Gabriele, 2 weeks old

Now that Gabriele is 2 weeks old (December 1st), we wanted to send an update on her progress. Gabby spent the first 10 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit although she improved rapidly in the first 3 days and was out of the incubator by day 5. Since then, Mom and Dad have enjoyed holding and feeding her as much as possible. On day 11 she was transferred to intermediate care at the Children’s hospital. She is doing well at the new ward and as of today, she weighs 2280 g (5.03 lbs)! Hopefully now that she is gaining weight she will come home soon.

Denise came home from the hospital last Friday after 9 days and was shocked to find that winter had come to Jena (today we have ~16 inches of snow!). Overall, Mom and Dad are doing well and spend as much time at the hospital visiting Gabby as they can. Although, we are a bit frustrated going back and forth from the hospital to spend time with our little one. We just can’t wait until she is home! Mom is requiring a bit more rest these days in preparation for Gabriele to come home and so will be limiting her email and phone calls.

Thank you all again for you love and support and please keep checking our Flickr site for new photos and updates: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deniseakob/collections/72157625415804596/. Since our time is limited we will be posting most of our updates to Flickr so please check there for new info!