Hello again to everyone! It seems that we have fewer updates lately, and I think that's a good thing. No news is good news right? Everyone here is doing wonderful. As of this past Friday, Abby is off of the monitor for good! YAY!!!!!! Last week she was only on the monitor at night when we were all asleep, until they got the results from the download. It's so exciting! Now we can get on with our lives and just enjoy being with Abby. We still have plenty of Dr appointments coming up in the next few months. We have to see a specialist to make sure her eyes are developing properly, (which they were at the last checkup), we have her four month checkup and shots, we go back to CHOP in May for another ultrasound, and we also go back to Chester County to meet with the physical therapist in April to see where Abby's development is. All of those appointments are a piece of cake compared to everything else we've been through. It just feels so good to be done with everything else. We are just loving her and starting to be around more family and friends. We have a had a few visitors, but we're still staying home for the most part, trying to keep Abby healthy, especially until it's warm-and when will that be?? We are certainly ready for the spring! This past weekend if was finally time for Abby to meet Aidan and Moira, and we couldn't wait. I really miss them! It went pretty well, (-only a few meltdowns) Aidan wanted to hold Abby the whole time and Moira was eating Roxy's food and they were both chasing Roxy around the house, but we survived. Here are a few pics.....

here's the family, of course Roxy managed to get in!
Aidan couldn't get enough of Abby, it was SO cute!

Abby with her Aunt and cousins....

Here she is in her big girl outfit Aunt Kim bought, too cute! It was a little big, but I love it!

Hi everyone! Happy St. Patrick' Day! I hope you're all out drinking green beer and eating corned beef and cabbage (yuck!) I don't have too much to update, but of course there are some new pictures. We're taking so many I'm having a hard time choosing what to post! We went to the Dr on Friday for another shot, and Abby was 8lbs! She's such a chubster and we love it! We are also getting her monitor downloaded today, for the last time! Once they get the results Abby will be off the monitor for good, YAY! Last time they downloaded the monitor, it took two weeks to get the results back, and if they had gotten back the next day, Abby would be off the monitor today, not getting another download. So we talked to the Dr yesterday, we're going to try to get the results sent right to her so she can read them in the next day or two, but in the mean time, we're only putting Abby on the monitor at night when we're all sleeping-well some of us, she's been boycotting sleep lately. The Dr told us to just live our lives during the day and not worry about it. She's doing so well and the monitor's memory is empty, so there isn't anything happening, and we are done! Hopefully we'll be rid of it soon. Here are some new pictures of the peanut...

here is Grammy with her grand-babies.... here is some tub time...she's loving the tub lately, no tears...

my little peanut!

I was trying to keep her awake, but I guess she was pooped, of course this was the middle of the day, not at night...

We have some more news for everyone, and it seems to be good news! We heard from the surgeon and the liver specialist today. The surgeon thinks that the growth is probably a hematoma (which is pretty much a collection of blood)-this is what they originally thought it was. When Abby was first in the NICU, they had her main IV line in through her belly button and they think that's where the hematoma came from. If it is a hematoma, it will go away on it's own and we won't need surgery! YAY!!! There isn't a way for them to know 100% at this point, but that's what they think. The blood work also came back normal, which also leads them to believe it wasn't a hamartoma. We are scheduled to go back to see the surgeon in two months and have another ultrasound and at that appointment he'll decide if she needs an MRI. Again, we are trying not to get our hopes up too high because nothing is totally certain, but whatever the mass is, it's shrinking own it's own and that is amazing!!! We are really happy and are praying she won't need the surgery, but we'll have to wait and see. It seems like all of your prayers are certainly working! We'll keep everyone posted if anything changes. Here are some new pics of Abby doing some more tummy time, which she loves more and more these days.

this is how I know she's done, she either cries or starts to fall asleep, and she's pretty close here....
Abby is so stinking strong! She lifts her head all the way up, it's crazy! She looks like a turtle!

Hi everyone! I hope you're all able to enjoy this beautiful weather today, I love it! I'm so ready for the winter be over, bring on the spring!!!
Well, we certainly have an update for everyone. The past few days have really been chaotic, but in the end, it was worth it! We had our appointments yesterday at CHOP-for an ultrasound and with the liver specialist. So we had been waiting all week for Friday to come so we can hopefully get some answers. Before we got to Friday, we had to take care of Roxy. She started limping on Thurs, we had no clue what was wrong, she was fine when she went to bed on Wed, but we couldn't get her to vet until last night when we got back from CHOP. The poor thing was traumatized at the vet-plus she's in pain. She's been laying under the dinning room table since she got back last night. They did an X-Ray and said her wrist is swollen but nothings broken. They gave us some pain meds and told us to help her up and down the stairs and try to take it easy-which is usually hard for our crazy dog, but she's been really sad and tired. We feel so bad we can't do anything for her. Hopefully she'll be back to normal in no time.

There's one kid down!

Well we spent all day Friday at CHOP, I mean ALL day. We got there around 945/10 and didn't leave until almost 4! I hate that place! First we had Abby's belly ultrasound. The Dr's wanted to see how much the tumor had grown in relation to how much Abby was growing, and then we would talk to liver Dr about the ultrasound and go from there. Much to every one's surprise, not only did the tumor not grow, it actually shrank! A lot!! They told us from the beginning that there was pretty much no chance it would shrink-it was never a thought for anyone-(except my sister's husband, who kept asking "so it could shrink and go away?" and Jess would say, "no, it doesn't work like that"-I hate when he's right!)-so we were shocked! And so was the radiologist, and both the liver Dr's. Basically, the tumor is shrinking and dying on its own. At this point, they aren't sure what the growth is,so they don't know if it will go away completely or not. If the growth is what was originally diagnosed(a hamartoma), it is extremely rare for it to shrink and die on it's own. It's apparently extremely rare for there to be this kind of growth in an infant anyway. So it either is a hamartoma, or they were wrong and it's another kind of tumor. They said there are some tumors that grow in infants but shrink on their own and they usually don't even find them unless there's another reason to do an ultrasound or MRI. Abby still may need surgery to remove whatever it is, but it's much smaller than before, and it may shrink further, so the surgery would be far less complicated. There is a chance it could go away all together. Now they have to figure out what it is. When Abby was in the hospital they took blood every week to monitor the tumor and see if it was growing. She hasn't had any tests since then, so they drew blood yesterday and will compare it to the previous tests. They are also going to go over the ultrasound with the surgeon and the radiologist and see if they can figure it out. Abby will probably need an MRI sooner than later so they can get a clearer picture,(which means an overnight stay) but they will probably wait until after flu season so she doesn't catch anything in the hospital. It may be a while until we know what the growth is for sure, but it is definitely great news that it is shrinking! We are trying not to get our hopes up too high because it is hard for them to be sure of anything with out surgery or a biopsy-so they have to find another way to figure it out. Of course Matt claims that the tumor is dying because Abby received his blood during a transfusion and he swears his blood will cure anything-I let him think whatever he wants! We will keep everyone updated as we hear more, but this is for sure good news-it's about time!!!
We also heard from the Dr about Abby's monitor download. Everything was all clear-as we knew it would be. We stopped the caffeine(which was for the apnea) and in two weeks if the monitor is still empty-meaning she had no alarms-we know she won't-did I mention we both we are smarted than the docs!!-we can get rid of it! YAY! Abby is really doing so well, and we thank everyone again for all your love and support! Sorry that this post was so long, but I'm always so excited to share with everyone what's going on! Here's a few pics...

My great Aunt Grace-that's where we got Abigail Grace-made her the beautiful blanket that's she's laying on..every new addition gets one... Abby doing some tummy time....

Hello again! We hope everyone is well, and if you happened to get some snow you enjoyed a nice snow day-Matt can't wait until he can take Abby and Roxy out for snowball fights! I have a quick update. We had our appointment at CHOP today, we were supposed to see the surgeon and the liver specialist but the appointments were messed up-of course nothings easy-so we saw the surgeon today and we go back on Friday for the other appointment. There isn't too much to report other than we got some more answers about the surgery. The Dr estimates he'll have to remove the tumor when Abby's between six months and one year, unless there are problems sooner. The tumor is definitely not affection Abby at all, since she continues to eat and is for sure growing(she was 6.13 last Wed, and was 7.3 today!) The bigger Abby can grow before the surgery the better, besides her being bigger and stronger, the longer we can wait the more stable the liver will be and the less difficult the surgery. The best case scenario is that while Abby continues to grow, the tumor will not and the liver and Abby will start to grow around it. If that is the case, the surgery will only entail removing a 'wedge' of the liver. If the tumor grows with the liver, they will have to remove more of it, which is still possible, it just makes the surgery more complicated. The liver is the only organ that can regenerate, so the tumor could certainly be in a worse spot! On Friday, Abby will have an ultrasound in the am and then we see the liver specialist after. That ultrasound will probably determine how long we can wait because Abby has grown so much since her last ultrasound in December, and they will really see how rapidly the tumor is growing. The plan is after the ultrasound on Friday, we go back to see the surgeon in two months, get another ultrasound and then he'll reassess everything. Abby will also need an MRI as we get closer to the surgery, if we can wait until she's big enough they can do the MRI as an out patient and we can go home the same day,(as opposed to her needing to be sedated and being small,we'll have to stay over night) so we're also hoping for that. The Dr told us the surgery is definitely not a common one, they don't often see newborns with tumors on their liver, but who knows when they would have found it if she hadn't been sick in the NICU. The recovery time shouldn't be too bad, depending on how old Abby is, a few days in the hospital at most. They will have to make a pretty big incision on her belly, poor thing! It was nice to finally talk to the surgeon and get answers to all the questions that we've been thinking of the past few months. We will definitely update everyone again after the ultrasound on Friday. I couldn't put up a post with out a few pics, so enjoy!!

sound asleep on daddy, catching flies....
sick of me taking pictures...

but I just can't help it!