So here are the new pics..sorry bout that....


She looked so cute with her pink pacie and pink snuggler-Aunt Kim would be so proud!
Here is daddy with his girls..and for some reason he thought it was a good idea to have coffee also!

Excuse the wipe by her head-I though this was the best face!

Daddy and Abby taking a rest-too cute!!

Hello again! Sorry it's been a while since the last update, it's been pretty hectic, and exhausting, but we love having Abby home. Matt has off today so he got up with Abby all night last night so I could get some sleep-so I'm feeling pretty good today! Abby is doing wonderful. Last Friday we went to the pediatrician and she was 4lbs 10oz, so next time she's weighed I'm sure she'll be at least 5lbs. She's really packing on the lbs!! Next week we go back to Chester County where one of her neonatologists will be seeing her in their outpatient clinic for NICU babies. Hopefully we'll talk about getting Abby off of the oxygen and monitors. We haven't had a single alarm since she's been home, which is fantastic!! The machine alarms if Abby has a low or high heart rate or has an apnea(stops breathing). Abby hadn't any sleep related apnea for about two weeks prior to discharge, the only issue was when she was eating. It's the whole suck, swallow and breath coordination that preemies lack. She's been doing great so hopefully we'll be able to get rid of all this stuff soon. It's nice for my piece of mind having the monitor here but the cords are such a pain, they're always tangled, and leads are rough on her poor little skin! Anyway, nothing else is new, here are some new pics!

Hi to everyone!! Here is a quick update and a few pictures of the cutest baby around! Everything is going great. Abby is doing very well and seems to be getting settled in her new home. The nurse came on Tuesday and she was 4lbs 6oz, which is great! We go back to the pediatrician on Friday and I'm sure she'll have packed on a few more ounces by then. She's eating and sleeping well. The first few nights she was up every two hours to eat, but we finally got her to go three hours-and this morning she definitely went four-anything over three feels like a victory. Matt has had off work all week and it's great having him home. We get to figure this out together and I wish he didn't have to go back! He's working this weekend and then he has off again next week, he's trying to stretch those vaca days! We've been taking lots of pics so I'll make sure to get them up in a more timely fashion....

On a quick note, Matthew and I wanted to say thank you to all of our friends and family. Since day one when Abby made her early entry, all through the past almost seven weeks, and continuing through today, the out pouring of love and support from our friends and family has been truly overwhelming. From cards, to flowers, to phone calls, prayers, gifts, dinners and emails, everyone has expressed how much they love us and Abby and we really can't thank everyone enough. It is a wonderful feeling to know that we have such a loving and supportive family and an incredible group of friends. We are truly blessed! We couldn't have gotten through this without all of you-so thank you to everyone-we love you all!!


here are a few pics....
Abby looks like a burrito here-I love it!

Roxy is a little jealous because she is obsessed with my mom but Grammy had to see her grand baby first!

Home!! We are finally home! It's hard to believe it's finally here-It's been six weeks since Abby was born, and although it felt really long at the time, it's a blur! Abby came home on Wednesday, but first we slept at the hospital on Tuesday night for a 'trial run' with Abby hooked up to the home monitor and oxygen. It was a pretty long and sleepless night. The room was extremely quiet, and Abby is used to lots of noise so she was pretty restless, as where we. But we made it through the night. Wednesday am I had my six week check up with the OB, everything is looking good. They put me on blood pressure med like an old lady before I left the hospital because a week after delivery my blood pressure was still really high, so they were also checking that. Finally around lunch time on Wednesday, Abby was discharged and we headed home. Besides being excited to have Abby home and just be around her all the time, we were excited to see how Roxy reacted to our new addition. It was kind of disappointing because Roxy just sniffed her for a minute and then moved on. Roxy has been really good with Abby so far, she's very curious about her, so there is lots of sniffing. Right now Abby is asleep in her cradle and Roxy is sniffing all around it and whining at it because she wants to get close enough to sniff Abby-but Abby doesn't seem to mind!
The first two days have been going really well. Matt and I both decided since we made it this far we can handle anything Abby throws at us-I know we say that now! Preemies are supposed to sleep about 22 hours a day, but I don't think Abby got that memo. I think she's just getting used to being in a new place, there hasn't been too much crying, just a little fussing and restlessness-but she seems to be a little more settled today. Like I said before, we're strictly limiting visitors for a while, especially during the winter season. Because Abby is a preemie she has an increased risk for RSV-a virus we really don't want her to get! As soon as we can have some visitors we'll let everyone know. For now Abby is what they call 'home bound' because of the monitor and oxygen, so we'll be hibernating for a while. A nurse came today to check out Abby and take her weight and everything was good. Abby now weighs 4.01 lbs. We go to the pediatrician tomorrow and the eye doctor next week. Abby is also at risk for some eye problems later in her life but so far everything looks good. We don't go to CHOP until February, so hopefully we won't have too many more appointments in the mean time.
Here a few pics of our first few days, they'll be tons more to come....

This is Abby just before we wheeled her out of the hospital....

This is Abby in her car seat-it looks huge next to her!

Our first night wasn't too bad, but apparently we kept Roxy up!!!

Abby's sleep area downstairs is in the changing area of her pack-n-play-it's the perfect size for her!

Roxy was more interested in daddy-yes she is licking his head-and he couldn't stop her...

Matt loves this pic-Roxy is so curious about what we're doing with Abby-I'm not looking to fab but I have an excuse for a while!

Finally..we have to nursery done-and more importantly Abby is coming home this week!! We can hardly believe it's all coming together!!! Abby is scheduled to come home on Wednesday, it can always get pushed back, but we're thinking it will be Wednesday. She's doing wonderfully, they just want to be sure she's gaining enough weight and still eating well. Abby has been eating everything by mouth since Thursday-and she's a pig! When I'm not in the hospital to see her she eats from a bottle and she gobbles it up. At her last weight on Sunday she was 3.14lbs, and I'm sure she's gone up since then because she's been eating so well. We were hoping she would have been rid of the oxygen before she comes home but she still needs it- She's on a very small amount and just can't seem to kick it. We tried her off of it on Saturday and she did OK but she let us know she still needs it-she is totally the boss already-Roxy's in trouble! Abby's Dr's think she'll be on the oxygen less than a month and she hopefully won't be on the monitor for much longer. Matthew and I had our training at the hospital today for everything. We had training for CPR, and both the monitor and the oxygen. It was a little over whelming but I think we got it all. We are staying over night in the hospital tomorrow with Abby to get a 'trial run' with everything. Matt and I stay in a room next to the NICU with Abby and she is hooked up to everything just as she'll be at home. If we have any questions or need help the nurses are right next door-if only it was the case at home! They assure us that after we stay the night we'll feel much better about everything. Needless to say we are very excited to have her home. A nurse will come over the next day and check her weight and make sure everything is OK and then the next day we see our pediatrician. One of her neonatologists from Chester County runs a follow up clinic in the hospital and she will see Abby sometime next week. We'll also probably go see the surgeon and liver Dr's at CHOP next week, so Abby will be making her rounds. As soon as she can have visitors we will get everyone together. I know you all want to come see her and love her, and she can't wait to meet all of you. We have to strictly limit visitors because she has such a high risk of getting sick. If she does get sick she'll have to go back to the hospital, so we'll do everything we can to avoid that.

Thanks to my wonderful family, the nursery is finally done!!! Originally, we picked out this really cute, neutral alphabet theme for the baby's room. After Abby came, we went to go buy the bed set and they didn't have it. So I was looking around and saw the cutest set for a girl's room and after I saw it I just couldn't see Abby in anything else!! So we returned the few things we had gotten for the other theme and bought the cutest bedding set I've ever seen!! It's pink-of course-with ladybugs and flowers..I love it!! My mom, and my Aunt Kim, Uncle Steve and their kids came and everyone helped-even Roxy. Mom attempted to pain the first day-but when she went back to the store for more paint, they mixed up the wrong color and we didn't realize it until after she was done. One entire half of the room was bubble gum pink, and the other half was a very pretty light pink I picked out. So they all came back on Sunday and Steve and mom repainted--I think mom is a little sore!! Kim, Marissa and her girlfriend washed all Abby's clothes and organized her room. They boys attempted to keep Roxy out of the nursery but she still had pink paint on her whiskers! I really don't know what we would have done if they hadn't come over-We just never had to time to get everything together. I'm sure Kim has a few more things up her sleeve to finish Abby's room, but it looks so darn cute already!!
We'll be taking lots of pics and video of Abby as she's coming home and I promise to get them up online as soon as I can.....love to all of you!!

Hello to everyone. Everything is going well with Abby. They are still saying she should be home with in the next two weeks, it could be longer though. They're trying to get her off the oxygen so it might take a little longer. Her lungs look good, they look like they need the oxygen still so we'll see what we can do. The other news is that we finally got through to CHOP and talked to the surgeon and the liver specialist. They are both in aggreance to wait as long as possible to do the surgery. We still have to go down and meet with them when Abby is discharged, but for now they want to wait. They said it could be anywhere from 4months to a year. Basically, until the tumor starts growing too large and causing her problems, they are just going to monitor her and let her get as big as they can before they take it out. We're pretty relieved because we thought she was going to get discharged and have to go right into CHOP for the surgery. But as of right now the tumor is causing her no problems and her liver is still working, so we have just have to wait and see. So now she really is coming home soon and we have to prepare for that. They will give us cpr training and training on the monitor. She'll probably be on the monitor for about 2 months depending on how well she does. Other than the tumor, Abby's doing really well. She's feeding really well and starting to put some meat on her bones. Here are the latest pics of her. When Matt's family was here they did a little shopping and here is a super cute outfit they got her...

She loves her pacifier-I think she looks like maggie simpson here....

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you all had a safe holiday. We had a nice quiet night this year which was nice. Matt's family was down for a visit. His sister, mom and niece came down to see Abby. As you can see below, Leah and Roxy had a good time together! Anyway, everything with Abby is good. She was 3.7lbs was she was weighed on Thursday, so she's definitely packing on the lbs! She's been doing really well with feeding, I breastfeed twice a day and they are trying the bottle for her other feeds to try to get her taking all of her feeds by mouth. They'll probably start out with every other feed by mouth and work up to every. They did three feeds in a row yesterday by mouth and when we tried to breastfeed she was totally pooped! They also moved her out of her issolette and she's now in a 'crib'. (It's the beds they have in the nursery) She's been holding her temperature really well so the crib is the next step. It's exciting to see her in a big girl bed. Yesterday was the first time they actually talked to us about Abby coming home. I thought I was ready for a baby but now I'm freaking out! It'll probably still be about 2 weeks, but they're trying to prepare us. She will still have to be on some meds for her lungs so she'll have to come home on a monitor, which they'll train us to use. We'll probably stay over night in the hospital right before she comes home-in a room with her-to get used to everything. It's nice because the nurses are right next door if we need them-if only they could come home with us! We don't know how long she'll be home because we'll be headed to CHOP pretty soon after to discuss when she'll be having her surgery. It'll be nice to have her home for a while in the mean time. And thanks to every one's gifts she'll be very well dressed while she's here!
Here a few pics from NYE.....

Poor Leah is getting attacked by Roxy, she kept going after the belt on her robe....

Here's daddy with Abby......

This is her in her crib with her cute 2008 shirt...

For once she was actually wide awake!