One thing I believe we have mentioned before is that it seems Abby is still having some issues with swallowing and drinking her bottle. She frequently seems to choke on it and hold her breath. She had this problem in the NICU as well and while it has improved, it never completely went away. So we had a swallowing test yesterday where they put her under xray and watch as she drinks her bottle. As expected, she did not pass the test and is occassionally sucking some of the liquid into her airway. She usually does cough as a protective mechanism but the risk is that she could aspirate the liquid into her lungs and develop pneumonia.

So now we have to thicken all her bottles with a liquid call Simply Thick. It is a gel that comes in a packet that we squeeze in and it turns the milk into a nectar consistency. Of course, now she also needs different nipples than Kate because the thicker liquid does not flow through the slow nipples. So mom spent yesterday driving around Northern Virginia procuring all the supplies for the new feeding method. But I am happy to report there is a BIG difference with her eating now. It is really amazing because she is not choking at all. Also, she used to dribble half the bottle out of her mouth while drinking but now there is no dribble at all. The speech pathologist yesterday told me we would probably need to do this for two months but our ped today said more like three-six months. We don’t want to recheck her too soon and have to put her through any unnecessary radiation so I think it is better to wait longer. It is really not that big of a deal to use the thickener so we’ll see how it goes. We are just happy it seems to have helped her eat better!

Next week is her lung MD appt so hopefully we will be getting rid of the monitor then. Making progress!!!!

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