Stella's First Trip to Ohio

As mentioned in our Thanksgiving post our family traveled to Ohio to spend the holiday with the Hooley's.  Grammie and Pa came too, as well as our nephew Logan.  While we were there we were able to see Jeanie, Doug, and Jordan (family who visited from Cincinnati), and Adam and Karissa (Adam is a great friend from WVWC who we've stayed in touch with).  It was a busy visit but we had a nice time seeing everyone.  Thank you to Melissa, Dan, and their girls for hosting us for the weekend - we really enjoyed ourselves!

Stella's first bath in the kitchen sink (after 10 months we thought it was about time!)

Stella with her cousins Cailin and Dana

Stella with Adam and Karissa

P.S. Stell Belle slept through Thanksgiving dinner so we didn't get to all sit around the table together as planned.  Maybe that will happen on Christmas day instead!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 2010 @ the Hooley's in Orient, OH

This year our family is so grateful to have one another.  We are also grateful for the many people who have helped us out in a variety of ways.  We've made some new and lasting friendships this year, and have been touched by complete strangers.  We miss our sweet Trey terribly, but we are grateful too for the time we shared with him.  And lastly, we are grateful for Stella's good health and happiness.  She is doing so well and most of the time is such a joy to everyone around her.

Pasta, Carrots, Black Beans, Kiwi, and More!

Stella has changed so much in such a short time.  She is healthy and growing and we are so happy.  Behind her success is good nutrition (which was also the foundation of her time spent in the NICU).  Watching the transformation from a formula only diet, to cereal, to baby food, and now table food has been remarkable.  We've given her mostly home-made baby food but now we are so excited to be able to begin feeding her the same things we are eating (like some of the foods listed in the title of this entry).  She is such a good eater and enjoys most everything we give her.  This week Stella has begun to feed herself, literally.  She makes a mess of course but she figures it out which makes us realize what a big girl she is becoming.  This milestone has arrived just in time for Thanksgiving so we are looking forward to all of us being able to gather around together and all eat at the same time.  We are heading to Ohio to be with family and should have some good pictures to post later in the week!

Stella had the chance to play with Gianna this week not once but twice which was lots of fun.  This photo is from Saturday evening when the girls were getting ready for bed.  Gianna was so sweet giving Stella a hug.  We know it won't be long before they will be running around together, stealing each others toys, and learning about friendship from one another.

Promoting the Ronald McDonald House

Our loyal blog followers may remember us mentioning during our time in Burlington that we took part in a shoot for a promotional video.  The producer did a terrific job and we are happy to share it with all of you:

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Separation Anxiety

This week Stella had some special time with her dad in celebration of both Veteran's Day and Native American Day.We had no weekend plans so we did a little bit of shopping and mommy and Stella had a nice long nap together on Sunday afternoon.  This quiet week was just what we needed before the holidays set in.

Since it was such a quiet week we don't have too much news to share.  We are noticing that Stella is beginning to experience some separation anxiety.  She really doesn't want you to be out of her site, and she wants to be held a lot.  We are happy to have her affection but know we will have to find a balance which will work for all of us.

Since we had a quiet week (which we are so grateful for!) and don't have a lot of news we are posting some comparison pics to show how far our sweet Stell Belle has come.

November 17th is National Prematurity Awareness Day.  We hope you will join us in wearing purple in recognition of all babies who are born premature.

Stella at the beginning of January - it may look like she's relaxing but she was working hard to make up for her early arrival.

Stella in October, happy and healthy!

Children's Memorial Service

After a quiet week Stella had a busy busy weekend...

Friday night we had some company over for a girls night - Stella had some good quality time with her dad while I visited with some good friends.

Then on Saturday Stella and I headed to Burlington for the night.  Daddy stayed behind so he could attend a pre-season coaches meeting for basketball.  Our trip was short but very eventful!

We started the visit off with Caroline's baby shower.  Stella was one of many babies who entertained the crowd.  It was so nice to meet some of Caroline's friends, see all of the wonderful things she received in preparation for her new baby, and to hear some of her fond memories of the time she had in the NICU with her baby Hope.  It was also a nice surprise to run into Nurse Pat, who took care of Trey often.  After the shower we went to the Fletcher Allen cafeteria to meet with Nurse Julie before her shift.  We had such a nice visit catching up and remembering Trey.

Stella playing with Heidi

On Sunday morning (after a somewhat sleepless night) we went to IHOP to meet Miss Heidi for breakfast.  It was the first time I've ate at IHOP since June and it was delicious!  Then we headed to Fletcher Allen to visit PICU and NICU staff.  We saw Carol, who was with us the day Trey passed away.  I was overwhelmed seeing her again after all we went through together.  It was such a nice visit.  While we were there we also saw some of the other nurses who meant so much to our family during our time in Vermont, including Liz and Kristen, who took care of our children often.

Around lunchtime Stella and I met up with Grammie and Pa at the Ronald McDonald House (because a trip to Burlington will no longer be complete without a stop there!).  We headed to Williston for a nice lunch out and a little shopping before we went to the UVM Chapel for the Children's Memorial Service hosted by Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

The service was a nice compilation of songs, stories, poems, and photos.  At the service Stella and I had the chance to see Dr. Macauley, who baptised the babies among some other things he did to help take care of us, and Dr. Lahiri, a lung specialist who worked with Trey. It was really nice having Grammie and Pa with us, as parts of the service were difficult.  It was also nice to be joined by Heidi who was such a big part of Trey's time with us, and of course Caroline, who was also honoring her sweet baby Hope.   We are so very fortunate to have had our experience with Trey at Fletcher Allen, a hospital which truly does a terrific job at taking care of families.

We headed back to NY just before six, and although it was a late night getting back, the trip was well worth it.  Visiting Burlington will always be bitter sweet for us.  It is the people we met who will always keep us coming back.  They took care of us, and we've made some wonderful friends who have come to be known as our 'Burlington Family'.  See everyone next month when we visit for Stella's neonatal follow-up!