Hello!! We hope everyone is doing well-we have definitely been hibernating and are missing our friends and family-but soon spring will be here and we will be out of hibernation! First off, on Monday Abby was eight weeks-it blows my mind that it's been that long. It has definitely been a blur! This past Tuesday, Feb 3rd, was my due date and it's hard to imagine that I was supposed to have still been pregnant with this little girl who is so full of life! I can't believe she would be doing all this moving around inside of me-it's crazy!
On Tuesday, we went to Chester County for our first appointment in the follow up clinic with one of Abby's neonatolgists. The Dr says that Abby looks great and is very pleased with her progress. Abby was last weighed ten days before the appointment and was 4.10, and when she was weighed on Tuesday she was 5lbs 8oz! I still can't believe she weighed that much! They are supposed to gain anywhere from 1/2 oz to 1 full oz a day-Abby gained 14oz in 10 days-she is gonna be a chunker!!! They kept telling us once she got home she would really gain and they were right! It's such a relief that she is finally gaining and is on the right track. For the past few weeks we have been bottle feeding Abby with breast milk fortified with some formula for extra calories for the majority of her feeds and only breast feeding twice a day. Since Abby had such a great weight gain, the Dr flipped it and now we breast feed all day except for two bottle feeds with the extra calories. She does much better breast feeding so hopefully this will be much easier on everyone. We finally are making headway to get rid of her oxygen and monitor. We lowered her O2 as low as we can have it and we go back to the Dr next week to check her weight gain. If she is still gaining we will keep the oxygen off except when she's feeding-since that is when she's doing the most work. We'll go back the Dr the week after that and check her gain again and if she's doing well then we can finally say goodbye to it! At that point they'll probably also stop her medicine, and while the meds work their way out her system she'll be on the monitor-probably about another week or two. We're hoping within the next month to be rid of all of it! It's very exciting to see an end in sight. It was a relief in the beginning to have the monitor, but it really is a pain in the butt. We have to put Abby down every time we need to walk more than a few feet away-and don't get me started on going up and down the stairs with everything-we go down in the am, and up in the pm and that's it-sometimes it's easier to stay upstairs all day! Anyway, we are so excited that Abby is doing well, and we just continue to enjoy having her home and watching her grow. Here are a few pics from the past few days, she's definitely starting to fill out-especially in her face....and everyone says she looks just like daddy :)

Roxy is SO nosey, she has to know what we're doing at all times and she loves to sniff Abby, but Abby doesn't mind at all...

She was very happy with a full belly....

Again, a full belly, just relaxing, all snuggled up!