Abby News

Yesterday we received the news that we wouldn't be able to bring Abby home with us today. We weren't too upset since the doctor said it would be Friday or Saturday. Today, as we met with the doctor (a different one on call today), she indicated it could be another week for Abby.

They want to send Abby back to Duke (which is perfectly fine with us). They want to do a few more tests:
* MRI to look for any neurological issues that would cause her not to be able to feed - this is really pretty unlikely. It seems to me that if it were neurological, then she would be consistently unable to eat instead of sometimes do really well and sometimes not. But, there's no harm in looking.

*Stomach emptying test - watching to see how the stomach empties when she eats. The theory is that it empties slowly thus making her feel full and deciding to stop eating. I personally think this is the most likely problem.

* ENT assessment to check her vocal cords. Apparently, if they aren't moving correctly it can cause problems. This could be a possibility.

Additionally, at Duke, they will have one speech therapist to work with her several times a day. It would be more intensive and probably help her to have a consistent person doing the feeds.

It was just awful leaving Abby there today. Especially now since we don't know when she will be home. It was easy to tell that today's doctor really didn't think much of us taking Natalie home either. She seemed really convinced that we couldn't handle it. Frankly, one baby is no big deal. I think she thinks the pump thing is really complicated and hard, but it's not. It's really not much harder than having to prepare a bottle to feed her every 3 hours. I made out charts and colored coded all her meds so now it's about just following the schedule and doing a little prep work every morning for the whole day.

I guess we'll see the doctors again tomorrow when we visit Abby. Maybe then we will know more about when she might move (as always it's about finding a bed) and what the time table is. Till then, we'll just enjoy Natalie and look forward to Abby's homecoming as well.