Happy 3 Week Birthday Gabi!!!

I can't believe that it has been 3 weeks since my sweet little angel was born. In some ways it feels like yesterday, but in other ways it feels like it was months ago! We have been through so much in the last three weeks that every day feels like ground hogs day lately! (other than Gabi keeps doing better and better each day! thank goodness!) This has been the most life changing 3 weeks of my life and the only thing that I would change is that fact that Gabi was so sick from the beginning. She has been through more in the first weeks of her life to last a persons lifetime! I hope that this is it and we have no more after this! This last week gabi has progressed so much. On Monday the doctor planned on taking her off the ventilator, but before they did they had scheduled to do an MRI to make sure everything was well. Gabi had other plans and ripped the tubes out of her mouth all by herself! She is one feisty girl with a mind of her own!

This is her being mad after she was naughty and ripped out her tubes, they put her in a high flow nasal cannula instead which meant that we could finally hold her! I only held her for a few seconds right after she was born and Gio hadn't held her at all so it ended up being a very good day!


On Tuesday Gabi was upgraded to a crib. She was producing her own body heat so she didnt need the heated bed! They put her in some pj's and wrapped her up in a blanket. She was finally looking like a healthy baby. That day Aunt Brittany and Grandma Hreinson came to visit and were able to hold her as well. They have been patiently waiting for 2 long weeks!



Since Gabi was doing so much better and was moved to a crib that meant she was well enough to be moved to a different room. I was not happy about the move at first. All the nurses said that she was moving up I felt the opposite. She went from being in a room with one other baby, having a personal nurse on her 24 hours a day and having lots of room to gather round her and admire her to being in a room the same size with 4 other babies, crammed in a corner with only 2 nurses to the whole room. That was the first time I questioned if she would be taken care of when I left. I think being able to hold her made things worse because I hate leaving her now. I know that when I am not there she will be left in her crib with little interaction, it made me feel like she was in prison and I wanted to break her out!

Snuggled up in her new Bed!


The next day one of the babies had been moved out of her room and I felt a little better about the situation. I know she is being taken care of I just really want her to come home.


She slept so good for almost 3 days straight! When she is awake she likes to still pull on her feeding tube and oxygen, the last few day she has pulled it out a couple times a day.


When Gabi finally decided she had slept enough over a few days she woke up and couldn't take her pretty eyes off her dad! She is such a good baby, she hardly cries and when she gets mad she gets over it quickly and is calm and content, I hope it stays that way!

Currently Gabi is completly off all medication! She has all her iv's out including the central line that went to her heart! The only things she has on her is oxygen, her feeding tube and her monitors to keep track of her blood pressure and breathing. She has recovered extremely well. Her pulmonary hypertension in her lungs has completely resolved itself. Tomorrow she will have another eco on her heart to make sure her valves have closed up ok. She is scheduled to have and MRI on Wednesday to look everything over again also just as a precaution. Considering how sick she was when she was born she has recovered extremely well. Right now she is on 1 1/2 liters of high flow oxygen and we are optimistic that she will be switched to regualar oxygen in the next few days. This is a huge step because she could come home with that kind of oxygen cannula. She has come off the drugs well and now our biggest challenge is getting her to eat. She doesn't like anything in her mouth. I can't imagine why! She has done a little better each day but still is not super interested in doing the work, its so much easier to have your stomach filled for you! If she doesn't want to eat we could possibly take her home with a feeding tube but i REALLY don't want to do that. I don't know if I can handle shoving a tube up her nose and down her stomach. So we continue to pray each day that she will stop being so stubborn like her mom and dad and decides she wants to eat!

Easter Sunday was a good day for me. I am so glad it was conferance weekend to go along with it. Listening to the leaders of the church and the messages they share is very uplifting but it was even more comforting this time because of everything that we have been through. My testimony of prayer, priesthood blessing, and the atonement of our savior has grown so much. I know that through our savior we can get through anything, he knows of my pain, my fears, and my joy. Gabi has brought Gio and I more joy and hope and peace than we could ever imagine. She has brought people together and helped bring perspective to the most important things in life. Looking at her each day I see our saviors love for me and my family. Gabi is a true blessing in our life, she is a symbol of hope, peace, stregnth, courage, and most of all love. We are all so blessed to have her and she has changed all of us forever!

She loves Daddy's kisses!

Our little Easter Bunny!

You don't get any cuter than that!

We continue to pray each day that Gabi continues to progress and that she will come home soon. She has never been in our house but there is a void that we are waiting for her to fill. The sooner ther better! WE LOVE YOU LITTLE MISS GABI GIRL!!!