Happy Birthday Abigail and Madison!

It's a long story, but let's start with the important stuff, shall we? Abigail Renee was born on Sunday August 24th at 7:58am, weighing 2 pounds 4 ounces and she was 14.5 inches long. Her sister Madison Marie was born quietly into Heaven at 7:59am. She weighed 9.4 ounces and was 10.5 inches long. The babies were born via emergency c-section.

Due to a number of complications, Mom was put under general anesthesia for the surgery. Daddy went right upstairs to the NICU with Abigail to get her stabilized. Here's their first picture together. Abigail was about an hour old.



While in recovery, we were able to get a very private and special moment alone with Madison. The nurses gave us a lovely keepsake box with her blanket and hat and a cast of her adorable little footprints. We will have her cremated later this week and she will forever be our family's Guardian Angel.

Abigail did well her first night and by Monday night she had graduated from ventilator to the C-PAP and then the nasal cannula, meaning she was basically breathing completely on her own. Mom fell very ill after surgery and by Monday night required a blood transfusion.

On Tuesday afternoon it was found that Abigail was very sick as well and she had to be transferred to CHOC. We said goodbye and Daddy went with her to her new hospital while I continued to battle my complications.

On Wednesday morning Abigail was diagnosed with NEC (Necrotizing entercolitis). This is a gastrointestinal disease that effects 1-5% of neonatal admissions. The severity of it ranges from treatment with antibiotics to partial removal of the intestines, to so severe that the baby dies. Abigail immediately had surgery to determine the extent of the damage. Luckily they found that only part of the large intestine was affected so they were able to remove that part (which was about 1/2 of the intestine). She came out of surgery and is recovering nicely. For the next 10 weeks she will have a colostomy (a bag on the outside of her tummy) that will catch her bowel movements. In 10 weeks the intestines should be healed enough that they can reconnect them and close her up. In the meantime, she is recovering from the surgery and should start feeding in another week or so. I don't yet know what her long term prognosis is, but the nurses tell me many babies go on to have no lasting effects from this disease.

In the meantime, I continued to struggle but was finally discharged yesterday. I immediately went to CHOC to see Abby. She looks good and is being very well taken care of. We are very lucky in that Brian's best friend Kevin is engaged to Mandy. We love her and she happens to be a NICU nurse at CHOC. On the days she's working she is Abigail's nurse. She was even able to be Abigail's nurse during surgery.

I have been home for about 24 hours now and have lots of catching up to do. The recovery is extra slow and painful because of the complications, but hopefully before long I will back to my normal self. Daddy is taking me to see Abby later today.

And speaking of Daddy, he has been the most amazing husband and father. He bounced back and forth from one hospital to the other, telling me about Abigail and telling Abigail about me. He read her books and, if I know him well, I'd bet he's given her all the latest MLB scores and stats as well.

I wish I could offer more about NEC, but being so sick I have been unable to do the usual obsessive internet research I normally do, and I have not had the chance to meet or speak with any of Abigail's doctors yet. Hopefully this week I will know more.

Well, this was a quick and dirty version of what actually took place this week, but we are so grateful to have our daughter safe and sound. So far we have only been able to touch her through the isolette, but we are looking forward to soon getting to hold her in our arms. We will keep you posted...

Oh, I almost forgot...GO DEVILS!