Abby Power

Posted by Leslea

Jul 24 2006, 12:51 PM

This is Leslea's husband, Richard.

Do to pregnancy related complications, Maroon Lagoon/Frags N Crabs will be out of business for the next few weeks/months. She appreciates your concern, but please do not call Leslea's cell phone. She may (or may not) be able to answer emails later this week. I will try to make a post here if there is anything to update.

Thanks,
Richard

PS. We will be in Houston at a neonatal clinic for the foreseeable future.

Jul 28 2006, 12:42 PM

Hey guys, just wanted to pop in again. I was discharged from Memorial Herman yesterday afternoon and we are in a room called parent care (Down from the neo-natal ICU) very close to Abby. She's still very crital and we hope to get into the Ronald McDonald house in the next couple of days. It's going to be a very long road for such a small baby but she's been a fighter so far and holding her own. I'm doing lots better since everything happening on Monday and am moving around more. As soon as I can, I'll write up what happened to post for everyone. Thanks for all the well wishes and understanding on the business being on hold for a bit. I'll try to answer business emails as I can as we having limited internet at the hospital for right now.

Aug 3 2006, 08:38 AM

Just wanted to post a quick update. Abby is still holding her own and is a little fighter. She opened both eyes for me the other day for the first time and it was an awesome expericence to be there while she did it. I did have to make a return trip to the hospital on Sun. night til Tues. afternoon due to continued high blood pressure but everything looks good now and we're still at the Ronald McDonald House in Houston. Hope to see some of you guys on Sat. :)

Aug 5 2006, 02:50 PM

Introducing Abigail Renee Hoffpauir :)

She was born at 2:43pm, July 24th
Weighted 1 pound 1.2 oz.
Was 11 inches long

Abby's photo right after birth

Jul 24 2006, 12:51 PM

A couple days later in the NICU

A photo with the nurses hand to show how small she is

So far she's still holding on strong and has been very stable the last couple of days. They were going to start to try her on food (mom's milk) today so we'll see how that went later today. Thank you once again for all the love and support everyone has shown.

Aug 9 2006, 04:50 PM

Just wanted to post an update. Abby is still holding strong and has been tolerating mom's milk since Sat. We think she has gained a little weight but it's hard to tell if it's fluid retention, having to pee or actual weight gain. I got to change my first dirty diaper last night of which the little stinker promptly dirtied when I was done. :) Thanks everyone for all the love and support, she keeps getting stronger everyday.

Aug 13 2006, 04:59 PM

Rick and I got to both hold her for the first time this past week in what's called Kangaroo Care. Rick got to hold her on Wed night and I held her on Thurs night. They take Abby out still hooked up to all the machines and place her on our chest. After they put her on our bare chest, they cover her up with warm blankets and we got to just sit there. They want you to be able to hold the baby for at least an hour or more each session since it can be stressful to take them from the incubators. Abby seemed to fall right asleep as soon as she was settled. I'll try to post a pic tomorrow.

Aug 24 2006, 04:05 PM

Abigail is currently in surgury to fix the little heart murmur she has. She's going to have a rough few days but after that she should hopefully be back on track to getting big and strong again :) I'll let you guys know how she did today later.

Aug 25 2006, 11:50 PM

The surgeons did the procedure at Abby's bedside in the neonatal icu. They closed up her PDA with a small clamp, which is a very common procedure for neonates (as we have learned). Abby is doing as expected after this surgery. Hopefully she'll be back on track and growing in a few days. :)

Aug 28 2006, 06:37 PM

And she got her first pacify this morning :) They have weaned her off of the morphine from her little surgery and will hopefully put her back on breast-milk tomorrow. I should be able to start holding her again in kangaroo care in the next few days

Aug 31 2006, 11:39 AM

Here's a shot of her last night, you can see her incision from the surgery last week

Aug 31 2006, 02:12 PM

I told Leslea to post a "happy pic" rather than a surgery pic. :tongue:

She's so little and her skin has so much growing to do that the scar should heal and fade in a few years.

Sep 1 2006, 03:39 PM

Ok, here's a happy pic. Please take note of the large Aggie Ring

Sep 14 2006, 07:02 PM

Here are some new pics of Abby. She's been doing well and holding stable the past week or so. She is up to 2 pounds 2 ounces as of last night.

Here she was under the "billie" light again to help with her Bilirubin levels were a little high.

I got to hold Abby in my hands for the first time (Over Labor Day Weekend) while the nurse changed out her incubator blankets :)

Sleeping on her tummy. She prefers to sleep this way when the nurses put her like this.

Rick came up for his weekly visit, you can see how tiny she still is compared to his hands.

Sep 29 2006, 03:16 PM

Well Abby is slowly putting on the weight and is up to 2 pounds 8 ounces. The hurdle we are crossing this weekend is a possible eye surgery to prevent blindness as she grows older. She may be having laser eye surgery on Sunday afternoon. It's so amazing the things that can be done with preemies in this day and age.

Due to Abby not really putting weight like she should, I expect we will not be going home in early Nov. like we were secretly hoping. One thing the doctors and nurses won't do is give any type of estimate on discharge date. I guess I'll start telling myself we can shoot for late Nov. as a go home date. (Would be a good 30th birthday present to have my baby home)

It was so great to see those people who drove up for MACNA and as soon as I get a hold of the laptop, I have some new pics to upload.

Oct 9 2006, 02:27 PM

Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been a busy couple of weeks :D The little fraglett is making great strides to going home and is continuing to do very well. We have been so lucky that Abby has had a pretty uneventful stay at the hospital. A week ago yesterday we graduated to CPAP from the ventilator. The nurses described it to me as trying to breath through your nose while driving with your head stuck out of the window. It is a constant flow of air. We had been waiting to graduate to this for a few weeks now. Monday afternoon Abby was still doing very good but the eye doctor came for another update. The eye doctor had been watching Abby's eye's very closely the past few days as she was starting to show signs of ROP disease (which if not taken care of can cause a detached retina thus blindness) The decision was made to go laser eye surgery on Monday afternoon (amazing what medicine can do these days) As of now, the permanent damage will be loss in some of the peripheral vision but since Abby will grow up without, she won't see it as a loss. After a successful surgery (and a great relief to not have to wait anymore to mom) Abby was re-extubated on Wed. and went back to CPAP. She continued to do very well off the ventilator. The nurse threw me for a loop on Friday night when they said Abby had started to regulate her own body temps and was now wearing a little t-shirt :) All day Sat. was a game to find a comfortable temp in Abby's isolete so she wouldn't be to hot or to cold but still maintain her own bodies temp. Through all of this, Abby has done so well that she went to a nasal cannula yesterday morning and no more CPAP. Basically she is breathing on her own with just a flow of O2 under her nose. She may graduate to Level 2 in the NICU this week if she continues to do very well. I still have not asked when she will go home but I'm hoping before Thanksgiving. Now for the pics ;)

Abby in a cute hat a friend sent

Abby on CPAP - looks like a little pig huh?

Abby coming back from laser eye surgery

Abby had to have a blood transfusion after the surgery but since she had fluids going in her arm already, they did a head IV.

Abby's first pacifier

Oct 23 2006, 11:37 PM

It's been a crazy couple of weeks since the last update. Abby has had a few ups and downs but she's on road to getting bigger and stronger again. On Friday the 13th, Abby had a second round of laser eye surgery and also had to be re-intubated due to it. During the weekend Abby was able to be moved to an open crib as she has been trying to maintain her own body temps. She get's to wear cute little tiny preemie clothes now :) (They are still to big though ;) ) On Monday the 16th Abby developed a large abscess on her right cheek which ended up being a Staph infection. By Wed. morning some heads had formed on the abscess and the doctors were able to drain off almost an once of fluid from her check. This was a great relief to us as Abby has spent most of Tues in pain from the swelling in her check and ear area. Cultures of the fluid turned out to be the MRSA form of Staph and Abby has now been moved to her own private room for isolation. On this past Friday during the move to her new room, her tube from being intubated was pulled out a little bit so she was put back on CPAP. On Saturday Abby was moved back to the nasal cannula once again and she seems to be doing well so far on it. Hopefully she will not get tired like the last time on the nasal cannula and go back to CPAP. Right before her last laser eye surgery Abby basically got tired from having to work so hard to breath on her own. Due to that, she was placed back on CPAP to try to grow a little bitter and stronger. As of tonight Abby weights in at a whopping 3 pounds and 4 ounces and a length of 15 1/2 inches. Abby has another 10 days of antibiotics from her infection and she will probably remain in the isolation room until it's time to go home. The only good thing is that it is a very nice room and private.

Here you can tell how small she still is with her hand holding onto Rick's finger.

Abby sure loves her pacifier when she's fussy. Poor dad had to stand there for almost 30 mins holding it in her mouth to calm her down. She also had a hold of a finger in each hand so Rick had to wait for her to fall asleep before he could take his hand away :)

Abby in all her cute glory without any breathing tubes during a retaping job. Doesn't she look like a little man?

Abby the day after eye surgery, you can tell where you eyes are swollen.

Abby's new private room in isolation. She has cooties! When we go into the room now, we have to gown up in hospital gowns. The nurses now have to wear plastic gowns and plastic gloves every time they go into the room with Abby to do anything.

Abby all ready for bed and her 9 pm feeding. She was wide awake and looking all around.

Oct 31 2006, 12:45 AM

Happy Halloween everyone :)

Abby has pretty much gotten over her Staph infection. She now weights in at 3 pounds 14 onces. She also had her first try at bottle feeding today and did an OK job. She had a couple problems trying to swallow a mouthful of milk but overall I think she did well.

Nov 17 2006, 04:00 PM

She's getting close to being 5 lbs now. :)

Nov 17 2006, 05:05 PM

Abby is becoming a little porker :) Well she's still small but way bigger than what she used to be. As of last night she was 4 pounds 13 ounces. Last length measured at 16.5 inches. Abby has also had two negative surveillance cultures while she was in isolation so she does not have Staph anymore. Due to this though, we got moved out of the cush private room and graduated to level 2. Yippee!! We are working on the last hurdle to go home which is bottle feeding. We've been working for about 3 weeks now and she still hasn't gotten the hang of it. Very hit or miss. Today she wanted nothing to do with it and took the easy way out. Everyone says she'll figure it one day soon and that will be it. She is having problems with the whole suck-swallow-breath coordination of bottle feeding. Right now it's a lot of suck suck suck, maybe I'll swallow or let it dribble out of mouth instead.

We let the grandparents get to touch her/hold her for the first time last week.

I can't help but laugh every time I see this picture of her :)

Nov 27 2006, 06:34 PM

Abby is now 5 pounds 11.4 ounces and still working on the bottle feeds. She is getting better about it though and is currently on Prilosec for Reflux.

Abby has also discovered that she likes to sit up and look around and is turning into a night owl. She now likes to be awake from around 8:30pm (bath time) til anywhere from 10:30-midnight. She doesn't like to lay flat so I have to hold her sitting up so she can look around now. She sat in her boppy for the first time today. I also turned on cartoons from warnerbrothers.com to see how she liked looking at the images. She did go cross eyed for a bit but kept her eyes on the screen. I have no idea "what" she could see in terms of images but I'm sure the flashing pics made for good entertainment.

Sup Ya'll, just chillin in the NICU watching some toons.....peace out - Abby

Dec 14 2006, 01:21 AM

Well Abby is up to 6 pounds 4 ounces. People at the hospital are amazed at how far she has come in the last 5 months. Yup, in 10 days, it has been 5 months that we have gone through this life changing ordeal. I never thought we would go through it this way, but when I'm at the NICU holding Abby, I wouldn't have it any other way. I have started to learn how to place a feeding tube through Abby's nose as we will more than likely go home with a feeding pump for night time feeding. Abby has started to get better with bottle feeding and is taking more and more volume wise. She is also starting to want more entertainment and is no longer content to just lay in bed. I spend most of the day holding her up in my lap so she can look at what's going on in the room. Also last Friday, Abby had to have round 3 of laser eye surgery. That was totally unexpected and we pray that is the end of it. Being the little fighter she is, Abby coughed out her ventilation tube promptly after coming back from surgery. That's my girl! :wink:

Now for the best part.... I am getting the best Christmas present ever this year. We have a tentative discharge date for next Friday, the 22nd. We're going home!!! Abby will be going home on the nasal cannula with minimal oxygen support. To go along with that, she has an apnea and heart rate monitor that sounds worse than a fire alarm. She has never had any apnic episodes (stopped breathing) so hopefully we will not have that alarm go off. The alarm will also be set for a low heart rate or high heart rate that I am sure will go off. We are currently working on a good feeding plan to go home with so Abby continues to grow big and strong.

Dad trying to comfort Abby after eating diner. She feels better when she sits up after eating as I think it helps her reflux.

Sleeping peacefully

This is the way to eat, mommy holding Abby while getting fed by the pump. Abby doesn't have to work to hard this route ;) Notice all the extra burp cloths in Abby's lap to catch spitups.

Dec 26 2006, 07:43 PM

We made it home on Friday!

I'll let Leslea add all the details later, but I just had to share this cute pic.

Here she is on the night of Christmas Eve, waiting for Santa. :)

Feb 5 2007, 07:58 PM

We have "been home" since December 22nd (see my post on Dec 26), but we've also had a worst case late term recurrence of retinopathy of prematurity. We've had 6 eye surgeries (i think... it's been such a nightmare that I've lost track) since December 27th. Each of the surgeries involved putting Abby under general anesthesia and an overnight stay in the NICU. For a few weeks last month, we thought Abby might end up blind. Thankfully, our appointment last week and this week confirmed that her retinas are healing and she will likely have some vision with the help of contacts and/or glasses, though we will have to wait to determine the quality and extent of her vision.

The eye problems aside, Abby is doing well. She's held up remarkably for all of the repeated surgeries.

Mom and dad, however, are physically and emotionally spent.

Feb 8 2007, 02:18 AM

Howdy Everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates but the last six weeks since we've been home with Abby have been a whirlwind of activity. Here's a run down of what we have been doing so far.

Week 1 - Re-admit to Memorial Hermann for laser eye surgery for an overnight stay.
Week 2 - Admit to St. Joseph in downtown Houston for eye surgery. Abby's right retina started to detach and the doctor performed what is called a vitrectomy We hoped that this would be the end of the surgeries. Another overnight stay.
Week 3 - The left retina had some traction and laser eye surgery was performed again at Memorial Hermann, another overnight stay.
Week 4 - No surgery, yipee. Abby can put on some good weight this week.
Week 5 - Left retina is totally detached and the right retina is showing signs of traction once again. Re-admit to St. Joseph in a bid to save her vision. The left retina was re-attached and an oil bubble was placed in the eye to help the retina stay down while it heals. Another vitrectomy was performed on the right eye. At this point, we were told that the vision in the left eye would be comparable to seeing the difference in light and dark and some shadow movement. We won't know for sure until everything heals totally.
Week 6 - No surgery! Abby is also given a contact for her right eye as she is very nearsighted and can probably only see around 6 inches in front of her.
Week 7 - No surgery again. The doctors feel that we are at the end of the disease and hopefully we will not have to worry about possible retina detachment. We know at some point the doctor will have to go back in to remove the oil placed in the left eye. Also, she may have more laser surgery next week but we wont' know til Monday.

And though all of this, Abby still has major reflux issues. At this point our day is spent one hour for eating, watching for the second hour to see if she throws up and the third hour is sometimes safe to take her out of the crib. Currently she is on a 3 hour feeding schedule so at night, I get to sleep in maybe hour blocks if I'm lucky. At least one feeding a night, Abby is totally awake and does not want to sit still for her feeding. Right now we have been feeding her the majority of her feedings through a feeding tube as she keeps down more food that way. We just switched over to a rice based formula so hopefully that will help also. As of tonight she was 8 pounds 7 ounces. In the last week or so, Abby has also discovered how yummy her hands are and is constantly putting them in her mouth. She is also a lap baby who when is awake, wants to be held. We have started to take naps with her on our stomach with us also. I think that's about it as far as updates go. Hope everyone is doing good.

Abby is starting to be able to hold her froggie pacifier if we put place them both just in the right position

Nap time with daddy, aren't we cute!

Abby with no tubes after we took everything off her face so she could get a really good bath.

Mar 9 2007, 04:09 PM

Abby has had two more eye surgeries since the last update on February 8. We keep thinking each one will be the last, but at least this time the surgeon is optimistic the retinopathy may be nearing an end.

In the meantime, Abby continues to grow. She's up to 9 lbs 8 oz. :)
She's completely off of the oxygen now. She still uses a feeding tube for her meals, but we're hoping that won't be needed too much longer.

Apr 24 2007, 02:52 PM

Well things are going good in the Hoffpauir household this week. However, Abby had her 10th eye surgery at the beginning of April. Due to a cataract starting to form on the right eye, her eye doctor decided to remove the cataract that had developed on the left eye. The surgery went well, and her left eye is healing and hopefully regaining some vision. The cataract on the right eye in the meantime has stopped growing. At this point, Abby still has a contact on left eye and could be a possible candidate for lens replacement surgery when she is a teenager and her eyes have stopped growing.

She still has good days and bad days with the reflux and I am slowly starting to work on her bottling skills. At this point, all she really wants to do is move the nipple around her mouth and not really suck on it. Developmentally Abby is starting to sit up really well with minimal support. When she is on her stomach, she can push herself up with her arms fully extended. She has also rolled a few times from her tummy to her back by herself. She has also started to make simple sounds like G's and B's and sometimes P's. She has also started to grin and occasionally smile. Size wise Abby is right around 12 pounds 6 ounces and almost 24 inches.

I am getting tired of this rice cereal stuff

We got Abby a bumbo chair to help her sit up

Since Abby was having surgery on Good Friday, we took Easter pictures early.

A pic of Abby without her feeding tube.

May 29 2007, 04:58 PM

Abby just crossed over 14 pounds. She's beginning to look around more (using her right eye). And we think she's starting to get tickle-ish. :D

Unfortunately, she has another eye surgery scheduled for early June. The left retina is still having problems. But other than that... she's making progress each day.

Jul 24 2007, 11:10 PM

One year ago, July 24th, Abigail was born too early and too little. From 1 pound 1 ounce and 11 inches tall then, to 16 pounds 14 ounces and 24.5 inches tall today, she has come a very long way in her first year. There are still many hurdles to overcome, including oral feeding and visual stimulation, but progress is being made.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ABIGAIL!!!

Aug 31 2007, 09:51 PM

Abby is still doing good and starting to really smile at us. Just last night, she started to make noises back at me in response to me making noises at her. :bounce3: She's around 17 lbs 11 oz at the last weighting. She is still on the feeding tube but we have been making progress with squirting formula in her mouth and she swallowing it, yeah! The birthday party last month was fun and Abby spent the day being passed from one relative to the next. Here she is with her birthday smash cake.

Jan 1 2008, 12:01 AM

Happy Holidays everyone, I hope you have had a wonderful year. It has been a fun filled six months in the Hoffpauir household since my last email update. Abby has made a lot of developmental strides recently. The biggest being that she has been feeding tube free for a month now :-) She has been able to suck/swallow up to three ounces at some feedings on her own, but most feedings are performed by me squirting formula into her mouth and then she swallows it. Also we are starting to introduce baby foods and other simple solids into her diet. The main favorite as of now is mashed potatoes of which she will eat several large spoon fulls.
Abby also now has 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on bottom. We have been very lucky in the teething department as she only gets fussy once or twice during the whole event. If I was not having to do oral therapy where my fingers are in her mouth, I wouldn't even know she was teething. Vocally Abby is a little chatterbox. She makes and replies with m's, a's, ba's, aba's, ma ma's and e's. Personally I think she's going to say mama first ;-)

Abby is also a very big daddy's girl much to my dismay :-P I can be home with Abby all day long and she is a very content happy baby. If I need to do some chores, I can put her in her walker and she does not complain. The minute daddy walks into the room, she throws a fit until he comes to pick her up. She already has him wrapped around her little fingers. Now for the cute pictures! Also, we regularly post video's of Abby on youtube, the link is

http://www.youtube.com/richpauir

Abby likes to fly.