Saturday update

Abigail is still doing exceptionally well, all things considered. We just received a phone call informing us that she has been put back on a ventilator for now. We had been warned this was a likely occurrence at some point, so it's not too worrisome. Some of her other signs are looking up, so that's good.

Abby spent Friday looking like she couldn't decide if she wanted to go to the beach or go skiing. To help prevent jaundice, she had a large overhead light on her and an odd-looking neon light underneath. Because she's still so sensitive to light, this meant she spent the day with most of her face covered -- kind of like a ski mask.

She also got a heart ultrasound on Friday. There were two problems discovered, but neither one is critical in the next few days:

1. There apparently is a valve that is supposed to close between the artery that takes blood to your lungs and the artery that takes blood to the rest of your body. In premature babies, it often doesn't close on its own. They are giving Abby a drug that often corrects this problem. If the drug is not successful, though, doctors will have to go in and fix the problem.

2. This one sounds bad, but it's actually much less serious. Abby has a very small hole in between two of the chambers in her heart. Again, this is common in premature babies. This often fixes itself, and often doesn't cause any problems in any case. One of the nurses said there are probably many people walking around with this problem who don't even know it.

Katrina was discharged from the hospital late Friday morning. She's still doing well and feeling good overall. She hasn't had a chance yet, but she'll likely start updating her LiveJournal later today. (The link is on the right side of this page.) That's about the most strenuous thing she's allowed to do for several weeks.

Three more family members (my dad, sister and grandma) arrived in Columbus last night and had their first chance to meet Abigail late in the evening. Now we just have to juggle visitation arrangements and figure out what to do with everyone when we're not visiting Abby. (By the way, it's no fun only being able to "visit" your child.)

Again, thank you all for your love and support.