6 weeks home!

Today marks 6 weeks of being out of the NICU!  While these 6 weeks have flown by, it also seems like such a long time ago that we were driving into Hartford twice a day to see Gabriella.  Sometimes I look at her and already forget just how tiny she was.  And then I look at these two photos together...

The first photo is of our wedding rings, on Gabriella's leg.  Gianni's could have been pulled up her thigh.  The second photo is Gabriella's foot today, my ring just able to go around two toes. She has grown!!

Bringing home a NICU baby is exciting yet challenging.  For the first few weeks home, we had to wake her every 3 hours to feed her.  She would take about 1/2 hour to eat her 1 1/2 ounces and then had to be held upright for her reflux for about 20-30 minutes.  When her weight gain became steady enough, we were able to start letting her go 4 hours in between feeds which has been much easier- and it allows her to wake up on her own and be a little less cranky!  She is now eating 3-3 1/2 ounces every 3-5 hours.

We started the Birth to Three program which we are so excited about.  Birth to Three is a program that helps delayed children catch up developmentally to their peers.  We have a physical therapist come to our house every other week to work with Gabriella and us. The visits are unlimited and as time goes on, if she needs other services, like occupational or speech therapy, they are also provided.  At the end of every visit, we are given "homework" to work on.  This week we are working on increasing tummy time, encouraging Gabriella to grasp toys, and working with her on tracking objects and turning to sounds.  We had a very exciting moment the other day when Gabriella held a toy with both hands and brought it up to her mouth!  It may seem little, but for a preemie baby, this is huge.

Some other fun photos...

Have a great weekend!  We are hoping for warmer weather soon... cabin fever is setting in and this baby and I need to get outside and walk!

xo,
Mary

A look back...

Dear Family and Friends,

I decided to start blogging about our lives with Gabriella because it is a wonderful way to share a bit of our lives with our loved ones.  It will also be a good way for me to journal all of her little milestones so that we can look back and see just how far she has come.  I also hope that if another family with a NICU baby stumbles upon our blog, it may show them that they are not alone!

On October 16, 2014, I gave birth to our tiny miracle, Gabriella.  I went into spontaneous preterm labor after a week in the hospital with back pain that my doctors suspected was due to kidney stones.  They later found that the pain I was experiencing was not kidney stones at all, but labor pains due to an infection in the placenta.  While delivering Gabriella so early was far from an ideal situation, this little baby knew what she was doing.  Being exposed to this type of infection is extremely dangerous to babies and a full term pregnancy could have had a devastating outcome.

And so, at 6:48am that morning, our lives were changed forever.  Gabriella came quickly into this world- I only pushed for about 20 minutes- weighing in at 2lbs 2oz.  In grams, she was 970grams, less than one kilogram, making her a micropreemie.  She was born and whisked away to the team of NICU nurses, respiratory therapists, and doctors, who stabilized her before bringing her to the NICU with Gianni.

Over the course of 92 days, Gabriella overcame a large PDA (heart murmur), being intubated and extubated 3 separate times, and finally came off of respiratory support at the end of December.  She learned to first tolerate breastmilk through a feeding tube and then by mouth. Her days in the hospital were among the most challenging in our lives but each time she overcame an obstacle, our hearts filled with admiration and joy for our little girl. 

Gabriella came home to us on January 16, 2015.  We had a wonderful support system while we were a NICU family- our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, the NICU staff, the Tiny Miracles Foundation, and the March of Dimes- all gave us an extraordinary amount of love, support, and guidance. Our hope is that one day we can offer support to another family going through a similar situation.

I will try and blog frequently so that we can not only keep our friends and family updated on Gabriella's progress, but to document our lives and what it's like to watch our tiny baby grow!

xo,
Mary