One Month Ago Today...

One month ago today, Norma, Sandy, and Daniel brought Gabriella to me at the hotel in Guatemala. Gabriella and I have officially been together one whole month. She has changed so much in only one month. It is amazing how she seems to be transforming from a baby into a little girl. Yesterday at the Little Gym, Miss Lisa commented that Gabriella looks happier and happier each week. I agree. Every day Gabriella is getting more and more confident and visibly appears happier and more content. It is so wonderful. She is getting more comfortable at day care and is bonding with the teachers and wants to play more with the other children.

Gabriella had the remainder of her physical with the pediatrician yesterday. There was a lot to cover so they had split it up over two visits. The doctor gave her a clean bill of health. She gained five ounces since her first doctor's visit on September 9th. She now weighs 19 pounds 5 ounces. Her appetite seems to be tapering off a bit. She still eats great, but just not the enormous amounts of food she was eating during the first few weeks. Gabriella had to have five vaccinations at the end of the physical in her little thighs. Four of them were to catch her up with the typical vaccination schedule and one of them was a flu shot. Gabriella did much better at this visit. She fussed, but nothing like the first visit. She obviously cried much louder when they were giving her the vaccines, but that is to be expected.

Gabriella still had the blisters on the back of her throat from the Coxsackie virus. The doctor said that they would last for about one week. Gabriella also has a cold. Her nose was running a lot yesterday, but has tapered off considerably today. I guess this is to be expected with being around so many other children at day care. Despite all this, she is back to sleeping pretty much through the whole night; Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights were pretty miserable and she had been sleeping back in my bed since last Saturday. She slept in the pack and play last night and made it until 4 AM in there.

As of yesterday, we have transitioned Gabriella from soy milk to whole lactose-based milk. She was being transitioned to regular milk while she was in Guatemala but when I got her home and she began to have messy diapers we decided to hold off until all of her medical testing came back. The doctor wanted to rule out any parasites until we officially made the transition. Since all testing came back negative he said we should try again.

I applied for Gabriella's Social Security number yesterday. We will begin the re-adoption proceedings soon as well. This will involve three social worker visits and they typically commence one month after being home. Once this is complete her name will officially be changed to Gabriella Astrid from Astrid Mariela. It is very confusing since right now everything is listed under her legal name, Astrid Mariela. For example, she is listed as Astrid on her health insurance card and so she is known as Astrid at the doctor's office.

The first month has been wonderful. Time is flying and we are having a blast!