One Month Older and Wiser Too

Abby is now a full-fledged 4-month-old. Time flies.

Those boots are pretty fun toys/teethers...

On Friday we went to her pediatrician. She was really pleased with Abby's progression so far. She weighed 14.77 pounds (76th percentile - an increase from the 5th percentile at birth), she is 25.2 inches long (83rd percentile - an increase from the 15th at birth), and her head is now in the 85th percentile (more stable along with her body size now, as opposed to its size at birth). So, long story short, she loves to eat. She's growing up so fast and is a pleasure to be around!

She often sleeps with a hand over her eye.

She's mastering physical therapy also. Her therapist is always amazed at her progress in between visits. She wants to sit up all the time (because, you know, laying down is for babies...), loves to reach for things, and thinks her hands are the most interesting things.

The couch gives our laps a break. She just wants to be so big!

Today we went in for a full MRI to look at her shunt. Initially we were told it would be a "fast" MRI - meaning that she would not need sedation and it would only take a few minutes. A few days ago, we received the update that she would need a full scan in order to get a baseline to compare futures fast MRI's to. So, again our plans changed. We went to Primary Children's at 6:30 this morning. Abby needed to fast before the scan (there's a reason why babies don't fast, we'll just put it that way). The last time she had eaten was at 12:30. She was able to have Pedialyte until 5:00, but where she was sleeping, I didn't want to wake her up a second time. The nurse later told us that it's best to wake her in the future to get more liquids in her...her veins were a little tricky to find. That would have been nice to know ahead of time. Needless to say that Abby was pretty cranky and the IV insertion didn't help too much. A Child Life Specialist (woo hoo!) brought in a few toys that distracted her from her hunger. Around 8:15 we went to the trailer that held the MRI (a temporary machine while the regular one is out of commission). While most children get really cranky as the sedation kicks in, Abby had about 3 long blinks and 5 minutes later she was out. She went in for the scan at 8:30 and they told us the MRI would take 30-45 minutes.

She had some fun heat pack/boxing gloves. They didn't really help her vein visibility, though.

Rhett and I went to the cafeteria to hang out for a few minutes, heading back to the waiting room around 9:00. Well, the time kept ticking. We got fairly anxious, assuming that everything was fine but not knowing for sure. At 10:30 we finally got the notification that she was in recovery. Good grief. She was doing absolutely fine. Her scan went smoothly and the nurse was giving her some sugar water to rehydrate her a bit. It took a little more time to get discharged, but in the meantime she was able to eat a little bit. We finally left the hospital around 10:45. Abby was pretty pale and tired for a good chunk of the day, as was expected after the sedation. By around 7:00 she was back to herself, though!

While it's sometimes difficult to think about Abby needing regular procedures, etc. we know that she's a really tough girl and everything will be worth it. She's so patient and is fairly mellow most of the time. We're so blessed to have her! Not to mention, she's starting to get more hair, which is absolutely adorable. Man, we love Abby.

Exhausted baby after a long and confusing morning.