Another Big Day!

Today was full of surprises! Jenn called me this morning and said they were taking her off cpap. I said great! Then she called me and said they were going to remove the bottom bar. I said great! THEN she called me and said they decided to remove both bars and wire her sternum shut! I said great! That is what they were supposed to do way back in December. Everything went great. She did fine. They put in 2 wires in the shape of figure 8s. Then put a layer of her tissue on top. They also put a wound vac on. It will bring the skin closer together and suck out any bacteria that might be in there. It will probably be on there for 7-10 days. This is all exactly what is supposed to happen. We are back in chartered territory. No more, "we never did that before!" The only somewhat bad thing was that she had to be intubated for the surgery. But they expect to extubate tomorrow. She'll be back on cpap for a few days, but she should be fine. Dr. King actually said he was surprised with how well her blood gases had looked. After all the breathing stuff gets taken care of, we will concentrate on training Abby how to feed. The therapists are all really excited about how well she is sucking already. Plus, she was wearing pants like a big girl today too!

Abigail has made remarkable progress these past few days. It's been unbelievable. We can't thank all of our family and friends for all their support throughout the past 4 months. I know that we still have a ways to go, but it does seem that we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can only hope that everything continues to go so well.