Abigail update

Hey everyone! Abigail continues to recover from her Feb 13th surgery & is doing better every day. We took the bandage off on Fri.(20th) & the stitches don't look too bad. They are dissoluble stitches, so they should start to fall out over the next several days. We put a peroxide & water mixture, as well as ointment on the stitches once a day. She is starting to eat more. Sometimes she eats up to 4 oz. every 3 hrs. She is also smiling & laughing more. Her little laugh is so cute! She also enjoys Mommy & Daddy reading her books. We are enjoying watching Abigail grow & learn more every day. She is so precious to us! It's hard to believe she's already 10 months old.
Michele & Kurt

Abigail home from Children's

Hey everyone! Abigail came home from Children's Monday evening. She was moved from the PICU to a private room Sat. afternoon. She is doing pretty good after her base of skull surgery. I think she is still in some pain, but we've been giving her Tylenol & Motrin to help control the pain. She is on her regular eating schedule, but is only eating 2-3 oz. right now. I'm sure she will be eating better in the next couple days. We are feeding her baby food. She is eating a vegetable @ one feeding & a fruit @ another feeding. She is doing pretty good with that. She is not sitting up on her own yet, but we hope that once she recovers more she will be able to strengthen her neck muscles even more. We are very happy to have her home & hope she doesn't have another hospital stay for a long time. She goes back to the bpd clinic in March where they will access her oxygen needs. Thank You to everyone for your thoughts & prayers.
Michele & Kurt

Abigail update

Hey everyone! Abigail is doing good & making progress with occupational & physical therapy. She is now 91/2 months old, weighs 101/2 lbs. & is 21 inches long. I haven't wrote about this in my blog, but when Abigail was 9 wks. old, she was diagnosed with achondroplasia dwarfism. It is not genetic, but was caused by a mutation in the gene fibroblast growth factor receptor type 3 or FGFR3, @ conception. Achondroplasia is the most common type of dwarfism, which happens in about 1 in every 40,000 births. It's the kind of dwarfism that Mom & Wife, Amy Rollof & their son Zach have on TLC's Little People Big World. Abigail recently had an MRI done to look for any abnormalities & they discovered that the base of her skull is compressing her spinal chord. We talked to a neurosurgeon, Dr. Grondin, who is going to do what is called base of skull surgery, in which they remove the portion of the skull that is compressing the spinal chord. Abigail's surgery is scheduled for Friday, February 13th. She will be in the hospital for 4-5 day after her surgery to recover. They may keep her on her oxygen a little longer now. We will let you know when she is off oxygen during the day. We are nervous for her to have surgery, but after her surgery I believe that she will be able to breathe even better & make more developmental progress. We will let you know how her surgery goes.
Michele & Kurt