Abigale Victoria Frey
Abigale Victoria Frey was born February 6, 2008 at 1:01am via Cesarean. She weighs 5 pounds 5 ounces and is 18.5 inches long. Abbie is doing great, breathing on her own and has a vivacious cry (so the nurses have said!). She was born at 37 weeks 2 days. Here's how it happened....
I hadnt felt the baby move all day on Tuesday, and since she is normally a VERY active baby, I was concerned. I called my doctors and they said to lie down for an hour, focus solely on feeling her move, and do a kick count. After an hour and a half and still no movement at all (no matter how much I poked and prodded my poor belly!), the doctors said to come in to the hospital to check her out. Not expecting it to take longer than an hour or so, I dropped Caleb off at a friends house and called Mike to let him know what was going on. He was working at Cracker Barrel and told me stop by work and we would go to the hospital together.
When we got to the hospital, they checked her heart rate and she looked fine. They tried to get her to move by vibrating my belly, pushing on it, giving me some pop to drink, and having me move around. Nothing worked, she absolutely would not budge! So, they decided that since I was 37 weeks and she was a good weight, she needed to be born Tuesday night. They decided to do a contraction stress test to see how she would handle contractions. Her heart rate kept dipping during each contraction, so they said 'Time to do a C-section.'
Mike called our friends who had Caleb (what a blessing they are!) and let them know what was happening, and then off we went to the operating room. The whole procedure went very well, and the Lord really gave both Mike and I a calm during the operation. Abbie was born at 1:01am with her cord around her neck and alot of meconium in the amniotic fluid. The doctors said it was a good thing we came in that night and did the cesarean becuase labor may have put too much stress on her. I was so glad to hear that I wasnt overreacting! :)
Abbie has gastroschisis, a condition where her intestines are outside her body. The surgeons have put all of her bowel in a plastic "silo" and suspended it above her abdomen. They will slowly squeeze a little in each day until they are all back inside, and then take her in for surgery to close the hole in her tummy. Actually, Mike and I went to see her last night in the NICU and there is only about an inch of bowel left to be squeezed back inside her! She has been doing great and they expect to take her into surgery within the next day or two! We had expected it to take much longer (5-7 days) so this is a huge answer to prayer! Mike got to hold her for a minute last night while they changed her diaper, and I got to hold her for just a minute too. She is so light and tiny and precious... we are so in love with her! After her surgery, her intestines will still need to heal so she will be in the hospital for several more weeks. Anywhere from 3 weeks to 8 weeks, depending on how she recovers. Please continue to pray for her!
The cesarean went well for me and I havent been in much pain at all. I've been up walking around since yesterday afternoon and feel that recovery is going great! Aside from a headache, which they said is probably from the spinal, and some soreness around my stitches, everything is good. I should be going home tomorrow. Mike has been with me by my side through this whole thing- so patient and helpful! I dont think any husband could be more wonderful than he has been! There is a chair next to my hospital bed that flips out into a bed, and poor Mike has been sleeping on that for the last couple of nights. He is so sweet to stay with me and I love him so much!!!
Caleb has been staying with some friends of ours while we are here at the hospital. Thank you Dom and Nikki for keeping him for us the other night! And thank you Cherry and Tim for watching him for us today! You all are such a blessing! Mike went and got Caleb last night and brought him up to the hospital to see me- he was really confused and just sat on the bed and stared at the room for awhile before coming over to me and hugging me. Then he saw the balloons and cookies- after that it was impossible to get him to notice anything else! :) He's doing great and I think he's enjoying all the attention from the people he's staying with! Especially today- dont spoil him too much Cherry!! :) Thank you for watching him!
God has been so good through all of this and we are completely grateful to Him for his mercy, protection, love and grace during these last few days. Things happened kind of fast and we may not have been prepared for all that took place, but the Lord was there in all of it guiding us and giving us wisdom to deal with each situation. Praise the Lord for His goodness! Thank you Jesus!
Okay, now for the pictures!!
Here's Autumn waiting to be taken in for the cesarean.
Here's Mike all gowned up and ready to go in with Autumn. We thought the jumpsuit was really cool....
Abigale right after she was born.
Doctors clamping her cord.
After they cleaned her all up and got her comfy, we got to go in and see her for a bit. She is so precious!
Mom and Baby Abigale....
Dad and Baby Abigale....
The nurses put a pink bow in her hair and it just makes her look so cute! She is soooo adorable!
Our tiny baby girl....
A close-up of the gastroschisis.
Autumn and Abbie
Precious tiny hands!
Happy Birthday Honey! This is how he looked when he got home from Cracker Barrel last night. He rode on a friends motorcycle! Heidi and I laughed soooo hard! What a hunk!
My little pumkin today! He has been such a trooper!
Abigale.....
Abbie's bandage was removed yesterday and the doctors say that her tummy is healing very quickly. She is still on pain medication but hopefully she'll be off of that within the next couple of days. We are praying now that her intestines begin to digest normally and waiting for her to have a bowel movement. How many people pray for that? :) Once that happens, she can begin taking small doses of milk. This process could take several weeks or just a few days. It all depends on how she reacts to the milk she's given. Thank you all for your prayers and please continue in them.
Sound asleep.....
Yeah! She opened her eyes just a bit! She has dark blue eyes. At first we thought they were brown, but she had them open more today and they are definitely dark blue!
Look at all that hair! Daddy and Mama got to brush it for awhile the other night. I think she liked that. 
Precious tiny feet....
She is on a ventilator for now until her system can handle breathing on her own again. The doctors say 24-48 hours until she comes off. 
Here's our baby sound asleep.
This picture is from Saturday night when we went to visit. You can see the bowels are almost all the way back inside!
Abbie is doing great and her operation this morning went amazingly well! The Lord was so good! Our Pastor was able to come and pray with Mike and I and all the surgeons before Abbie went into surgery, and I know that had alot to do with her successful operation. She will be on the ventilator for awhile, but once she is breathing on her own, it looks like a clear road of recovery ahead! All she has to do is heal now. Please continue to pray for her little body as she recovers. 
Here's Mike all gowned up and ready to go in with Autumn. We thought the jumpsuit was really cool....
Abigale right after she was born.
Doctors clamping her cord.
After they cleaned her all up and got her comfy, we got to go in and see her for a bit. She is so precious!
Mom and Baby Abigale....
Dad and Baby Abigale....
The nurses put a pink bow in her hair and it just makes her look so cute! She is soooo adorable!
Our tiny baby girl....
A close-up of the gastroschisis.
Here's our little guy smilin' at us!
That's where my glasses went!!!
Mike and Caleb on New Year's Eve. Our sleepy little guy stayed awake long enough to ring in the new year with us! Hurray!! :)
