First Christmas

A baby's first Christmas is always such a special, sweet time.  Gianna's had a break from all her appointments for the past couple of weeks, and we've been visiting with family and friends and just enjoying all the extra time together for the holidays.  We received many beautiful cards this Christmas - one of my favorites was from Bob and Judy in Wheeling - the verse inside said, "This Christmas let us celebrate a God who still delivers gifts in the most perfect and unique ways".  We feel especially blessed this Christmas by the perfect and unique gift of Gianna.  She got to attend Mass at Christ the King for the first time on Christmas Eve - the church was packed, but she slept the whole time!  We woke up to a snowy morning on Christmas Day and spent the day celebrating with family.  Here's a few pics of G during the holiday celebrations. 

The Gift of Friendship

My co-workers hosted a baby shower/birth celebration for Gianna the weekend before Christmas - SO touching!  We shared fantastic Indian food, homemade strawberry cake, and lots of laughter.  Gianna was passed around and cuddled the whole time.  I'm so very thankful for this incredible group of women....they were a rock for me during my pregnancy, an integral part of Gianna's birth, and literally kept her alive during her surgeries.  I could not have been blessed with a more wonderful "work family" than the UK Department of Anesthesiology!!



The boys were thrilled with the cake and balloons I brought home. 
They thought it meant it was Gianna's birthday and even sang to her!



Three Months Old and Hitting Milestones



G's message to Santa

Gianna is three months old today!  I get a monthly email that tells about each of the developmental milestones that your baby should probably be reaching around this age.  The email I got this morning for the three month old baby said this: "Babies are now at the stage when they love to wave their arms, pump their legs, and swat at whatever they can.  They're practicing their gross motor skills.  Most babies are smiling and starting to coo vowel sounds like "Oh" "Aah" and "ee" at this point".  Here's Gianna today:

Swating at her babydoll, cooing, smiling and kicking her feet all at the same time!  SO proud of her!

All I Want for Christmas

Having the kids together - happy and healthy - for the holidays is the best Christmas Gift we could have ever asked for!  Of course there are a few other things on the boys' wish list (skateboard for Dominic and "Candy!" for Angelo) so we made a visit to Santa this weekend so they could tell him all about it. 

In the Club

Here's G all bundled up in the back seat of my car - ready for her first day at Kidz Club on Friday!  Of course the first day leaving her was with the usual mixed feelings - hating to leave her, but also so happy we found such a good place.  She was sleeping when I left her there so it made it a little easier.  I picked her up early to visit the pediatrician and see what's going on with her ears.  Thankfully, it looks like she has fluid from a cold, but no infection.  And he agreed that the fluid likely was the cause of her earing evaluation results.  

Do You Hear What I Hear?

G was all smiles with her new Steelers outfit on

GiGi (as Dominic and Angelo have started to call her) had a full day of appointments today.  She started off the day with her first therapy session with the First Steps developmental interventionist (DI).  I can't say enough how happy I am with this program! Her DI already gave me lots of good tips on how to help Gianna interact more with her surroundings, people and toys.  She'll have sessions with her every 2 weeks.

Her last appointment of the day didn't go so well.  She passed an inital hearing screening when she was in the NICU, but with the parts of her brain that have been affected, she is considered high-risk for deafness or hearing difficulties, and was required to have another more detailed hearing evaluation before turning 3 months.  She had a lengthy evaluation today, and suprisingly failed the evaluation in both ears!  I honestly never thought this was an issue for her - I know she can hear at least to some extent - she gets startled by loud noises and turns to us when we talk. The audiologist said she had fluid in both her ears, possibly caused by an ear infection, and that could have definitely skewed the results.  So we'll get that cleared up first, and then she'll need more testing. 

Thankful

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving traveling to visit Matt's family in West Virgina.  Gianna got to meet so many family and friends that have been sending prayers and good wishes her way.  She even got to finally meet her great-grandmother - Noni - for the first time.  I'm having trouble putting into words how truly thankful we were for all of the kindness shown by so many people - so I'll just let a few pictures tell the story.

Obviously, she was hardly put down all weekend! 
Traveling with Gianna was another learning experience for us.  This was her first trip, and by far the longest time she had been in the carseat.  When we arrived at Matt's parent's house, the fontanelle (soft spot) on the top of her head was completely sunken in and every bone in her skull was obvious.  It resolved pretty quickly after she laid down for a while.  On the way home, the same thing happened to her head and she got sick the one time we stopped on the trip.  I called the neurologist and he assured me that this was more than likely just her shunt "over-draining" the fluid in her head, since she was sitting up in the car seat so long.  Although G is amazingly strong, little things like this remind us how fragile she can be.