Friday, April 15, 2011
Daycare pictures
We saw the proofs yesterday, and all the pictures look sooooooo cute, I couldn't resist! I HAD TO purchase them! I guess that's what they count on, on parents being suckers when it comes to cute pictures of their kids!!! I haven't received the CD with the originals yet, so I took a picture of the picture with my phone, and ... isn't she ADORABLE?
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Pictures
Gabbie (we actually call her Gabi, which is the nickname in Portuguese) is growing too fast! We try to enjoy every little moment we have with her, but they go so fast! Now that she is 5 months old, we want to be able to record the monthly milestones, but I couldn't just start from 5. So I decided to go back and post a picture for the past 4 months too. Here we go:
She was born on Nov 11. Very cool, because she will turn 1 on 11/11/11! And, she was also born at 8:11am, so I guess her lucky number is 11. As I mentioned in the previous post, her legs and feet were very different, all positional, so even dressing her was difficult. And holding her was difficult too. Here is Gabi at 1 month:
3 months with casts on:
Ok, now that we got all that "out of the way", I can start posting about her milestones starting at 5 months! Why didn't I start the blog sooner?????
Now that she is 5 months, we are starting to worry about some little things. Well, at least I am, my husband says he is not worried at all. She hasn't turned from belly to back yet. First, because she HATES being on her belly. But I think it is also because she hasn't had much tummy time before, when she had the casts on. She does not move her legs as much as I see other babies her age do. Again, maybe because of the same reason. She has excellent neck support, but when she is on he tummy, she just cries with frustration.
Her reflux also has not improved. Don't get me wrong, it is MUCH better than before the medicine, but many times she spits up and we have no idea what we did different to cause that. It is a problem in the busy mornings - I have to give her the medicine (which tastes horrible), wait for 30 minutes (with her crying hungry), and then feed her, wait at least 30 minutes more before I can even change a diaper or put her in the car seat. I've been trying to give her the medicine when she is still asleep, so that she will sleep through the next 30 minutes instead of waking up and realizing she is hungry, that works much better.
We also started solids before she was 4 months in the hope that it would stay down better than the bottle. She is not a very good eater, she eats it but not like my other kids, who wouldn't even give me enough time to get another spoon before "asking" for more. But she is getting there! Yesterday she ate one entire little jar of baby food for the first time. I will start making my own baby food soon (I hope), maybe she will like that better :-)
Today we get the 5 month professional pics she took at daycare back, I will post them tomorrow.
She was born on Nov 11. Very cool, because she will turn 1 on 11/11/11! And, she was also born at 8:11am, so I guess her lucky number is 11. As I mentioned in the previous post, her legs and feet were very different, all positional, so even dressing her was difficult. And holding her was difficult too. Here is Gabi at 1 month:
2 months:
3 months:
And finally 4 months:
Ok, now that we got all that "out of the way", I can start posting about her milestones starting at 5 months! Why didn't I start the blog sooner?????
Now that she is 5 months, we are starting to worry about some little things. Well, at least I am, my husband says he is not worried at all. She hasn't turned from belly to back yet. First, because she HATES being on her belly. But I think it is also because she hasn't had much tummy time before, when she had the casts on. She does not move her legs as much as I see other babies her age do. Again, maybe because of the same reason. She has excellent neck support, but when she is on he tummy, she just cries with frustration.
Her reflux also has not improved. Don't get me wrong, it is MUCH better than before the medicine, but many times she spits up and we have no idea what we did different to cause that. It is a problem in the busy mornings - I have to give her the medicine (which tastes horrible), wait for 30 minutes (with her crying hungry), and then feed her, wait at least 30 minutes more before I can even change a diaper or put her in the car seat. I've been trying to give her the medicine when she is still asleep, so that she will sleep through the next 30 minutes instead of waking up and realizing she is hungry, that works much better.
We also started solids before she was 4 months in the hope that it would stay down better than the bottle. She is not a very good eater, she eats it but not like my other kids, who wouldn't even give me enough time to get another spoon before "asking" for more. But she is getting there! Yesterday she ate one entire little jar of baby food for the first time. I will start making my own baby food soon (I hope), maybe she will like that better :-)
Today we get the 5 month professional pics she took at daycare back, I will post them tomorrow.
Monday, April 11, 2011
By the third baby you think you know it all! Well, not really...
It took us a while to get pregnant this time. We were all (including the older kids) looking so much forward to it! Gabbie was born on November 11, much smaller than my other two kids had been, and by C-section because she was breech. Due to her position in my uterus, she couldn't straighten up her legs at first and her feet were also different, turned upwards in the direction of the leg. All because of the position she was in for so many weeks. The doctors told us she would need a lot of massage to bring them to the normal position. We brought her home less than 48 hours after the C-section. We thought we knew it all. It was our third one, we had to know it all!!! And Gabbie was determined to prove us wrong!
First we started noticing that she was spitting up a lot, even breast milk. And it seemed to burn her throat, she would jerk her body back and cry. She was diagnosed as having allergy and reflux disease. I had to stop breastfeeding and we had to put her on the most expensive formula ever! Not only it is expensive (about $300 a month) but it stinks! At first she was on Zantac, then changed to Prilosec. She did better with that, at least she wasn't so much in pain anymore, but still spits out (a lot less) once in a while. We also had to add cereal to her bottles, after we had tried everything with no success. The doctor was reluctant at first, but then he gave us the "go ahead" and it works much better. It may not work for every reflux case, but it sure works for her.
Then there were the legs and feet. Massage and physical therapy were not enough, and the doctor decided to put her in casts for almost a month. Every week we had to go there, they removed the old one and put a new one on her, forcing the feet a little more. It was difficult to watch! She cried so much. I don't think she was in pain, but she was scared, and would look at us with those eyes "saying" "why are you letting them do this to me?".
After a month, this is how they look now. Not perfect yet, but we believe that when she starts trying to use them more, they will improve in terms of flexibility.
Anyway, she is perfect to us! She's been through a lot already, but sometimes I hear so many stories of other babies going through so much worse, I thank God that this is all she's had. We are very grateful for our baby. We wouldn't have it any other way!!!!!!
But now we know that it doesn't matter how many times you go through this, YOU NEVER KNOW IT ALL. There is always something different, they are all different! And she is teaching us something different every day!
First we started noticing that she was spitting up a lot, even breast milk. And it seemed to burn her throat, she would jerk her body back and cry. She was diagnosed as having allergy and reflux disease. I had to stop breastfeeding and we had to put her on the most expensive formula ever! Not only it is expensive (about $300 a month) but it stinks! At first she was on Zantac, then changed to Prilosec. She did better with that, at least she wasn't so much in pain anymore, but still spits out (a lot less) once in a while. We also had to add cereal to her bottles, after we had tried everything with no success. The doctor was reluctant at first, but then he gave us the "go ahead" and it works much better. It may not work for every reflux case, but it sure works for her.
Then there were the legs and feet. Massage and physical therapy were not enough, and the doctor decided to put her in casts for almost a month. Every week we had to go there, they removed the old one and put a new one on her, forcing the feet a little more. It was difficult to watch! She cried so much. I don't think she was in pain, but she was scared, and would look at us with those eyes "saying" "why are you letting them do this to me?".
Anyway, she is perfect to us! She's been through a lot already, but sometimes I hear so many stories of other babies going through so much worse, I thank God that this is all she's had. We are very grateful for our baby. We wouldn't have it any other way!!!!!!
But now we know that it doesn't matter how many times you go through this, YOU NEVER KNOW IT ALL. There is always something different, they are all different! And she is teaching us something different every day!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Starting this blog
Well, I hope you enjoy following our journey. I am a very busy mom nowadays - but I will still find time to update this blog once in a while! Our story is very special, because we were a happy family of 4 for many years and now we became 5. Yes, very much planned. That is the first question I get asked every time!
We have 2 older kids, our son is 15 now, and our daughter is 13. I guess they have always been such good kids that we decided to have another baby after all this time. Many people did not (and still don't) understand why. But we have always wanted more. And the truth is that I have always felt like they grew up too fast, both my husband and I were in grad school with 2 toddlers, and I felt like we never truly "stopped and smelled the roses". Looking at our photo albums you see that this is not true, we always "lived for them". We did everything as a family, always together, They even participated in our research projects, "helping" collect data. But we wanted more. So Gabriella was born last November, she will be 5 months old soon, and I decided to create this blog to tell about our story and keep friends and family up to date on everything that goes on.
So, enjoy, follow me, write comments, ask questions, do whatever you want (within reason!).
We have 2 older kids, our son is 15 now, and our daughter is 13. I guess they have always been such good kids that we decided to have another baby after all this time. Many people did not (and still don't) understand why. But we have always wanted more. And the truth is that I have always felt like they grew up too fast, both my husband and I were in grad school with 2 toddlers, and I felt like we never truly "stopped and smelled the roses". Looking at our photo albums you see that this is not true, we always "lived for them". We did everything as a family, always together, They even participated in our research projects, "helping" collect data. But we wanted more. So Gabriella was born last November, she will be 5 months old soon, and I decided to create this blog to tell about our story and keep friends and family up to date on everything that goes on.
So, enjoy, follow me, write comments, ask questions, do whatever you want (within reason!).
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