to be odd, but wonderful - we hope all of your holidays have been merry and bright as well!