Look what I can

Abigail has now decided that she can hold her own bottle but only when it is convenient for her. We will catch her every now and then but when you say something to her or acknowledge it she lets go of it and screams her head off.



This is what I got for Christmas from Noah. Isn't he just the greatest!!!! He is now calling me a Japanese tourist. HAHAHAHA


We are going tonight to Noah's brothers house for Christmas day breakfast. His brother has to work Christmas day so this was the only other day that was available for all of us to get together. Noah's SIL is just going to love us. We got the nephew a bunch of Sponge Bob Squarepants DVD's. We are the coolest ever.

Please pray!!!

I am warning you now that if you cry very easily don't click on the Pray for Kayleigh button. But this little girl needs all the prays she can get. She was born at 18 weeks and weighed 1 pound. She is now fighting for her life. I have been following her blog for the past week. I feel so lucky that I have Abigail home with me and I get to hold, hug and kiss her every night. I will never again curse god for Abigail's problems. They are nothing compared to what this little wonderful baby has gone through. So please please please I beg of you to pray for this little girl. She has come so far to be lost now.

What I can do now!!

I can now attempt to hold my own bottle. I am doing very good at this. I held my own bottle for the first time the other day. I did not need mommy's help at all. I can snort when I laugh. Yes you heard me right. I snort when I really get to laughing. I can wiggle my legs out of my brace. I learned how to do this yesterday. All I have to so it keep pulling them up into my belly and my Velcro will pop off. My legs are free at last FREE AT LAST. Well until mommy puts the Velcro back on. I can fit my whole hand in my mouth and chew on a toy at the same time. I can sit up. Well with my frog legs and a pillow I can. I actually prefer sitting like this now since I really can't lay on my belly right now. I am super baby!!! If you hold me up over your head I put my arms out like I am flying and laugh and laugh and laugh! I can spit my binkie across the room. I think I might be really good at watermelon seed spitting when I get older. I can get what ever I want from my daddy. All I have to do is look at him and bash my big blue eyes at him.

Abigail's Frog Legs

The brace is now underneath her clothes. The doctors did not want to disturb her anymore then what they already had so it went on top of her clothes for the ride home.

OMG MY Poor Daughter

So today we had Abigail's Orthopedic appointment in Lubbock. We get there and all the nurses go crazy over her. Dr. Schultz (pronounced "Shits") and 3 medical students (male) come in and said that he needed a few more x-rays of her hips. The med students then fight over who is going to take her back to get the x-rays. I just sit there laughing. They tell me that they have to strip her down to nothing for the 3 x-rays that they need. I am totally fine with this. It's not the first time she has had them done. In the process of getting her x-rays my oh so wonderful daughter poops on one of the med students. I had to sit there and laugh. The med student just took his coat off and went about taking care of my daughter. We go back to the exam room and Dr. Schultz comes back into the room. This is what I hear. "Well Abigail's left hip has healed nicely but her right hip is still having problems. We are going to have to place her in a harness for 6 weeks. YOU CAN ONLY TAKE IT OFF FOR BATH TIME! (He really stressed that to me). She will come back here in 6 weeks to have more x-rays done. If it is healing nicely she will only have to wear it another 6 weeks during nap and bed time." He then asked me if I had any questions or concerns. I told him No. Shelby (the physical therapist) came in and showed me how to put the harness on and take it off. The med students then asked if they could take turns doing it. Sure go ahead. Abigail slept through the whole thing. She did not realize she even had anything on till 4:30. She had the harness put on at 1:30 (my daughter has delayed reactions to things that affect her).
So now we are home after an hour of screaming because she could not move her legs (oh did I mention that my daughter has a delayed reaction to things and CAN NOT stand anything on her feet or legs. She will kick a blanket off in a heartbeat) and now looks like a frog we are happy again. Yes my daughter looks like a frog. I will take pics and post them so you can see. Noah laughed at her when he first saw it and called her frog. Yes it really is that bad. I am just hoping that I get to sleep tonight if not it is going to be a VERY long 6 weeks.

You know you're a mom when:

It you have ever crawled under a crib at 2:00am searching for a pacifier like your life depended on it!!!
Yes this happened to me last night. Abigail owns 5 binkies and why for the life of us could we not find a single one last night! Yes we finally found one after 10 minutes of looking. Do you want to know where it was? On Noah's dresser. Hmmm why would I think to look there for a binkie?

Love Them

First I will update on Abigail's latest accomplishments. She has found her toes and fingers. She is reaching for things that you put in front of her. She is laughing (Noah still has yet to this). Oh yeah she loves Mickey Mouse Club House and the Hot Dog song. She can listen to that over and over again.

O.K. now to my new found obsession. Their name is Straight No Chaser. They are Indiana University's male A Capella group. Someone sent me their link and I have been listening to them all night. You can find them on You Tube. But I have posted a link here that will take you to one of their videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

I hope you all enjoy!

ETA: Oh yeah Abigail is starting to teeth.. Joy Joy in my household!!!!!

Dinner Last Night

I decided to go out on a limb and cook something different for dinner last night. Noah loves Hamburger Helper and I am trying to get him away from eating it so much. I have him down to once a month now. I ended up making Santa Fe Casserole which I got from my Birth Forum. It came out really good and Noah told me I could make it again. It is almost like layered nachos.

1 pkg. taco seasoning
2 cups chicken broth or water can be used
1/4 cup flour
1 cup sour cream
1 can diced chilies
1 pkg. tortilla chips
2 cups Monterey jack cheese, shredded
1/2 cup green onion, chopped

Brown beef. Drain. Add taco seasoning. In a small bowl combine broth and flour. Add to meat. Bring to a boil to slightly thicken. Stir in sour cream and chilies. In a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish Place 1/2 of the chips, top with 1/2 of the beef mixture and top with 1/2 of the cheese and 1/2 onion. Repeat layer with remaining ingredients. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

I did not use the green onion since I did not have any. I also put olives on top of it. Noah put salsa on his. For the first layer of cheese I used the Kraft singles cheese. Then for the second layer of cheese I used Kraft Nacho mixed cheese.

Good News

Yesterday was Abigail's Cardiologist appointment in Roswell. We had to be up at 6:00am to leave at 7:00am with Grandpa. Her appointment was at 9:00am and we actually got there 20 minutes early. They take us back to the waiting room and the nurse weighs her. The scale said 10lbs 15oz. My child gains 6 oz in a weekend!!!!! Dr. Holmes comes in and listens to Abigail's heart. His response Yup I hear a murmur so let's do a Echo gram (Ultra sound of the heart). They take us over to the ultrasound room and a very nice tech was waiting for us. We put Abby on the table and she starts cooing and smiling at the Tech. He gets everything ready and starts the ultrasound. First try and he has a great picture of her heart. He take several pictures, measurements, and sound recordings of what he finds. He also explained to me everything that he was doing and showing me the different type of murmurs there are. He said from what he sees Abby has a innocent murmur and he will let Dr. Holmes confirm it. About a minute later Dr. Holmes walks in and checks the Echo gram out. Yuppers my little Abigail has a INNOCENT heart murmur. Which means that it should go away on it's own. She will have NO heath risk from it. Dr. Holmes told us that 1 in 5 babies are now born with Innocent heart murmurs.

So now we can cross cardiologist off of our list of doctors that we have to keep for Abigail. Our next doctor appointment is on 12/15 with the Orthopedic Specialist. Boy can't wait for that one.

What a week

We had a long past week. Monday Mom-mom and Pop-pop left. This was very devastating to us. Tuesday Abigail decided that she no longer liked her routine and was going to change it. She decided that she only needs to sleep about 4 hours during the day. Then sleep again from 7:00pm - 11:00pm and then stay awake till 1:00am. Wednesday was an ok day nothing to special happened but she did get her new coat and new jeans in the mail from The Children's Place. Thursday we went and saw Santa Clause at the mall. She was wide awake when we left the house and during the 5 minute drive to get there she passed out. So her Christmas picture with Santa she is asleep. We tried to get her to wake up but that didn't work. Friday was a very long day for us. Abigail had her 2 month check up at 8:30am. She is 10lbs 9 oz and 23 inches long. I really don't like going to the doctor with her because every time they find something else wrong with her. Abigail has a clogged tear duct and a growth of cells on her back. It looks like a mole but when it gets irritated it gets red and will raise up. They can't do anything about the tear duct till she is a year old and for the growth they won't do anything till she is five years old. The doctor told me that if it really does bother her to put some Benadryl cream on it. She got 3 shots. She cried for about a minute or two. The real pain didn't hit her till 3:30pm. At 11:45 I had my 6 week check up. Abigail also had her EKG appointment. She was fine till the pain from the shots hit her and she didn't like them putting the leads for the EKG on her. Abigail is not much of a crier and has never really had tears. Once we got into the room she started screaming and had alligator tears. Right after we were done there we made a bee line for Walmart to get some baby Tylenol. I didn't even wait to pay for it, just opened the bottle right there in the aisle and gave her some. Wow that hit her fast. She fell right back to sleep. Friday night we hung out at home watching Noah and a friend play Guitar Hero. That was fun. Saturday we hung out at the house, went to the holiday parade (which was two blocks from our house) and baked cookies (chocolate chip and peanut butter blossoms), brownies and peanut butter bars. Abigail did great at the holiday parade. She was awake for the first 10 minutes of it and both of the high school bands. She loves the drums. At the end of the parade they had street sweepers and the police come through to clear the streets. She slept right through the police sirens. Didn't even flinch. She is a very heavy sleeper when she wants to be. I will post pics of the parade as soon as I download them from the camera. But until then here is Abigail with Santa.

This is us

I decided to do this blog so my family and friends could follow along and always know what is going on with Abigail. I know I know I am late starting this but I will play catch up right now.

Abigail Jane Parrish was born October 18, 2008 at 5:40pm. She weighed 8lbs & 5ozs and was 21 inches long. Our delivery was semi normal besides the fact that I never fully dilated, she swallowed mecioum and the epidural never really took on my left side. The real problems started the morning of the 19th. Abby started having problems breathing so the doctor ordered a chest x-ray and noticed fluid in her lungs. Abby was placed in NICU for the next 4 days on a series of antibiotics and was placed on oxygen. The nurses there started to call her possum. She was the healthiest sickest baby they had ever seen (she weighed more then the healthy babies and really didn't seem sick at all but she couldn't breath without the oxygen). The nurses also spoiled her rotten since she was the only baby in the NICU at the time. Finally on the 22nd Abigail decided that SHE could indeed breath on her own. She was taken out of the NICU and placed in my room with me. We stayed another day and a half. We finally got to come home on Friday the 24th. I was so excited to bring her home and sleep in my own bed. We still have follow up doctor appointment to go to. They think she has a heart murmur and her right hip clicks. So we are going to see a cardio and a ortho doctor this month. I will keep everyone updated.The rest of October and the beginning of November were really uneventful.

My parents came out to meet their new granddaughter, Thanksgiving and my birthday. I was so excited to finally see them after 4 months. We had a blast while they were here. Noah took us up to the mountains in Rudiso. He kept telling us that it would be cold and that there was going to be snow on the ground. We get there and it's a wonderful 70 degrees during the day and dropped to about freezing at night. That was fine with us. There was a fire place and he and my dad made a huge firs that kept us warm all night long. Sunday we came home and went to Roswell. Monday Noah's parents took us to the Norman Petty Recording Studio and the Norman Petty Rock and Roll Museum. My parents loved this. Especially the recording studio. Tuesday Abigail had a ultrasound at Texas Tech in Lubbock so dad, mom, Abby and I went to Lubbock for the day. It was a fun trip. When we got back we were supposed to go downtown for what I thought was the tree lighting. Boy was I wrong. Noah actually surprised me and threw me a baby shower. I could have about killed my mom and his mom for keeping it a secret from me. But I am glad that they did. Wednesday we stayed at home and got ready for Thanksgiving. Thursday was turkey day and everyone came to our house. We had all the fixings. Friday was my birthday. Mom and I went shopping and got our hair cut. I chopped 4 inches off of mine. Saturday was another lazy day for us. Sunday we went out to breakfast with his parents and then had dinner at our house. Oh yeah it also SNOWED on Sunday. Monday my parent left to go back to Delaware. I was really good. I didn't cry till I got back into the house. Then I was really grouchy the rest of the day.