Briella is 10 Years Old!

I knew I was going to make a 10th birthday blog post, but I have been putting it off until the last minute. It is hard to come back here and feel everything. It reminds me of just willing her to live and pleading for prayers. And the unknown of what was next. I am not sure where to start since it has been 8 years since I last posted, so let's just start at the present.

Briella is 10!!

In the photo Briella is holding of herself, the picture is larger than she actually was by about 4 inches! 

The photo in the frame. 12 inches long, 1 pound, 6 oz

When covid hit, we were pros at isolating. We did it every year from October-May since she came home from the hospital. We would stop going inside public places, move to online shopping & limit visitors. We kept such strict isolation with covid for over 2 years. Both of our daughters switched to virtual school. Briella left school as a 1st grader and she just went back to in-person school this year as a 4th grader! We also moved during the pandemic, so she is in a new district and is the new kid at school. She is in a typical classroom with everyone else! When we received the Cerebral Palsy diagnosis, we did not know what the future looked like for her. It has not been an easy road, but we are so proud of Briella. She is amazing.

While isolated, we all had to give up seeing our friends & family in person, Briella was able to continue to FaceTime her cousin across the country. They have become besties and are able to play together almost as if they were in person. Thank God for technology! 

Briella loves building with Legos. That has been her go to activity for 2 years now. She also likes to play pickleball and basketball, she took swimming lessons this summer, started practicing golf, likes to fish, boat & swim in the lake, and go on hikes. She loves to find a good walking stick on her hikes and search for fossils. She would love to one day go hunt for dinosaur fossils. It's on our bucket list to take her to western Colorado to a place where she can dig for them. Before covid she played 2 years of softball. She loves playing with her 2 dogs. Briella has an awesome knack for telling you animal facts. You name it & she can rattle off an entire encyclopedia of knowledge about the most random animals. 

She has traveled so much! One summer, we did a 10 week European road trip! She has been to France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Monaco & the Bahamas. She has hiked a mountain in Colorado, swam with dolphins & pigs in the Bahamas, played on the beach in Hawaii, DisneyWorld, NYC, DC...we have really tried to show her the world we told her about while sitting in the NICU, begging her to live to see all the amazing places there were. I just couldn't understand how a baby who had never experienced happiness or joy could fight through all of this pain and everything she was going through. So I just told stories of the places she would go. We love going back to France to see my family. We also love to go to the Amalfi Coast. Those are our favorite spots to visit as a family. Briella loves visiting Natural History Museums with Vienna, Austria being her fav. She tells a story of how she got bit by a shark in Vienna haha. There was a large shark jaw & lil Miss Briella put her head inside it, I guess to get a closer look, and the teeth scraped her. So in her 5 year old brain, she was bit by a shark. You can see more of her travels at our travel blog, OurKidsTravel

The pandemic has halted our traveling. We need to be close to her healthcare team. Briella being born before her lungs were developed & previously ventilated makes her high risk. She spent the 1st two years of school always pretty sick in the winter months. I am hoping that the last 2 years we were isolated allowed her lungs to heal & grow healthy! We shall see! Briella is currently wearing a mask at school, and it has worked. She has not picked up any illness and has stayed healthy. Being the new kid and wearing a mask has not been the easiest to make friends. The same goes for her sister who is now in High School & wears a mask to protect Brie. 

Briella had to have her liquids thickened until 2018. She aspirates when drinking, but she is old enough now to clear it herself. She had continuous therapies until the pandemic began. The hardest one was VitalStim. She basically had targeted areas of her neck & esophagus muscles shocked to retrain them to swallow correctly. 

All of the harsh therapies are in the past. Today Briella is your pretty typical 10 year old girl. Eager to make a ton of friends, always wanting to change up the decor in her bedroom, getting into big sister's makeup, avoiding chores...We are so so blessed. I am thankful everyday for Briella. She is our miracle & I will be forever grateful for all of your prayers that got us through the hard times. <3

For her 10th Birthday, Briella did a book drive for her NICU. She collected 120 books to donate to families that have a baby admitted to the NICU. 120 books represent the 120 days she was in the NICU before she came home to complete our family. She also did the same book drive for her 5th birthday! Every year we also raise money for the March of Dimes. Without their research & development of a drug called Surfactant, Briella would not be here. Thank you to everyone who has donated books for her 2 milestone birthdays as well as your March of Dimes donations! 

Briella keeps her Amazon wishlist updated with her wants, you can find that here

If you would like to purchase a book for the NICU to donate to a baby, you can do that here

Our annual March of Dimes donation link is here

Here was the video we made for Briella's 1st Birthday: http://youtu.be/G-AsuWcmtL0

Briella, a couple weeks old in her Daddy's hands

                    

We still hold hands like this, she just holds my finger.

Footprints the size of a paperclip!

Picture from: Stephanie Photo KC

Here are some amazing posts to read back on to see how far she has came:

http://www.briellasjourney.com/2012/10/i-tried-to-tell-them.html

http://www.briellasjourney.com/2012/10/her-1st-day-update-on-her-delivery.html

http://www.briellasjourney.com/2012/10/day-10-first-time-holding-her.html

Celebrating Ms Briella's 1st Year of Life

What a busy busy weekend we have had!!! Ok, really it's been a busy summer. I have been planning, painting & pasting for months in preparation of celebrating Briella's 1st Birthday.
We chose to celebrate her birthday 26 days early. Her actual birthday, October 4th is during RSV season which we will be in isolation for until next summer. We wanted to have all of Briella's family here to celebrate with us the accomplishment of this 1 pound baby turning 1. For some of the family it would be the first chance to meet her!

We started the day with a Re-dedication at church. Briella was baptized hours after her birth in the hospital. My Pastor came to do the baptism in her isolete because we were afraid of what could happen. 

So yesterday was a joyous day. The family gathered and Pastor Rich made it a very special service for our family. He showed the picture of her on her original baptism day, just barely bigger than my hand. Now, I hold her and she is huge!! A whopping 17lbs!!!

Immediately following the service we had a party at my parents home for Briella. Since this was mostly an adult party to keep Briella healthy, I searched for games that we could involve the adults in. I had all of the guests make guesses as to what Briella would be when she grows up.
I placed 4 objects in front of Brie to see which one she would be drawn to-that object would represent what she would be when she grows up. It's actually a Korean tradition but I LOVE the idea. So I placed a stethoscope-which represents a doctor (I say she should become a Neonatologist to save other small babies), Paper Money to represent Wealth, a Microphone, which represents an Entertainer, and a Soccer Ball which represents an athlete. What do you think she picked?!?!

Before I tell you, let me tell you that I put all these items on the floor, just out of her reach in hopes she would roll to the item she wanted. Well, in front of everyone, she starts to crawl towards the items!!! How cool her 1st time crawling was in front of everyone & being photographed?!

Okay okay. So after the initial lunge for the Soccer Ball, a quick turn to the microphone and a two hand grab, she pulls it to her and tries to eat it. So an entertainer she shall be. Although I think she can be all the above. Especially a soccer player as this girl can kick! A second round she went for the money an was playing in it. And then in her high chair she played with the stethoscope, so we will have to wait and see. Wherever her journey takes her, it will be great. Full of lessons for us along the way.



After the great career debate, we put her in her high chair and let her eat cake. Well, like a proper micropreemie, she oh so delicately touched the icing, barely getting any on her and licked her fingers. Daddy and I had to put her hands in the cake to get it started. I think she would have been happier just having us give her a bite. I hope this is not the start of the famous sensory issues that micropreemies are known for. We haven't seen any other symptoms before.

After cake and lots of pictures, she opened presents! She did so good tearing into tissue paper. She ate almost every envelope.

It was such an amazing day full of pure love. Just simple joy that my 23 week baby has still not come out of her "Honeymoon" stage the doctors waned us of after birth. If you remember, they told us over & over after the honeymoon stage, the 1st 48 hrs, she would take a turn for the worst. Then they said it sometimes lasts a week. Well thank GOD that we are still in that Honeymoon stage!!!!
Tomorrow is Brian & I's 2nd anniversary. Last year on our 1st, we decided to share on this blog the name of our unborn child. What a year. On top of being thankful for my daughter's life & health, I am thankful for all of the people I have met on this journey. This is such an unexpected great community of people......other preemie parents, nurses that have turned to friends, doctors that are our heros, other kids that are inspiration and lots and lots of hope.

We had this party photographed, so when I receive the pictures I will post a new blog, but here our some my sister in law, Kristina took :)