Preterm Baby: Gaby's Story

In honor to the "Preemie Awareness Day", here is the first post I promised yesterday about the girls: Gaby's story.

I got pregnant with Gaby around my 22nd birthday.  I was a normal young woman with good eating habits and without any addictions (like drugs, alcohol and such). All my blood work were close to perfect and my overall health was peachy. The only "issue" with my health that I can think of was irregular periods and recurring cysts on my ovaries. For that reason, I found out about Gaby at around 9 to 10 weeks of pregnancy.

As soon as I found about it, I started my prenatal care and I did everything as I was supposed to. No real complications, just the regular discomforts of any pregnancy. By the middle of the second trimester, I started feeling discomfort and low back pain.  I mentioned it to my doctor, and she said it was normal.

As I first time mom, I didn't know what contractions felt like. They were asking me if the pain I was feeling was similar to menstrual cramps, but as I never had them, I simply didn't know. I kept reading about it and I found conflicting information. I insisted with my doctor, and she kept saying it was normal and sending me home. At this point, I was never hooked to the monitor to check for contractions.

One day at 36,4 weeks, I simply couldn't take it anymore and when they finally hooked me up to the monitors they noticed that I was actually having contractions. They were strong and every 10 minutes, even though I was not able to feel anything worse than a discomfort. Once they checked me, I was already 2 centimeters dilated.

Labor started at the next day and they were not able to stop it because I was already dilating. After almost 48 hours of bedrest, lots of contractions and starvation at the hospital, my water broke and Gaby was born vaginally a few hours later. She was considered “preterm” because she had an almost normal weight, however she didn’t cry right away and needed help to breath for a couple of days. She was diagnosed with Respiratory distress. The biggest emotional challenge faced with her birth is that there was no space in the NICU and she had to be transported to another hospital two hours away. I didn’t see her for 2 days until I was discharged myself. Also, she was tube fed for one day and also needed bili lights for jaundice. She was discharged on day 5 with minor jaundice left.

It makes me sad that this could have been avoided. If the doctors would have listened to me, the contractions wouldn't have been unnoticed until it was too late.

The only long term consequences so far are frequent otitis, sinus infections and also vision problems since age 5, including strabismus.

Gaby's Spa Slumber Party

I have to say that this is one of the parties that I have enjoyed the most. Gaby's actual birthday was a month ago, but the best timing to do a party with a sleepover was this weekend.

I'm thankful that my daughters have always understand when I need to do the parties later on... either because of the budget or because of other factors, and they are always ok with my decisions. They simply get happy and thankful that I do something special for them, regardless of when I do it.

As it was a sleepover and only one mom was staying with me, I decided to have only three guests... That means 6 girls including my girls. Here is the invitation I made for her...


As it was a sleepover, I did a decoration for the night and another for the morning. For the night decor it was more focused on the Spa part.  Then, the morning decor was more focused on their breakfast.  It was already set up when they woke up in the morning. They were all thrilled!


The biggest hit of the night was taking a picture with every hour. The first picture was taken at 7pm and the last one was taken at 3am. They were all still awake at 4am, and I was dead! I was still able to hear their voices but I was unable to move to take the picture!


At every hour they were doing something different. The picture just above on the left was the 10pm picture when they were eating hot dogs and mini pizzas. I lost count of how many times they repeated! Then, the picture next to it is the midnight picture... They were showing off the spa dolls they did for arts and crafts..

Here is the 1am picture while they were eating pop corn and watching a movie. Then, the picture at 3am when I asked them to go to sleep but it took them over an hour to fall asleep.


They really had a blast and they are already making plans for the next sleepover. Here is the thank you note I made...


I will be posting pictures of all the designs on my business blog.  I will update this post as soon as they are up.

My 100 Happy Days: Day #87

Gaby's party is tomorrow and I started organizing and decorating today.  My special someone helped me and it was too cute to see... That was the highlight of my day!

Throwback Thursday #6

Gaby was in her current school for a couple of months when she was 3 years old. I knew I had pictures, and I was looking for one specific picture. It was the picture with Gaby with one of her friends back then. I took a new picture of them last month, and I knew I needed to do a "then and now"...

Happy 11th Birthday Gaby

I know I always say the same thing, but it really feels like it was just the other day, but it has been already 11 years since I became a mom.

Believe it or not, Gaby was the first baby I ever held in my life, and it was like having my very own "live doll".

She was the one that teach me how to feed a baby, change a diaper, how to comfort a crying a baby, how to take care of a little person who is little by little becoming a little lady...

She teach me how to love unconditionally and how to be a mom. There are sooo many things that I need to thank her for. After all, she was the one that had to endure my mistakes in order for me to do it better with her sisters.

Gaby, I love you to the moon and back! Happy 11th Birthday!!

Her party will be next month, and we are all looking forward to it. Here is a mini collage I made for her because of her birthday...

My 100 Happy Days: Day #35

I got my evaluation at work today, and it made me smile (pad on the shoulder for me)... Then, I was chatting with Gaby and she was telling me her grades and Mia's grades and that made me smile even more. Gaby got great grades but got a couple of 80's .. Camila is once again on the honor roll with everything over 90... Very proud! Mimi doesn't get monthly grades, so I have to wait until December to get her evaluation.

Gaby, the 6th Grader

Gaby is ALL ready for 6th Grade. Just like her sisters, I asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up and of course she also wants to be a veterinarian (she says that since she was 3), and also a photographer like mommy.

In our local school system, instead of being the first grade of middle school, it is actually the last grade of elementary. It's unbelievable to think that I have a child that will be 11 in just a couple of months.

This school year also brings changes for her. This will be the first school year where she will get different teachers for each subject. Up to now, it was just one main teacher for the main subjects, and the only subjects with different teachers were the special subjects like computer, PE, and such.

This means more homework because each teacher will be leaving their own homework. It's the start of her teen years, and I'm not sure I'm ready for this.



And here she is with her math teacher and then with the in-charge 6th Grade teacher...

Another school year comes to an end

All the exams and last minute rush are over... The school year ended and it's time for summer!

The girls received their final grades today and I am VERY proud. All did great, however special kuddos to Mimi who got (once again) the Certificate of Excellence as she got the highest grades of her entire class. Her teacher even wrote a letter for her were she wrote that she is her best student and a lot of other beautiful things.

Mia is also, once again, in the honor roll as she got all her grades over 95. Gaby also did great with all her grades over 81, however she promised she will work harder next year to have her final grades in the honor roll too. I'm really proud of my girls and also very proud of my mom who works very hard to help us to make this possible!

Im officially the mom of a 2nd, 3rd and 6th graders!! Here is a card I made with the girls and their teachers. I made individual ones to give out to the teachers with a present and they were very thankful. For posting purposes, I put a fake logo... The real one had the actual school logo.

Gaby's First Holy Communion

Today was a beautiful sunny day, and Gaby was thrilled because she was getting ready to receive her First Holy Communion.

Not only she was getting the communion by a monsignor, but also she was getting it in the most beautiful church in the whole country... It's a minor basilica and also a cathedral: Basilica Catedral Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia.

It was done during school hours, which means the whole school was present. The Basilica was full.

We were sitting on the second row, right behind Gaby and she was so nervous, it was cute.


On the first picture below, the girls are with Monsignor Nicanor... And on the middle picture, she is with her 5th Grade teacher...


Here is my mom with all her girls...

Gaby... the Dog Whisperer

Gaby's love for animals goes beyond the normal love any child can feel for pets.

Since she was a baby and started cruising around, she started feeling a huge love for ANY animal... even ants.

She loves pets, insects, farm animals, birds, reptiles... ANYTHING!

After we had to give away Sassy, she has been begging for any pet for the house.. She wanted a dog or a cat or a hamster or a turtle or a bid or a fish... I promised her that by the time she was 10, she was going to have a pet, and she got her dream come true.

Seeing her with Gigi's pups makes my heart feel with joy, because I can only imagine the joy inside of her heart. She's getting the male for her... We named him Luca and she's totally in love.  Her favorite show in the whole world is the Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan and I gotta say has learned a lot... that she cares for them like a total expert.

... and Gaby's weekend

We all knew this was coming... Gaby's special weekend with mama was super fun!

Something that I know Gaby loves is some adult interaction, which is not something we can do with her little sisters. She eats like an adult, and I decided to take her to the Restaurant where I celebrated my birthday a couple of months ago.

Three friends of mine were there with us and she blended in just fine. She was part of the conversation just like a teenager would. It was refreshing to see.

She ate a 4 ounces bacon cheeseburger and also a slide of pizza. She worked hard to be slim and I like to reward her from time to time. She understands that she needs to eat in moderation all the time in order to have this type of cravings filled.


And of course, she spent lots of time with the pups too. They are already breastfeeding way better, but she still loved to assist.


We went to a different mall for the movies, because I wanted to take her to a ride simulator (third picture below) that I found the other day when I was leaving the gym. Of course, she wanted ice cream and ice cream she got. Then, I begged her to watch a different movie than her sisters did and I seriously regret it. We watched the Lego Movie (middle picture below), and I would have preferred a third round of Mr. Peabody. It was the first time in my life that I was falling asleep at a movie theater.


And here she is outside of the ride simulator. It's called X-Ride 9D and she really liked it.

Another bragging moment...

Not only Mia is still in the honor roll for this new period with all her grades over 90, but Mimi got once again the HIGHEST grades of all her class. She got the "Excellence Certificate" which is given to only ONE student... VERY PROUD!!! Gaby is not in the honor roll this month but most of her grades are over 90, only a few are between 80 and 89.

How Gaby got fit

Since Gaby lost her baby fat, she has always been very slim. Her weight has always been in correct proportion with her height.

She has always been a picky eater and food never was a priority for her. She would still eat which is why her weight was always average... not thin, not fat. On the picture from the right, you can see how you looked up to 7 years old.

But then, something changed. Suddenly, she started having an extreme interest in food and she would eat and eat and eat some more. It was refreshing for me to see, and I was very pleased that my very picky eater, it's now eating like there is no tomorrow. Also, as her father and I separated, I though it was normal for her to have some kind of anxiety because of that.

Months went by and I started noticing that she was looking a little chubby. At this moment, I tried to decrease the amount of carbs a little bit, and increase the amount of proteins. Still within a healthy range for her age, but just a bit less. I also cut down the starches and sugars.

My girls have never been sugar crazy and for that reason, I have never been worried about it. For example, they don't eat much ice cream, but if one day I treat them with ice cream, I would let them eat as much as they want. With this being said, if we go out to eat ice cream, Gaby would be allowed to eat, but just a moderate amount.

At this moment, I didn't anticipate what was about to happen. One hour after having a very good lunch, she would ask the maid for more rice. Then, before AND after the mid afternoon snack, she would ask her for one or two sandwiches.  This means that she was having breakfast, snack, lunch, extra lunch (more rice), extra meal (1 or 2 sandwiches), snack, extra meal (1 or 2 sandwiches), dinner, and then milk. I have NO IDEA how she was able to fit all this on her stomach, but she WAS doing that from Monday through Friday (when the maid was home).

For this reason, she gained A LOT but A LOT of weight. Her weight was not in proportion with her height anymore. Trying to understand the reason for that, I asked the maid if she was giving her candies or something like that, and she told me everything. It never occurred to her to mention it before, because for her there was nothing bad with giving food to a "hungry" child.

I was extremely concerned and I sat down with her pediatrician to design a plan of action. We both agree that she was not going to have a "diet to lose weight", but she needed a very healthy menu to get rid of the extra fat while she kept getting taller. The goal was to bring her back to proportion between her weight and her height.

I sat down with Gaby and talked to her like if I was talking to an adult. She is very smart and I knew she was going to understand better this way. I talked to her about diabetes and all the possible diseases. I talked to her how I was also going to work myself on getting fit and that it will be a goal for both of us.

As she still needed many carbs on her diet, I knew it was going to be a long road but SHE DID IT. Here are the changes she made:
- She started eating 3 meals and two snacks only
- She stopped eating "kids cereals", and started eating Honey Bunches of oats instead
- She started using skim milk and whole wheat bread
- She started eating more veggies than carbs.  She was still eating her carbs, but just the right amount. This was not a hard task because she have always eat her veggies. She simply started getting full on them instead of a bunch of rice.
- She would only drink juice with her school snack at mid morning (4 ounces)... then she would drink water at every other moment on a normal day (and lots of it)
- Sweets and sodas were down to almost nothing. She would only eat sweets and drink soda at a party or a special day
- She would play outside for at least 1 hour every day and putting extra effort on her gym class at school

After a year and a half, Gaby is back to complete proportion between her height and weight... not thin, not fat.... and I'm just really proud of her.

Gaby's Barbie Candy Shop

Gaby's 10th birthday was at the beginning of the month and I was trying to come up with a theme (I still like to surprise them with the theme) as I had already used mostly all the themes for the things she likes. One of the few themes of the things she likes that I haven’t use is Barbie.

Even though some people thought that she was too old for Barbies, I decided this was going to be the perfect way to close this stage of her life. As a treat (and because she likes sweets so much), I came up with Barbie's Candy Shop. I also decided to have to have the candies arranged by color and then have the goodie bags empty for them to put the sweets in there to take home.

I had a LOT of fun planning and decorating the party and here is the invitation I made for her...


As the candies were arranged by colors, here is a picture of each area.  One area was Pink with Orange... Another Green with Yellow... another Purple and Turquoise... and the last one was Red and brown.



I have always preferred Arts and Crafts instead of games at birthday parties.  That minimizes that amount of accidents and sweating.  We did a DIY project with Wood Treasure Boxes and it was so fun.  I set up everything on the floor with a cardboard for each child.  They had paint, paint brushes and self-adhesive jewels.


The birthday girl blowing her candles...


And here is the thank you note for all the people that helped me to make this day a reality.

Gaby has TWO digits...

... on her age!

It seems like "the other day", however it has been 10 years since I became a mom for the very first time. Happy 10th Birthday to Gabriela Michele! 

Gaby: I am so lucky to have you as my daughter, and your sisters couldn't ask for a better big sister. Continue working hard at school and making us proud. Hope you never lose your sweetness and kindness! I LOVE YOU sooo very much!

The buds with double eyes

All three girls have been complaining non stop for headaches and I knew checking the vision was in order. Gaby is the only one that has been prescribed with eyeglasses for reading, but Mia and Mimi were supposedly fine.

After lots of testing done, Gaby got new eyeglasses (only for reading again) and Mimi got prescription for eyeglasses full time. This doesn’t surprise me because they were born early and I knew this was something that could happen. Mia was sent for a more specialized test, but so far, it looks like she won’t need them.


And here is a close up of each one of my girls with eyeglasses...

Weight in for the girls

I weighted the girls today and here is the verdict.....

- Mimi is 41 pounds and in 22nd percentile for her age (my peanut)
- Mia is 63 pounds and in 85th percentile for her age
- Gaby is 103 pounds and in 95th percentile for her age

If you look at the picture, even when Mia is not completely straight, she is still way taller than Mimi and she is only 13 months older.  Mimi is really petite but I'm not so worried anymore... She really eats very well, and she IS growing... just in a lower pace than usual. Maybe her metabolism is just too fast and she will be one of those ladies than eat and eat and never gets fat.

Bragging time... ahem, I mean Grade time

I received Gaby's final grades and I am really proud of her. She is really smart but VERY lazy.  She sometimes forgets that she can't just be playing around with her sisters, but she's lucky because she is so smart that her laziness didn't affect her grades.  The average for all main subjects are above 91.  She's officially a 5th grader now!!

Spanish: 94
Math: 93
Social Studies: 93
Science: 95
English: 91

Mia and Mimi don't get actual numbers for the grades. They just get "Acomplished", "In process" or "Not accomplished". They got ACCOMPLISHED in every single section, and Mimi's teacher wrote to her: "You are an excellent student. Very organized and likes to cooperate". Mimi is officially a 1st grader and Cami is officially a 2nd grader!!

And this brings a question to me... Why are my girls growing soooo fast? Now, I don't have a child in preschool anymore, they are all in Elementary School... It's hard to believe!

Grade time!

Gaby is doing great in 4th Grade.  I got her grades for the second evaluation and I am a proud mama!

Math 95 (A+)
Spanish 96 (A+)
Social Studies 97 (A+)
Science 94 (A-)
Art 97 (A+)
English 90 (A-)
Religion 97 (A+)
PE 85 (B+)
Discipline 85 (B+)
Computer 78 (C+)
Civic 95 (A+)

Funny that her two lower grades were the two ones I always excelled at.  I always got 100 at PE because I was part of mostly all the sport teams we had at school so I didn't really participated of the class per se.  There was always I game I needed to practice for.

And yes, the daughter of two computer geeks has 78 on computer. The teacher understood she is teaching 7th grade and the exam was not age appropriate... Plus she is not taking them to the lab , only theory... Gaby knows how to use the computer better than a lot of adults since she was 2 years old... The teacher WILL hear my mouth sooner than later.

Gabriela is NINE

That's right! Gaby is already on her last "one digit" age! She was the one that came into my life to teach me how to be someone else's mother.  As a mom, we learn new things every day and we grow with each one of our children's milestones.  Gaby is the one that has been training me to be a better mom for her sisters and that is a hard job for any child.  She does it with pride and she adores her sisters with all her heart.


Gaby chose receiving GIFTS instead of a big party, so I got her a few things plus we had a mini get together at home with two of my best friends.  It was a slumber party and we had lots of fun.

I even did an invitation for her birthday because they are always happy when I make designs for them.