Monday I started my evening shift.. 1400-2200 It was a titch rough waking up to get there that early. Of course as most of you know I am one of the Bereavement Counselors, so it wasn't surprising when the first patient I get on my new shift is a term demise. OF COURSE, I don't mind at all, I feel this has been my calling to work with these couples, and after all, my previous 2 night shifts I had the all American couple who was married, loved each other and actually wanted the baby they were having. So I was due to have a sad story... Please say a quick prayer for Baby Zacks family, as they cope with their loss.

On to WONDERFUL news, I went to the NICU after work and got there in time for her PM cares, so her CPAP was off, and she was wide awake, and she was Feisty... She is so cute, I think I love her more and more each time I see her. I would talk to her and tell her not to pull her feeding tube out, and I swear she would get this crooked little SMILE and pull right on the tube! Thursday her mommy and daddy and I are having lunch and then going to spend some time with her, and lucky for me I work Friday, Saturday and Sunday so I get to visit her each night for her PM cares!

Today I had my second appointment with the Fat Doctor, not the one I used to see, I'm seeing a new one, and he is a cutie... Anyhow, I start my new diet next week, I was anticipating starting it this week, but the new Doc and I discussed me seeing my PCP first, so I am going to meet with her on Monday so keeping my fingers crossed to start on Tuesday, because I want to be thinned down just a titch before I get on the OR table again.. YIKES!!

It's been so fun being home at night!! Even last night, coming home and everyone was still awake!! Ahhhh this is going to be good....

Miss Giovanna

Here is the long awaited picture of beautiful GiovaNnA, taken Christmas day!

Christmas this year, was by far one of the best I have ever had.... It started on Christmas Eve with a wonderful hour long visit with my favorite little baby girl in the NICU, Miss Giovanna, and her mommy and Daddy. Then I worked for 4 hours and headed to my parents for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. My parents made a phenomenal meal of prime rib, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, and croissant's.... Miss Bethany made a homemade pie for dessert. We then retired to the family room to play Wii! Normally we spend the evening playing family games, but this year we brought our Rock Band and our Wii over... My parents had a lot of fun, we have never laughed so hard.. My father and Mindy actually can rock out on the bass! Here are some shots of the Wii fun....

My parents bowling

Danielle and our baby Bella


Danielle bowling

We then went to the living room to open some of our gifts... It was a very different Christmas because we put a monetary limit on our gifts... So our gifts were very thoughtful this year, people really put some thought into what we got each other....

Then the kids got ready and went to midnight mass. Mindy and I stayed behind and hung out with our mom talking.. We all decided in advance that we were going to stay the night at my parents.. They recently redecorated our old bedrooms, so we were excited to try out our new rooms..

Christmas morning finally came, and we woke up, had some coffee and waited for everyone to wake up. We took our traditional morning picture of the girls dressed in matching pajamas. We then opened gifts and had a great breakfast..

Christmas

I will post more later, as I am off to get ready and go visit Miss Giovanna before work, and of course her mommy and daddy! Here is a titch of a preview of Christmas and my Christmas blog....

Danielle and Bella

I was on a mission today to find this verse on a plaque for Giovanna's "shelf" in the NICU! Well after searching the world, I decided to make it myself, so I bought a greeting card with the verse and a cute white frame, and made it the way I wanted it for her bedside out of ribbons and such... She is a precious angel, I sat by her side while she took a tube feeding of breast milk today! You should see this gorgeous little miracle!! She is doing so well and so strong!

Praise to God, for protecting Heather and baby Giovanna! Giovanna was born on 12/12 at 1256pm today! She is absolutely gorgeous! She weighs 3 pounds 4 ounces. She was born at 28 weeks even! Which was our original goal date for her. She extubated herself within minutes of being intubated, and she is only on CPAP. Thank you all for your prayers, please continue to prayer for her fight!

Baby Bean update

Baby bean is 27 5/7 HOORAY!! Praise God for all of his wonderful blessings throughout this time. I took them baked goods yesterday since they wouldn't be able to bake for the holidays. They shared a story last night of the neighbors decorating their house for the holidays. This couple is so very loved.

I continue to ask God to hold this baby in his hands and protect her while she grows strong inside her mommy's belly.

Monday she was measuring 2 pounds 7 ounces!

Ok, the real New DO

KUDOS to you Erin for being so sweet LOL :)

New Hair Cut!!!

I cut my hair today... I was wanting to do something drastic, because that is what I always do when I am going through a "change" so here goes!!!!!!!!

Drum roll please... Here is the before.....

And here is after.......

A borrowed quote from someone else's blog

"I am thankful for friendships where my loving friend can risk the relationship to tell me the truth because she loves me so much more than the relationship"

I read this on someone's blog last night and it really hit home... Ironically in speaking to my sister today, I spoke this quote because she spoke of having to be truthful to her best friend about something even if it cost her the friendship....

Desert girls painting pottery.....

For all you "Desert Girls" those of you who I didn't see this weekend... We are meeting at 2pm at the Creative Hands pottery studio off of Gilbert and Warner,

Creative Hands Pottery Studio

1166 S. Gilbert Road, Suite 104

Gilbert, AZ 85296

Compilation of thoughts....

Today is December 1st, it's been an interesting 2 days because I've had a lot on my mind, and I have been keeping to myself, and incidentally not feeling well, which dawned on me tonight, maybe I'm not feeling well because of the things on my mind... Thanksgiving was amazing, and I felt so blessed to be at home with my family. For those of you who are my close friends, you know how horrible Thanksgiving was last year with him, and having to go to his home in Michigan, it was pretty crummy, in hindsight however, I learned a very valuable lesson. I guess thinking about last year and the holidays got me to start thinking about what an eventful year I have had.

I have had a lot of people come in and out of my life, and I can sit here now and say it is a titch sad however I can understand that it is for the best. Something I most recently realized, is I can't be upset with someone for not being who I thought they were when in reality I created who they were in my mind.... In my mind I created this wonderful Christian, church going, God fearing, faithful person when in reality, that person wasn't real... Therefor I struggle to morn the loss of that relationship because I actually am wondering if that relationship was real or not.. So I am at a place where I keep saying, I know I should be sad, mad, glad etc it's over but I have none of those emotions.

I have never EVER lived with regrets in my life, but something I have been pondering the past few days, did I let people influence me to do something that perhaps it wasn't the right time to do? I let a few of my "friends" at the time convince me to make some major life changes, now I am to sit back alone and wonder, where are those people now? If they were so vested in my life that many months ago, why aren't they a part of my life now, as I live with the results?


I spent most of yesterday sleeping because I couldn't sleep Friday night. Once I had the house to myself I cleaned the house and decorated the house. It was a bittersweet moment for me because as some of you know from last year, I really really wanted to do the theme of my Christmas tree red and silver. We have always had themes to our trees, and it was time to purchase a new tree and change themes, so after much MUCH debate, I compromised and he won and we did a bright colorful tree (BLAH) not what I wanted.. I knew I would be buying a house within the year and so I had been stockpiling red things for the new house, kitchen towels, rugs, pillows, candles, measuring cups etc. So anyhow, because I couldn't justify donating all new stuff so soon, I decided to keep the tree and the colorful stuff, and put it up last night... So sure there are a few memories tied to him with it, but what can I do right? Next year I will have the tree of my dreams, with red and silver ornaments and trimmings! I actually am really excited to hit the sales this year the day after Christmas and buy all the RED and SILVER stuff I can :)

After decorating with what I had, I needed to run out to Kohls and to Walmart to finish off the downstairs bathroom, it's pretty fun to have a "theme bathroom" as well, I wish I would have taken pictures of it for Halloween it was super cute, and for Christmas this year it is blue and silver snowflakes, totally adorable! On my way out the door, a very close old friend of mine called, and honestly I wasn't in the mood to talk when I heard the phone ringing, but 5 minutes into the phone call I realized it was just what I needed.. Sometimes you need a friend that is just going to talk about random stuff and not have to have the traditional, what is new, why are you sick, what is going on talk... 2 hours later he and I had talked about everything under the sun it was totally awesome, and I felt so much better!

Today, I was super nauseous all day YUCK! Even after taking Phenergan, and eating jello I couldn't shake it.. The kids put up Christmas lights outside the house, they look fabulous, and I fixed a nice dinner since The Cpl, was returning to base tonight for 2 weeks.. Still nauseous, I returned to my private living room, bundled up on the couch and watched TV. Did anyone catch the Britney Spears for the Record show? I actually feel really bad for her, it was pretty depressing to hear about her life from her perspective!

I think I have rambled on long enough.... Good night for now....