Para o Pessoal Que Nao Entende o Ingles!!

Ola' galera...eu sei q mta gente nao consegue mais ler nosso blog pois esta' agora tudo em ingles... Logo, adicionei nele um cantinho em q agora se pode fazer a traducao direta... nao sai AQUELA traducao maravilhosa mas da' pra entender o assunto pelo menos...eheheh... o sentido da' pra pegar... Aqui vao as instrucoes:

1) Abrir o blog http://www.goodtimeswithluca.blogspot.com/ e ir um pouco pra baixo na tela q ira' ver a direita um quadro q diz: "Free Translation: ImTranslator"

2) "Copiar" o texto em Ingles q quiser traduzir e "Colar" no espaco delineado em vermelho q diz "Original text"

3) Selecionar a lingua "English" na setinha da esquerda e "Portuguese" onde tem a outra setinha preta (pra poder escolher as linguas)

4) Clicar no botao q esta' escrito "Translate"

5) Ver a traducao em Portugues no quadrado delineado em azul...

Facil e rapido!! Se alguem tiver algum problema me fala... beijao a todos! Helo ;o)

Our Sweet Luca is 10 Months Old Today!!

Time is going tooooooooo fast.... our little baby is already 10 months old!!! Really hard to believe...and it's been a bit more than 5 weeks since his surgery already... Luca continues to do great during this recovery period.... he's always very happy and very healthy!!

We had a great day today.... We went to Marcelo's 1st B-day party... Marcelo Manzi is another heart baby and his mom (Rana) and I connected thru the support group that we both participate in here in So Cal... She has been amazing to me, helped me with so many tips and good suggestions for Luca's heart surgery... Marcelo already had 2 open heart surgeries this year and he is also doing GREAT and he is SOOOOO CUTE... I am sure Luca and Marcelo will grow to be great friends since they have so much in common and such similar stories...

HAPPY 1st B-DAY MAR MAR... YOU ARE AN AMAZING LITTLE BOY...we had great fun at your party!!!! We really enjoyed visiting with you guys and getting to know you...Rana, Ed, Luciano & Marcelo: you guys are an incredible family who share so much love and affection!!! Congratulations!!! ;o) ;o)

Here are some pictures from today....

Mommy's 3 boys going to Marcelo's b-day party today.... well, Gringo got to stay home this time! Sorry Gringuito, next time you'll meet Marcelo and Luciano too!! ;o)

Here we are now at Marcelo's Nana's house...

Hey my friend Luca... I am glad you are here...now... can I see that toy for a second?? I am sure you'll let me, right?...it's my special day today, ya know.... ;o)

Let me think about it, Marcelo......

Somebody HELP us!!!! .... Luca is thinking for too long.... ;o(

I can share this with you Mar Mar just because you are a good little guy too....just like me, we are BOTH heart warriors so we can only fight over the big stuff ....eheheh.... ;o)


Mar Mar, thanks for inviting us here today.... we really enjoyed your party....I am sure we're gonna be great friends.... ;o) Just think of the chicks we are going to pick up together, man... they'll LOVE the scars that we have on our future hairy chests... ;o) ;o)

When I got in the car I literally dropped... my buddy Marcelo and I drank so much milk together, you see, that I could not even keep my eyes opened another minute....

Then when we got home.... Mommy made me this delicious brownie for my 10 month b-day and I LOVED TO TOUCH IT... I did not even try one bit but sure enjoyed destroying it!!!! ;o) I am just practising for my own 1st B-day party in a couple months!!!

Yeah, this is cool, let me touch it with both hands now....

Oh wow, this is really sticky..... hey mommy, what did you put on this, fudge or something?

Thanks mommy for rolling up my sleeves....this is really getting messy now...

Gosh, I think I did a pretty good job getting this glued to my hands....;o) I am done now...

Ok, mommy, I am all cleaned up now... so get me out of this high chair and let's watch Elmo...

My bear Phil and I are at the edge of our seats.... hurry up with that Elmo DVD...

Cool, I really like Elmo.... I get mesmerized every time even though I've watched the same video more than 1 million times... ;o) Lah Lah Lah Lah Elmo's World....

Still not blinking...Just biting my upper lip and still very excited about Elmo...

What mommy??? You wanna turn it off??? Are you insane??? Why? Cause Cookie Monster is coming??? No problem.... I like him....

In the mean time let me see if I can put this whole ball into my mouth... one of these days I am sure I'll be able to...ehehehe ;o)

What, Gringo? Let's get outta here?? Why?? Cookie Monster is coming?? I don't believe....

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....... It was true, I should have listened to Gringuito.... Cookie Monster is on TV............ I HATE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ----- Guys, by the way, this is true... can you believe Luca's been crying everytime he sees Cookie Monster now from Sesame Street? That big blue thing makes some silly sounds and eats like a caveman but is he really THAT scary??? Luca hates him now for some reason ... can a 10 month old already be afraid of stuff? I think it's sooooo early for fear..... ;o) Anyways....

Luca's Successful TOF Repair Surgery Was One Month Ago Today!!!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! We certainly did too...

We CAN'T believe it's already one month today that Luca has a repaired heart...And THANK GOD it's working SO well...Now it's back to normal life here... He is doing absolutely great, drinking his 30 oz of formula a day again, eating all kinds of baby foods and recovering very well and very fast overall....in one month our baby is already doing so well considering the gravity and delicate surgery he just went thru..... truly amaaaaaazing and for sure a HUGE blessing... everything worked just fine and IT's ALLLLLLLLLL OVER!!!

Of course we still have to be very careful with him, not to go out in public places where there are potentially a lot of sick people...we cannot pick him up by the arms just yet, and a few things but the worst has passed and now we are ready for a WONDERFUL Holiday Season!!! Lots of smiles and relaxing moments now around here...ehehhe...

Love to all... Heloisa ;o)

THANK YOU --- OBRIGADA --- GRAZIE --- GRACIAS --- MERCI --- DANKE --- ARIGATO, and in all other languages possible...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

This year has been FOR SURE a VERY unusual year for us....

Besides all the most evident things such as our health, our families & friends, our jobs, our homes, food, etc we mostly need to be thankful for all the blessings we received in 2008 when God gave us the biggest gift ever: LUCA!!!

We are thankful for ALL of what we lived this year... all the fantastic and exceptional moments, all the difficult, tiring and never-ending moments, and for all the uneventful and everyday life moments too...

We are thankful for what we've learned this year, for all the strength found physically and emotionally, for becoming better people, for reuniting with long lost friends, for all the solidarity shown to us in all shapes and forms -- including all the complete strangers who did not think twice to extend their kindness and to offer us their positive thoughts and prayers...

We will also be ETERNALLY GRATEFUL to our parents Celso, Silvia & Pina, to our siblings Kiko and Gabriella and in-laws Euri and Angelo who stuck by our sides and helped us go thru this battle so vigorously and with so much support even though they were so far from us most of the time...

Thank YOU to Gaetano's father Antonino who surely gave us a big hand directly from Heaven...

And of course we are ALSO SO thankful to all the doctors (especially Dr. Starnes and Dr. Jackie), all the nurses, hospital staff and all the other magnificent people we have met throughout our journey... They all have touched our hearts in SO many indescribable ways...

And for Luca, well, we are thankful for everything about him and for all which he has taught us so far... And how can such a "little guy" be able to teach us so many things already?!! We are astonished... DEAR LUCA: We are SO happy and thankful that you came into our world and that you are so safe & healthy now and went thru this little road bump so bravely and successfully... You are the best...THANK YOU!!

Gratitude is so much easier to be expressed in actions rather than words... this is why we expect to be able to give forward (not give back) from now on... We definitely have grown to be better and stronger people and somehow we will assist and lend a hand to others now that we are at peace!!

As we sit here and reflect, we want to wish all of you a very SPECIAL and HAPPY THANKSGIVING... and again a warm and very sincere THANK YOU to all those of you who have helped us in SO MANY ways this year with your visits, prayers, blood donations, inspiring emails, phone calls, blog comments, text messages, voice messages, letters, cards, gifts and all other forms of LOVE and affection one can possibly think of...

This Thanksgiving will be very special to us and it will have a completely different meaning this time...

THANK YOU ---AGAIN AND AGAIN --- With lots of love always,

The Santospiritos

Another GREAT Post-Op Appt for Luca!! NO MORE medicines...

Today we had another post-op appt at CHLA with Luca's cardiologist... We first went to get another chest x-ray and then we went to see her - Dr. Jackie... no ecos or EKG's today...YAYYYYYY... those are becoming to be quite a struggle anymore... Luca simply hates them... who would like to be held down for 20-30 min without being able to move your legs or arms, right? Especially a 9 1/2 month old!!! Doesn't work too well... Up until now we had Nana Silvia doing all kinds of silly faces and distracting him during those ecos but not anymore... but actually we are lucky that we won't be needing too many of those anymore...

Anyways, the x-ray looked great today so this means: NO MORE LASIX which is the diuretic he was still taking just in case some more liquid would accumulate on his lungs... His incision is also looking very good and dry already and Dr. Jackie said that overall he is doing EXCELLENT!!!
That's all we needed to hear to have an absolutely outstanding Thanksgiving tomorrow!!! ;o)

Now we go back there for another ck-up on the 17th of December and after that probably only in 6 months...isn't that terrific??? Our blessings are really endless...

Just to get started...here are a couple of very recent pictures of Luca post-op... I will try to keep posting more as I go...

My lips look so nice and pink now... They used to be a bit pale before...

It looks like my cheeks are even bigger now... ;o)

WOW, I look like Popeye here... hey, where is my pipe and spinach??? ;o)

My big smiles are back...

I keep wanting to touch my mommy's camera but she's too fast...

Look At You Now --- This Video is Great!!

Hi guys!! I know, I know...it's been quite a long time that I don't post anything... Just taking a break, that's all... besides, nothing too exciting happening these days around here... again, like I said before: BORING IS GOOD for us right now!!! eheheh... we cannot even go out much with Luca right now or receive guests to protect his health to the fullest, therefore, we are very low profile these days... not going anywhere, not inviting anyone over, not doing ANYTHING...just laying around, relaxing, taking it easy, watching movies and tv, that's all...nothing else... does anyone blame us?? eheheh... I bet you don't... ;o) We've had lots of excitements and adrenalin in our systems for a lifetime already...eheheh...we're done!!

Actually right now we are sad because Nana Silvia is going back to Brazil tomorrow...she'll face her 30 hr trip starting tomorrow morning... she's tired already just of thinking about it... It will be difficult not to cry tomorrow when she leaves...again, no matter HOW many times we say our goodbyes it's always very hard...one would think it would be getting easier or that we are used to it already by now since we are doing this life already for approx 15 years... NOT... oh well...the choices we make...hopefully now we'll see them in Spain next year sometime...

The video I attached here from UTube is from a young guy named Mark O'Shea who was also born with Tetralogy of Fallot...he had his surgery when he was 6 months old...he is a musician now and he put this nice video together which gives us "heart parents" lots of hope for the future of our kids... Very inspiring... Hope you guys enjoy it too... TO WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE just hit the pause buttom below for the main music of this blog to stop so you can hear the video...

Lots of love to all... and I promise I'll try to be better at posting here again...some new pictures are coming, I still have to download a bunch more... just been SOOOO lazy for EVERYTHING lately... Kisses and hugs! :O)

Luca's Post-Op Appt Today Went Great!!!!

Hello guys...It's been a couple days that I don't write here...Nothing much happening, that's why....ahhaahh..... FINALLY a couple uneventful days... look, uneventful and boring is VERY GOOD these days around here, OK??? ...eheheh... we've had plenty of events, excitments, worries, heart poundings, and headaches for a lifetime, believe me...heheh....

Actually today was a great day.... my parents, Luca and I went all the way back to CHLA for Luca's post-op exams and consultation... He had to do another x-ray, another ecocardiogram, and another EKG...other than that, the nurse checked him, his incision and removed the only 3 stitches that were actually apparent on his chest area... like I said before, the rest of the incision was just "glued" on so nothing to remove there, the glue has started to peel off on its own and it looks great...no infections, no redness, no complications of any sort thank God!! Dr. Jackie (his cardiologist) saw us also and was really happy with all the results today and she said his heart is functioning just great now... and that he is such a robust boy, so strong and recovering SO well from everything....he only lost 50 grams after all this...he went in for surgery with 9 kg and now he's 8,950 kg...not bad, huh?? Sorry, they do all in metrics over there...it does not even seem that his surgery was only 2 weeks ago.... unbelievable if you see him now it's really hard to comprehend how can kids recover so fast... We are amazed!! He is eating much better now too...little by little he's getting there... Now we have to go back to CHLA in 2 weeks, just before Thanksgiving for another ck-up...

They told us we still have to totally avoid going out with him for a couple months now...no restaurants, no malls, no crowded places, and any type of sick people we need totally avoid, of course...even visitors in the house we need to limit again for a while...specially during flu season, etc...We already kept him in a sort of "bubble" for almost 9 months so what's another few months, right?? It's all worth it...We've had enough of hospitals and ER's for a LONG while...

Gaio "had to" go golfing today...eeheh... he actually really had to since he had already paid for this event a while back...he participated on this tournament today with a few other people from the plastics industry..... he won a bunch of prizes and came home happy and pretty relaxed... It's his lucky week... on Monday evening him and my father went to a local casino here and he also won some cash...very lucky week for him I guess... ;o)

Yesterday we gave my parents a day at a spa here in Corona...it's a very famous one around here and people come from all over So Cal to go there... it's the Glen Ivy Hot Springs and Spa...it's awesome there... a bunch of pools, hot tubs, mud baths, etc... they also came back pretty relaxed and renewed... ;o) ... Gaio and I also went to the movies last night since we still have grandmasitter here... we went to see that new movie called "Changeling" with Angelina Jolie...pretty nice...and it was so funny because the movie took place on the exact SAME town where we were watching the movie: Mira Loma, CA... what a scary coincidence...if you watch the movie you'll understand why I am saying 'scary'...ehehhe.... we did not know that b4.... you guys should go see it...we liked it... Especially after we had Luca, we relate so much more to those kinds of movies...

Yesterday we also had some great news.... Zio Nano & Zia Den welcomed to the world their sweet baby Isabella... We can't wait to meet her.... CONGRATS guys!!! We are SO happy for you!! ;o)

Tomorrow is my father's last day here during this trip...he leaves to go back to Fortaleza, Brazil this Friday morning...so we are already very sad about that... we ALWAYS hate to say goodbye... one might think that we should be used to it by now with this international family that we have...NO, WE ARE NOT!!! Still very hard to say our goodbyes no matter what, especially now that Luca is in the picture too... We are hoping to meet again now in Europe next year when Kiko & Euri's baby girl arrives... we'll see...

What else? Nothing else, guys.... I told you, pretty easy going, everybody healthy, and normal kinda stuff now is happening around here....ahahah..... again, THANK GOD!!! ;o) ;o) ;o)

VERSAO BRASILEIRA -- Galera querida... cansei da versao brasileira...eheheh...logo, ela acaba por aqui.....desculpem... e' mta coisa pra escrever especialmente agora q vou estar mais sozinha sem Nana Silvia pra me ajudar por aqui... ja' ja' ela volta pro Brasil e meu tempo vai ficar MUITO limitado...entao, resolvi parar ja'... Tb algumas pessoas me disseram q ja' jogam a versao em Ingles no Google Translate... se bem q a Google Translate na maioria das vezes faz umas traducoes bem malucas e meio sem nexo, mas pelo menos o sentido principal do assunto da pra entender.... Pra aqueles q nao conhecem o Google Translate, e' so' clicar aqui: http://translate.google.com/translate_t#
Jogue o meu texto em ingles (faca um copiar-colar dele) dentro do retangulo q aparece, depois clique onde diz Spanish e coloque English....e onde diz English e coloque Portuguese... depois e' so' clicar no 'Translate' e a traducao aparece ao lado... facil e rapido... nao super correto mas da' pra entender... Desculpem mesmo... mas a maioria do povao q anda lendo este blog entende ingles entao fica mais facil pra mim...

Beijinhos, beijinhos pra todos e boa noite!!

And the girls got sick now too... ;o(

Now it was our turn to get sick ;o( ... my mom and I lowered our guards and.... we got sick.... stomach flu or something like that (gastroenteritis I suppose).... not fun... Saturday at around 1:30 am I started vomiting and I only got a bit better Sunday afternoon.... crazy... I guess what Luca had then was the same bug that my mom and I got now...that's why he was vomiting so much....besides all the meds he was taking... but we are all much better now... Yesterday around 4 pm we decided to take Luca to the ER to get an IV... he was not vomiting anymore but still with some diarrhea and not eating anything, barely any formula, and nothing else interested him.... he was also a bit more lethargic than normal, with concentrated urines - if any, lowered soft spot, etc .....all bad signs... so we did not want to risk and wait too much and we decided to take him in.... Another 4 hrs at the hospital here in Corona... they were also great to us there... But again, another blood test (they could not get too much blood out so they had to stick him a couple times for the blood test!!! Ouch!!!) and the other needle on his little hand for the IV.... He was screaming and yelling once again and we all had to hold him down and I felt like the WORST mother on Earth AGAIN for putting him thru so much pain one more time.... horrible.... He already knows when those "bad" nurses come next to him with those little tubes and needles and he looks at them and starts crying already...poor thing... It was funny because some nurses were joking around with him and they had nothing on their hands.... we were all laughing and smiling (including him) and playing around while waiting, then another nurse approached us with the needles and tubes and he looked at her and automatically started crying.... it was actually funny.... my poor baby ;o( He's getting traumatized.... I truly hope he'll never remember all this...

Anyways, after we got home he was fine and I had a high fever... I took a hot shower (I was freezing), kissed Luca good night and crashed in bed by 8:30 pm last night....did not even see who put him to bed...I was too sick... ;o( .... I slept most of the day today and now I feel new again...needless to say why I did not write on this blog yesterday evening....Thank you to those of you that told me that you missed reading new updates this morning... I would never imagine that you guys would also read it on Sundays!!! I feel so good about that.....our lives are so important to SOOOO many people.... so much care and love.... and I feel like our story is being followed more than that of Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt's....eheheh.... We feel SO famous now...eheheh... THANK YOU GUYS!!!! That means SO MUCH to us that you guys cannot even imagine........ ;o) ;o) ;o) ;o)

So Luca is much better now, no more vomiting or diarrhea today..... he is still not eating too much but a couple bottles of formula he managed to drink ... plus some applesauce with rice cereal... little by little...

Tomorrow is another day and another week... I am sure things will just improve...

Love and kisses to all! And thanks for missing our blog updates yesterday...ehehe... ;o)

VERSAO BRASILEIRA --- Agora foi a nossa vez de ficar doente… eu e minha mamis abaixamos a nossa guarda e…. Ficamos doentes... alguma virose (acho q chama gastroenterite ou algo assim).... nada legal... Sabado de madrugada eu acordei vomitando e so’ melhorei um pouco hoje de tarde...loucura...Acho q o q Luca tinha pego era o mesmo virus q eu e minha mae pegamos agora...por isso q o tadinho tava vomitando tanto tb...alem dos remedios todos q tava tomando... mas estamos todos bem melhores agora...Ontem la’ pelas 4 da tarde resolvemos levar o Luca pro pronto socorro pra tomar soro... ele nao estava mais vomitando mas ainda estava c/um pouco de diarreia e nao comia nada...quase nada de leite e nao se interessava por nada de comer ou beber...ele tb estava um pouco mais tranquilinho e fraquinho do q o normal, quase nao fazia xixi e se fazia era bem concentrado, alem da moleira estar bem baixa...todos esses sao sinais de desidratacao...nao queriamos arriscar e esperar mto e levamos logo pro pronto socorro.... Mais umas 4 hrs de hospital aqui em Corona...Eles tb foram bem legais com a gente la’... Mas de novo mais agulhas, mais espetadas, mais testes de sangue, etc.... e eu mais uma vez me sentindo a PIOR mae do mundo pra faze-lo passar por mais dor daqui e dali....horrivel... Ele ja’ ate’ sabe qdo essas enfermeiras do “mal” estao chegando .... Foi ate’ divertido... estavamos brincando e rindo com ele com umas enfermeiras q nao tinham nada nas maos...dali a pouco chegou uma com uns tubinhos e agulhas e instantaneamente ele olhou pra ela e ja’ comecou a chorar....foi ate’ engracado...eheheh...tadinho do meu bebe’ ja’ esta’ ficando traumatizado.... realmente espero q ele nao se lembre de nada disso!!!!

Depois q chegamos em casa de volta Luca estava bem e eu com febre alta... Tomei um banho quente (eu estava morrendo de frio), dei um beijinho no Lulu de boa noite e cai na cama as 8:30 da noite...nem vi quem colocou o Luca pra dormir...eu nao estava nada legal...Enfim, hoje dormi quase o dia todo e agora de noite ja’ estou nova de novo...recarreguei as energias....minha mae tb ja’ esta’ otima....Por isso q tb ontem nem deu pra escrever no blog.... Obrigada aos seguidores q me disseram q sentiram falta das noticias de ontem.... achei q ninguem ia ler no domingo!!! Adorei saber disso... q nossas vidas sao tao importantes pra TANTAS pessoas.... tanto carinho e tanto amor q sempre recebemos de todos... Estou me sentindo como se a nossa estoria estivesse sendo mais seguida do q aquela da Angelia Jolie e do Brad Pitt...ehehehe...Estamos nos sentindo MUITO famosos...eehehehe...VALEU GALERA!!!! Isso significa TANTO TANTO TANTO pra nos q voces NEM podem imaginar.... ;o) ;o) ;o) ;o)

Hoje Luquinha ja’ acordou bem melhor, nao esta’ mais vomitando nem com diarreia... ainda nao esta’ comendo mto mas ate’ q tomou 2 mamadeiras do leite dele hoje...e mais um pouquinho de maca com cereal de arroz q dizem q faz bem pro estomago...enfim, aos pouquinhos ele vai comendo...

Amanha e’ um novo dia e uma nova semana... Com certeza tudo vai melhorar pra nos todos...

Beijinhos com mto amor pra todos.... e obrigada por sentirem saudades do blog de ontem...;o)

Luca is 9 months old today!!! And has a fixed heart!

I can't believe baby Luca is already 9 months old today.... Time goes by so quickly indeed... Congratulations, Parabens & Auguri Luca!!! In all the languages!! WE LOVE YOU!!! ;o) ;o) Nana made a very nice cake for Lulu today with candles and everything.... He went straight to touch it again... he loves to touch cakes...eheheh...

So overnight last night Luca woke up with diarrhea (sorry, again more info then you guys care to know...ehehe)... then a couple hours later he drank 4 oz of formula non-stop and then 2 seconds later after finishing it he vomited everything... too bad ;o( ... By 7 am he had drunk another couple oz of formula and then we were ready to start the meds at 8 am.... I thought he had almost nothing on his stomach but after taking the first medicine he vomited a lot again... I let about 1/2 hr go by and gave him another one (he had to take 3 in the a.m.) and he vomited again so then I decided to call the hospital because he was keeping NOTHING down... Talked to the nurse practitioner at CHLA and she told me to stop ALL the meds (Thank Goodness!!) for at least 2-3 days to try to give him as much liquids as possible so he stays hydrated... With all the vomiting, diarrhea and diuretics the boy can get dehydrated real fast... Anyways, then from approx 9 am until now 11:30 pm he did not vomit anymore... diarrhea is not as bad either anymore and finally he is able to keep some formula on his stomach....little by little each time.... still not too much (about 20 oz all day -- he used to drink 30-32 oz per day plus all the solids!) but pretty good enough for now... he is still not interested at all in solids for now... So we have to watch over the weekend if no more fluids will get retained on his lungs...the nurse said that this is her only concern by stopping the diuretics... if he starts breathing fast, heart rate goes up etc those are all signs... Actually I am thinking that those meds were the problem for his upset stomach and diarrhea... antibiotics are terrible, I even have trouble with them myself a lot of times... So we'll see... so far he's doing a lot better after stopping all the medications...Thank you to all of you that gave me suggestions on how to give Luca his meds... when we re-start them I'll try those methods...

Other than that, we all rested quite a bit today... My mom did not wake up feeling too well today... back pain, headache and upset stomach... no vomiting or nothing just not feeling that great, she went to bed quite early today...

I still have to download some other pictures of us and Luca in the hospital, arriving home, etc... Just not had time yet.... and now we have so much to do around here like a ton of laundry, pay bills, go thru mail, put away a lot of stuff, etc... so whenever all that is done I'll insert some more pictures on this blog... good night to all....

VERSAO BRASILEIRA --- Nem acredito q baby Luca fez 9 meses hoje!!! Como o tempo passa...
Congratulations, Parabens & Auguri Luca!!! Em todas as linguas!!! NOS AMAMOS VOCE!!! Vovo' Silvia fez um bolo bem legal pra ele hoje com velinhas e tudo... ele foi direto com a maozinha pra pegar....ele adora pegar e fazer melecas com bolo...eheheh!!

Ontem tarde da noite ele teve diarreia (desculpem, de novo informacao de mais...eheheh) ... dali a pouco tomou um tantao de leite e logo q acabou vomitou TUDO de novo... Ai tomou mais um pouquinho de leite la' pelas 7 da manha.... as 8 comecamos a sessao remedios... logo no primeiro.... blahhhhhh.... vomitou.... demos uma 1/2 hr pra dar o outro e blahhhhh de novo.... ai paramos c/ tudo e ligamos pra enfermeira chefe do hospital... Ela falou pra parar com todos os medicamentos (AINDA BEM!!) por uns 2-3 dias e tentar dar o maximo de liquidos possivel pra ele se manter hidratado... e', com vomito, diarreia e diureticos o tadinho pode ficar desidratado rapidinho... Entao desde as 9 da manha ate' agora ele nao vomitou mais... a diarreia tb ja' esta' passando aos poucos (a diarreia acho q foi o antibiotico, eu tb tenho problemas do genero com antibioticos!). Durante o dia todo ele ja' tomou ate' q bastante leite (papinha ainda nem quer saber!) aos pouquinhos...

Agora so' temos q ficar de olho no fim de semana se ele voltar a reter agua nos pulmoes.... se comecar a respirar rapido, com dificuldade e se as batidas cardiacas aumentarem mto entao temos q leva-lo p/o pronto socorro... mas acho q isso nao vai acontecer pois ja' saimos de la' com ele com o minimo de agua nos pulmoes possivel ...eles so' continuaram com os diureticos pra prevenir... Obrigada por todas as sugestoes de como dar os remedios... vamos tentar de tudo qdo tivermos q voltar a da-los....

Fora isso tudo tranquilo, descancamos bastante hoje -- TODOS.... Hoje minha mae q nao acordou mto bem.... um pouco de dor nas costas, dor de cabeca e o estomago nao mto bom....nao vomitou nem nada mas nao se sentiu mto bem....ela foi dormir cedo hoje...

Ainda tenho q dar um download nas minhas ultimas fotos do hospital, chegando em casa etc pra colocar neste blog.... ainda nao tive tempo... aqui temos mto pra fazer por enqto nos proximos dias....lavar um montao de roupas, pagar contas, colocar um bando de coisas no lugar, etc etc....qdo acabar tudo coloco mais fotos... Boa noite a todos... ;o)

We are FINALLY Home!!!! YAYYYYYYYY...... ;o)

Our home and the city of Corona NEVER looked so beautiful to us...ehehhe...the things we take for granted in life, right? ... I literally had tears in my eyes once we were a couple blocks away....it was such a feeling of relief, ya know... very emotional and a wonderful moment to be part of... HOME SWEET HOME.... And what is even more wonderful is to know that baby Luca is doing great and with that big smile on his little face again... I cried quite a bit once we stepped home and I held him in my arms again here in the house.... VERY NICE MOMENT.... one of the happiest ever... Gringo kept jumping and jumping, he was so happy and he wanted to get close to Luca... ;o)

Now we have to go back there next Wed 11/12 to remove a couple stitches and for another ck up... They will still keep a close look on him for a while now...

When we got home my parents had cleaned the whole house and we had a delicious Brazilian lunch waiting for us too... to also taste homemade food again was another amazing feeling... After the feast, Luca and I took a 3 hr nap.... uninterrupted, nobody else talking loud around us, no other babies crying, no nurses ckng blood pressure every so often, no more needles, no more nothing that is not part of our daily lives... What a great feeling... ;o) And what a nice nap too!!

The only thing is that Luca HATES to take his medications... we still have to give him 2 diuretics and one antibiotic for the next 10 days or so.... it's going to be a bit difficult because whenever he sees the syringes he already turns his face... once I put them on his mouth he starts gagging immediately....and the vomit reflex comes about.... and when finally everything goes in after a bit of a struggle, then 5 minutes later.... arfffffffffffffff.... he vomits everything back up.... We tried several techniques, but if anyone that has had the same experience has any other suggestion to give oral meds to babies please send them my way... eheheh ... ;o) We just need to watch for dehydration now since he's vomiting... For dinner he managed to eat this great baby food that Nana prepared so nice and fresh...great, he ate very well....then again at the very end...blahhhhhhhh..... all back up again.... how sad... we were so happy he was eating so well.... we'll keep an eye on that closely tomorrow...

And now he is sleeping already.... and I am going to do the same very soon.....I am drained as you can imagine... I wanna sleep early tonight to catch up...being the sleepy head that I am I probably need at least 12 hrs straight to catch up, but I'll take what I can get at this point... I also need to sleep to prepare myself for the 8am meds...eheheh....3 of them in the morning... hopefully he'll do better taking them in the a.m.

Good night to everyone...I'll sleep so tight tonight...my own shower, my own bed, my own pillow...ahhhhhhh... how wonderful.... AND WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD ;O) .... and THANK YOU ALL AGAIN FOR ALL THE COMMENTS, EMAILS, VOICE MESSAGES, TEXT MESSAGES, VISITS, ETC, ETC.... We LOVE you guys!!

VERSAO BRASILEIRA -- Finalmente voltamos pra casa hoje... YESSSSSSS.... que emocao.... a nossa casa e a cidade de Corona nunca estiveram TAO lindas pra nos...a gente as vezes nao da' importancia pra nossa casa, pra cidade onde moramos, etc, mas em situacoes assim a gente ve o qto somos gratos por tudo isso... Fiquei ate' emocionada qdo faltavam uns 2 quarteiroes pra chegar em casa... um sentimento de alivio mesmo, sabe?? Bem emocionante.... CASA DOCE CASA... E o melhor de tudo e' saber q baby Luca esta' tao bem, e tao cheio de sorrisos naquela carinha dele de novo... Qdo botei os pes em casa e segurei ele no colo, ai' sim o choro correu solto...UM MOMENTO MTO ESPECIAL...um dos melhores ja' vividos... Gringo so' pulava e queria chegar perto do Luca... ;o)

Agora teremos q voltar la' 4a f dia 12 pra tirar alguns pontos e pra um pqno ck up... Eles ainda vao ter q monitora-lo por um tempo...

Tb qdo chegamos em casa, meus pais ja' tinham limpado toda a casa e feito uma comidinha Brasileira bem caseira e bem especial... mto otimo tb poder comer uma bela papa da mama feita em casa... maravilha........ Depois da comilanca toda eu e Lulu dormimos umas 3 hrs sem sermos interrompidos por pessoas falando alto, bebes q choravam, galera q vinha tirar a pressao dele a cada qto, agulhas q o espetavam, e nada mais q nao fosse parte da nossa vida normal do dia-a-dia... Q alivio, q boa sensacao e q boa soneca tb!! ;o)

A unica coisa e' q agora Luca esta' ODIANDO a tomar os remedios... ainda tem q tomar 2 diureticos e 1 antibiotico via oral por mais uns 10 dias...qdo ele ve as seringas ja' vira a cara... ja' sabe...bandidinho...e qdo consigo colocar na boca dele ai' ja' vem logo a carinha de ansia de vomito...ehehhe...e qdo consegue finalmente engolir...... dali' 5 minutos.... huuuuugo....chama o hugo e vai tudo pra fora de novo... Ja' tentamos varias tecnicas, mas se alguem q ja' passou por isso teve algum exito de alguma forma por favor me fale... ;o) Hoje na janta a vovo' Silvia tinha feito uma papinha deliciosa bem fresquinha tal e coisa, coisa e tal.... comeu tudo com empolgacao e dali a pouco.... blahhhhhhh....tudo voltou.... q pena....estavamos tao felizes q ele tinha comido tao bem... temos q ficar de olho pra nao desidratar agora....vamos ver amanha...

Agora ele ja' esta' dormindo e eu estou indo logo em seguida.... estou acabada como todos podem imaginar.... quero dormir cedo esses dias pra recuperar... acho q preciso de umas 12hrs seguidas no minimo...ehehhe...ainda mais eu q adoro dormir... tenho tb q estar preparada pra sessao remedios das 8 da manha amanha...veremos, sao 3 seringas....ai ai ai.....eheheh

Boa noite a todos...hoje vou dormir com os anjos literalmente.... meu chuveiro, minha cama, meu travesseiro.... ahhhhhhhh.... q delicia e que WONDERFUL WORLD (mundo maravilhoso) como diz essa 1a musica q coloquei no blog....SUPER OBRIGADA NOVAMENTE A TODOS POR TODAS AS MENSAGENS, EMAILS, RECADOS POR TELEFONE E TEXTO, ETC... AMAMOS VOCES!!! ;O)

Another night here...

Hey guys... and we had to stay yet again another night here... frustrating but I decided to keep cool about it and keep just hanging in there... ALL the doctors are very happy when they talk to us, they keep telling us that everything is wonderful so I am not going to stress... They only told us this morning that there was STILL a small pocket of fluids on the bottom of one of his lungs and they still wanted to keep him an extra day to get rid of that too... Gosh, how many of these pockets he had??? Anyways, this really seems to be the last one now.... So tomorrow morning they'll do another x-ray and then we'll know... It's better like that because if we have to return on a emergency we were told that sometimes on their emergency room people have to wait up to 7 hrs.... can you believe? What a hospital....ehhehe... so that's fine, we'll wait while we are already in, it's better....

Other than that this was a very uneventful day, he is eating MUCH better now, drank a bunch of formula already today and things are even improving fast on that respect too...

They are keeping him on the diuretics to drain all those liquids and an antibiotic to prevent any infection from the scar...

He is so cute...smiles to EVERY single nurse and doctor that approaches his crib... they all fall in love with him because he is so friendly and in such good mood all the time... A bunch of nurses said they wanna take him home with them and instead I told them that THEY should come home with us...eheheheh....

Well, this is it for today... I came back here to the hotel quickly just to shower and refresh a little and I am going back there to sleep with Luca tonight.....I should be there again by 12 am for his 12 o'clock meds. Gaio is staying here... he took my parents home already today and he brought more clean clothes... He also picked up Gringo from the vet and he said Gringuito was SOOOOO happy to see him....

Ciao ciao and good night to everyone... some people are saying that they don't know how to put comments on this blog.... just look at the end of each post on the right hand side there is a place that says "comments" that you can click and write what you want... I love to read them on a daily basis.... Love to all!!

VERSAO BRASILEIRA --- Ola' queridos.... e' isso ai'.... tivemos q ficar aqui ainda mais uma noite... tudo beleza, ja' resolvi nao estressar mais... qdo for sera'... pelo menos TODOS os medicos q passam para ve-lo estao sempre mto contentes c/a recuperacaco dele, e sempre dizem q ele esta' SUPER bem... so' falta ainda um ultimo "bolso" de liquidos em um dos pulmoes... mamma mia, mas qtos desses bolsos ele tinha??...ehehhe... enfim, com os diureticos isso tb vai sumir e tudo beleza... estamos mto tranquilos...e' melhor q vamos pra casa so' mesmo qdo eles tiverem certeza q ele esta' bem... se tivermos q voltar de emergencia temos ouvido q podemos ter q esperar ate' 7 hrs pra sermos atendidos... este hospital aqui e' mto requisitado... bom sinal...

Alem disso tudo tranquilo, foi um dia calmo... ele ja' ta' comendo bem melhor, tomando leitinho e tudo mais... os diureticos ainda vao continuar e tb agora um antibiotico so' pra prevenir qquer eventual infeccao q a cicatriz possa causar... so' pra precaucao mesmo pois tb ja' esta' secando super bem...

Ele e' tao fofo e simpatico.... agora ja' ri pra TODAS as enfermeiras e medicos q passam pra ve-lo...incrivel como ele sempre esta' de bom humor... e olha q a cada hora chega uma pra tirar sangue, medir a pressao, raio x, enxer o saco, etc....ehhehe.... ele e' mto bonzinho...

Bom ja' vou indo pois hoje eu durmo la' com ele de novo....tenho q chegar la' de volta ate' a meia noite...senao eu viro bruxa...ehehehe..... Gaio dorme aqui no hotel....hoje ja' foi levar meus pais pra casa, pegar o Gringo e tudo mais.... disse q Gringuito estava TAO contente de ve-lo de novo... fofinho... ;o)

Beijinho beijinho tchau tchau... alguns de voces estao me falando q nao sabem colocar comentarios neste blog... e' so olhar no final de cada "episodio" q tem um lugar q esta' escrito "comments" bem pequeno...e' so' clicar ai e escrever... beijos!

Not home yet... STILL here....

And we had to stay here one more day.... ;o( I tell ya, they literally keep telling us every day that we are going home tomorrow.... but that's OK, we understand and prefer to go home when Luca is really 100% well.... So now they kept us here because of the fluids still in the lungs... but they say it's almost perfect now just another day of IV diuretics (yes, unfortunatelly they had to re-stick him again and put another IV needle on his little hand --- the left one this time... like he needed another stick somewhere else.... poor little guy)... And they are giving another diuretic orally too....so 2 of them... this way he'll get dehydrated...eheh... because he is not drinking too much yet, still not interested in the formula or the pedialyte stuff... But at least today he ate 2 full 4 oz jars of baby food, one of squash and one of bananas.... and he managed to keep them down this time...no more vomiting today...he also had his first bowel movement today withOUT the assistance of suppositories...eheheh... probably more information than you guys cared to know, right???....eheheh.... but I write everything, remember??? eheheh.... Anyways, the good news is that he is going great and that everything is returning to normal...

Tonight I am sleeping here at the Ronald McDonald's House and Gaio is "on duty" at the hospital by Luca's bed... Gaio is feeling perfect and not sick at all anymore...he rested quite a bit today and took all kinds of drugs to get better soon... we are not sure what he had...probably "just" stress also....

I almost did not write on this blog today..... I am SOOOOOO tired again because my last shift at the hospital lasted 24 hrs straight.... Gaio being sick, my father got sick again, now with a very hoarse voice and a bit of a sore throat, etc, they both had to stay away again and my mom and I had to take care of everything by ourselves... so I kept staying and staying after waking up over there (I actually only slept from 2 - 6 am) and now I am dead tired... So tomorrow it's a new day...

Today I also called Gringo's vet and they told me he is doing great, eating well, etc.... we even worry about the poor thing all alone over there too.... we miss him too and can't wait to see him again!!!

Congrats to Barack Obama for winning the presidency of this country... We are hopefull that he'll do a good job for us and stop these crazy wars, etc... He does not have an easy job ahead of him but I am sure he'll do well... A Harvard graduate cannot be all that bad, right???..eheheh... ;o)

Kisses and love to all again... hopefully tomorrow I'll write to you guys from home... ;o)

VERSAO BRASILEIRA - Tivemos q ficar por aqui por hoje tb...como ja' disse, todos os dias eles nos dizem q vamos pra casa amanha....mas tudo bem, e' melhor mesmo irmos qdo Lulu esteje ja' 100%..... ainda estavam achando os pulmoes dele com um pouco de excesso de liquidos entao dalhe mais diureticos pra eliminar tudo isso...disseram q ja' esta' quase quase... tiveram q espeta-lo de novo na maozinha (a esquerda dessa vez.... tadinho como se ele precisasse de um outro furinho...) pra colocar esse remedio via venal... e ainda um outro diuretico via oral ainda por cima.... mas assim ele vai desidratar, ne'? eheheh... eles sabem o q estao fazendo.... ele ainda nao esta' tomando mto leite, nem agua, nem nada....nao quer saber...mas pelo menos ja' comeu 2 potinhos de papinha, um de banana e um de squash (como e' em portugues isso? Sei la' e' tipo uma abobora mais amarela)... e conseguiu nao vomitar o dia todo, pelo menos isso.... e tb fez seu no. 2 sem precisar de supositorios...ehehe... acho q estou dando mto mais informacoes do q voces queriam, ne'??? ehehehe....

Hoje estou de volta aqui na Ronald McDonald's House.... QUASE nao ia escrever no blog pois meu ultimo turno la no hospital durou 24 hrs... estou MORTA de novo... e' q Gaio ainda nao estava mto bom, meu pai amanheceu com uma voz rouca e com um pouco de dor de garganta.... entao os homens tinham q descancar mais um pouco.... dai eu e minha mae q ficamos la' de plantao o dia todo.... mas agora de noite Gaio ja' estava BEM melhor e ficou la' com Lulu hoje de noite...Acho q era "so' " stress do Gaio mesmo, nao era flu...

Estamos tb com saudades do nosso Gringuinho... tao fofo... hoje liguei pro veterinario onde ele esta' hospedado e me disseram q ele esta' bem e comendo bem.... a moca me falou q eles tem dado carinho e atencao extra pra ele... q bom, pois a gente tb pensa nele sempre...

Parabens ao Barack Obama por ganhar a presidencia deste pais... estamos com esperancas q ele faca um bom trabalho...vamos ver, so' de parar essas guerras malucas ja' vai ser uma maravilha...Ele vai ter mtos desafios pela frente mas com certeza vai se dar bem.... afinal um graduado de Harvard nao pode ser tao ruim assim, ne'??? ehehhe

Beijos pra todos.... e espero amanha ja' escrever de casa!!! :o)

Still Here but Possibly Going Home Tomorrow!

Dear all... Luca is DEFINITELY our little warrior.... he is such a great baby, so full of life, so good to us, so optimistic, so strong, so happy, in such good spirits, so cooperative, so amazing, and I could go on and on and on.... Com'on it really perplexes us... try having a MAJOR open heart surgery and have tubes coming out of every single hole of your body and STILL manage to crack lots of smiles and be such a good sport.... I would not be able to do it if it was myself.... He is such a Brave Heart and such a little man already.... sometimes I walk in this room where he is and he is just sitting there like an adult watching his TV and taking it easy... So cute and so brave, so strong....

Everyone keeps also calling ME a "warrior".... I HAVE to be....thank you guys for saying that, it makes me feel good about myself somewhat...hard these days when I feel SOOOOO sorry and horrible that I have to put Luca thru everything that he is going thru...... So many people are telling me that they are amazed that even though I am so tired every night I still find strength somehow to write on this blog.... Sometimes I am also amazed at myself to be honest...ehehhe... It's been the most difficult week of my life but at the same time the most beautiful to know that Luca is doing so well, and that, on its own, recharges my batteries..... the thing is that also I see so much support from everyone and sooooooo many people telling me that the FIRST thing they do in the morning is open our blog to read the news about the day before....that keeps me going.... You guys DON'T imagine what that means to me....I feel everybody right beside me even though most of you are so far away.... and that boosts the last bit of energy that I have at the end of the day to update everyone and write a couple lines.... I like to write too... It is good for me too to keep the stress level down and put everything down in the computer...


Today was again another good day for us..... but busier and busier as Luca is more awake now, more aware of what's going on and more and more back to his normal self... To keep a 9 month old kid to a bed all day is quite a challenge... We brought lots of entertainment from home but still, he gets bored .... His IV needle was taken off today... another great thing, slowly all these things that bother him are coming off... He HATES the oxygen tube.... he pulls on it, tries to take it off his face, gets upset, cries and gets irritable also.... But nonetheless, the boy is a "bull"...ehehe... he is so strong and so good.... He is still not eating too much.... actually today he ate a whole jar of green beans and we were so happy...but a bit after that they gave him Tylenol with Codine which tastes very bitter and he vomited back everything that he had eaten.... hard and frustrating to us... He's not taking too much formula or nothing... his appetite is still very weak... Little by little I suppose, can't expect the poor guy to eat as he used to already....

Today he also got a very nice sponge bath... I even felt refreshed for him.... so many sticky tapes all over his body that all that glue is hard to come out now... I actually found it funny that the nurse said I could get his incision wet already... as long as I don't submerge it in water I am OK... she actually told me to wash it with soap and water to clean everything and to help heal better... crazy and incredible....

They told us that we probably can go home tomorrow Tue 11/04.....it seems like everyday they tell us that... tomorrow is Election Day here...it would be nice to vote too but that's now the LEAST of my worries..... we'll see, they are still saying that Luca has a little bit of fluids on his lungs (normal for Tetralogy repair babies) and because of that when they turn off his oxygen, the oxygination level drops a bit to 85-88%... ideally it should stay above 90%.... They just did another chest x-ray tonight and tomorrow we'll see how it is... He will still have to take Lasix, a diuretic that will help clear these excess fluids out for the next couple of weeks or so... Nothing to worry since again it's normal but maybe we'll have to stay a little longer because of that... we'll see tomorrow morning...

Tonight I am sleeping here besides him.... Gaetano was at the hotel all day because last night he got sick... stomach sick and maybe he's thinking it's the flu so we want him VERY far away from here... he feels horrible that he almost did not see Luca today... but he also needs to take care of himself... Again, we all deal with and show stress one way or another...eheheh.... My father had already gotten sick this week now it was Gaetano's time... My mom and I, the girls, are still keeping strong...eheheh.... Girls RULE!! ;o)

Gosh, there are newborns in this room that don't stop crying.... it's gonna be a lonnnnng night I can foresee...eheheh.... all good, at least MY baby is sleeping profoundly...eheheh....

Today we also had GREAT news from my brother Kiko & his wife Euri...they found out about their baby's sex... I will not spoil their surprise to everyone, so, if you would like to know you can call them directly or email them... ;o)

Gotta go... it's 1:10 am and it's time for bed.... now it's all quiet in here.... finally.....

VERSAO BRASILEIRA rapida como sempre ;o) = Queridos.... aqui tudo indo super bem, Luca e' realmente um guerreiro... sempre tao alegre, tao otimista, tao cheio de vida.... tao bom ve-lo ja' assim.... e com isso tudo, o nosso dia fica mais intenso tb...eheheh.... ele ja' esta' cheio de ficar na cama, quer tirar o tubo do nariz, alias, ODEIA o tubo do nariz, quer pegar nos fios, olhar pra la' e pra ca' e nao para quieto... e' uma figura.... as vezes eu pego ele quietinho olhando a sua TV como um adulto... mto engracado... Mto bonzinho considerando a ENORME cirurgia q ele acaba de fazer... todo espetado, todo cheio de tubos em todos os buracos do corpo tadinho.... e ele continua sorridente e feliz....eu nao seria capaz de estar em tao bom humor assim..... hoje ja' tiraram mais uma agulha q estava espetada na maozinha... a do soro q ainda tinham deixado caso ainda fosse necessario pra algum remedio q nao desse pra tomar via oral... Hoje ate' q ele comeu um pouco mas depois vomitou tudo pois tomou um remedio anti dor q era amargo e fez com q ele vomitasse tudo.... frustante pois ele tinha comido tao bem.... ainda esta' meio devagar pra comida... nao quer leite, nem papinha, nem agua.... entao temos q ficar de olho.... ainda esta' tomando diuretico pra tirar o resto de fluidos q ainda restam nos pulmoes... isso e' normal de cirurgia de tetralogy eles me falaram.... e por isso a oxigenacao sem o oxigenio no nariz ainda ta' 85-88%, o ideal seria acima de 90%... vamos ver se liberam a gente pra ir pra casa amanha, isso q estao falando hoje....seil la' parece q todo dia eles falam q e' amanha..... depende da oxigenacao e do raio x q tiraram hoje....mas e' melhor mesmo so' ir pra casa qdo ja' estiver bem proximo de estar 100%. Hoje ele tomou um banhinho gostoso e refrescou ate' a alma... eu fiquei surpresa q posso lavar a cicatriz com agua e sabao... e' so' nao submerger em agua mas pode lavar bem.... incrivel...

Mtos estao falando q eu tb sou guerreira.... obrigada, pessoal..... eu TENHO QUE ser.... esta' sendo realmente a semana MAIS DURA da minha vida mas tb ao mesmo tempo a mais linda so' em saber q ele esta' reagindo tao bem... so' isso mesmo pra me dar forcas e uma energia imensa pra continuar... Valeu galera!!

Hoje estou eu dormindo aqui do lado dele.... meu partner Gaito ontem de noite ficou doente, vomitou, etc...ehheh...Ele estava aqui dormindo com Luca e disse q de madrugada teve q sair correndo pelos corredores do hospital procurando um banheiro...eheheh..... ja' nao chegava meu pai vomitando agora Gaio... esses homens tao caindo e eu e minha mamis ainda firme e fortes.... eta mulherada porreta...ehehehh.... O Gaio achou q o dele era flu entao e' melhor q nao chegue nem PERTO daqui...eheheh..

Kiko e Euri hoje ficaram sabendo o sexo do bebe...nao quero estragar a surpresa entao liguem diretamente pra ele ou passam um email pra ele contar....

Vou dormir... boa noite e beijao pra todos.... amanha tem mais.... ;o)

We graduated out of CTICU... ;o)

Good evening to everyone.... It's now about 9:30 pm and today around 5 pm we left the intensive care unit and we are now at what I call a semi-intensive room where Luca is still hooked up to oxygen and a couple other monitors to keep checking his oxygenation level, respirations and heart beats per minute, blood pressure, etc. We could have come here already yesterday but there were no beds available for us.... Now this room has again 4 other families here and it's quite noisy.... babies cry ALL the time, people talk, nurses talk, lights are on, people in and out, and it was VERY difficult to settle Luca down tonight.... He was grunting and complaining from 6 pm to 8 pm basically non-stop.... we tried EVERYTHING from Elmo to drugs, from holding him to feeding him, you name it... At one point I was sweating and I had to step out for a couple seconds for a break because after trying to settle down a baby for 2 hrs with no success we get drained out, ya know... eheheh... and besides, it's still awkward to hold him with a few wires and tubes still hooked up to him. The problem is that we basically spoiled him during his whole life to fall asleep... We always put soft music, turn off all lights, and rock him to sleep (on our feet, if I sit down and rock him he gets upset).... SO, you can imagine here that I can't really do all that the way I do at home so he was getting REALLY upset.... but finally we tried closing the curtains to make it darker, put some soft music on our DVD player and I managed to put him a bit sideways in bed (again like we do at home) and he SLOWWWWWLY fell asleep... it was a challenge today... but now he's still sleeping very peacefully... he still has an IV needle hooked up to his arm too which is probably bothering him a bit.... and the oxygen tube also bothers him because he always is touching his face and trying to pull on it... All good signs I suppose that he is doing better.... Today he was smiling quite a bit to everyone.... not Luca's full blown big open smiles yet but some very cute smiles already.... great to see! ;o)



In this room we need to stay here with him 24hrs because the nurses have more babies to take care of... so Gaetano went to the hotel now to refresh and take a shower, eat something etc and come back so I can do all that myself and maybe take a nap until 2-3 am then I'll be back here... He was getting a bit nervous with Luca's cry earlier and he was walking back and forth close to where the nurse was sitting and she asked him to sit down because he was making her nervous...eheheh.... he got a bit upset about that...ehehehhe.... so it was hard to "tie" daddy also to a chair...ehehhe....but he does that to destress, that's his way...eheheh.... He was supposed to stay with Luca tonight all night cause he got a nap already this afternoon but the nurse asked him : "Are you the one staying here tonight"... he said "Yes" and she made a funny face meaning "Oh, boy"...ehehhe... he was not too happy again with that reaction from this nurse so he's not too happy with the second shift nurse...ehehehe.... it's all good, hopefully we'll go home in the next couple days.... It's hard also to overhear other people's conversations around here... the kid next to our bed needs a liver transplant... tough stuff.... Oh oh, Lulu is waking up....noooooooo....good, it was a false alarm... ;o)

Gaetano arrived now with some food for me... be right back... we don't realize we are hungry until we are starving these days...

Better go now since I'll have to be back here in a few hours.... kisses and love to all....

VERSAO BRASILEIRA -- Hoje saimos da UTI e estamos num quarto com 3 outras familias... e' um quarto meio semi-intensivo pois Luca ainda esta' c/oxigenio e sendo monitorado na oxigenacao, respiracao e batidas por minuto... Foi duro vim pra ca' pois tem mais confusao aqui... babies q choram sempre, pessoas falando, enfermeiras q entram e saem, etc.... Luca resmungou e ficou super chatinho das 6 as 8 da noite.... tentamos de TUDO, Elmo, drogas, musica, mamadeira, livros e NADA deu certo... e' q acostumamos ele meio "mal" em casa com musiquinha pra dormir, pego no colo e caminho com ele ate' dormir, apago todas as luzes e aqui luz, choro, cameras e acao o tempo todo.... ele so' dormiu qdo tentamos imitar o ambiente de casa o maximo possivel.... enfim acho q ja' vamos sair daqui logo nos proximos 2 dias... Agora ja' q temos uma enfermeira pra cada 4 criancas e' melhor q uma pessoa durma aqui com ele... Gaio fica um pouco e eu acho q volto la' pelas 2 ou 3 da manha... agora vou tomar um banho, dormir um pouco.... Mas Luca esta' otimo, por isso tb q ficou chatinho pra poder descansar, nao estava com dor e nao estava achando seu canto e estava querendo ja' dormir como fazemos em casa e isso e' bom sinal... hoje ja' sorriu bastante pra todos, ainda nao aqueles sorrisoes mas ja' ta' otimo tb....

Ja' vou entao pois ja' ja' tenho q voltar..... beijos e carinhos a todos....

Another Great Day for Luca!

Hi guys....thanks to everyone that is following this blog and taking the time to read all my feelings and emotions.... It's definitely a roller coaster of emotions on a daily basis but more on the high end now... We worry about everything, every beep by his bed, every change in temperature, every breath that he takes differently, etc etc...all normal but we just don't know so we worry and ask the nurses...they are probably about to kill us but we don't care, we ask...ehehhe.... I am sure we are not the only parents like that.... so by the end of the day we are so physically and emotionally exausted that we only actually realize it when we arrive to the hotel...

Pretty much overall today was another great day for Luca... they took his chest tube out and a couple other smaller tubes that were still attached to his hand and neck... so little by little he is getting back to normal. They are giving him some Tylenol for pain w/Codine I think, and that also still keeps him a bit groggy... so he still sleeps a lot...but he woke up quite a few times and I gave him some baby formula throughout the day. He sat up in the bed for a few minutes already and the nurse also allowed me to hold him on my lap today...it was a great feeling but at the same time very scary for me since I felt like I was holding him for the first time ever.... Very delicate and I was so afraid I was going to hurt him.... but he did just fine....

They kept him at the ICU again today simply because the regular floor was full.... it was actually better because at the ICU they have one nurse just for him and at the 6th floor he has to share a nurse with 3 other kids.... so probably tomorrow we'll have to go there.... but hopefully it's still full so we can stay another night where we are...

Anyways, very short post today because I am feeling VERY tired already and I am ready to hit the bed and sleeeeeeeeeeeep for a few hrs in a row....my eyes are closing while typing.... Kisses and love to all...

VERSAO BRASILEIRA -- Hoje foi um outro dia otimo pro Lulu... ja' tiraram o tubo de drenagem q ainda estava no peito... e outros tubinhos q ainda estavam em uma mao e no pescoco... ainda ficou o dia todo e vai ficar hoje a noite na UTI so' porq os quartos normais estavam cheios... Mas e' ate' melhor porq na UTI ele tem uma enfermeira so' pra ele e no quarto ele tera' q dividir uma enfermeira com outras 3 criancas... Ele ja' esta' voltando ao seu normal bem rapido... Ainda esta' meio chapadinho pois dao um remedio pra dor ainda meio forte (nao mais a morfina) e ele dorme ainda bastante mas tb ja' ficou acordado um bom tempo, pude dar leite e pega-lo no colo tb hoje... foi bem legal mas fiquei com um pouco de medo de machuca-lo... mas foi otimo! Hoje o blog foi curto pois estou SUPER HIPER cansada e quero ir pra cama logo... a gente fica num corre corre o dia todo la' q qdo chegamos no hotel de noite a gente ve o qto estamos acabados fisicamente e emocionalmente... mas hoje vou dormir bem, ja' q Lulu ainda tem uma enfermeira so' pra ele a noite toda e ele esta' tao bem vou ficar mais tranquila pra dormir umas belas horas seguidas..heheh.... Obrigada por seguirem este blog... Um beijo grandao pra todos!!

Luca's Professional Pictures --- Fotos Profissionais do Luca!!

Hi guys.... a few days before Luca's surgery we had a wonderful professional photographer come to our house to take some nice shots of our pride and joy.... here are a couple pictures that she put on her blog for us to get a taste of ...I can't wait to see the rest of them.... She is amazing and the photos she took speak for themselves.... And what she wrote about Luca and about our family make us cry everytime we read it.... Click on the link below and just move down a bit to see Luca's sweet face.... THANK YOU NATALIE for a job SUPER well done and for also touching our hearts.... You are a beautiful person inside and out and also helped us in such a way that you don't even imagine with your amazing art...

http://www.milanophotography.blogspot.com/

VERSAO BRASILEIRA --- Pessoal, alguns dias antes da operacao do Luca chamamos uma fotografa profissional q foi la' em casa e tirou umas fotos linnnndas dele.... cliquem no link acima e vao um pouquinho pra baixo na tela pra ver a carinha fofa dele....aqui tem so' 2 fotos q ela colocou no blog dela, nao vejo a hora de ver todas as outras..... E o q ela escreveu em Ingles entao foi mto lindo tb.... As fotos falam por si mesmas.... beijos!

Luca is doing WONDERFUL!!! Happy Halloween to Everyone...

Good evening to everyone... now 11:20 pm on Halloween, Friday 31st Oct/2008. Gaetano and I started the morning again at 5 am and going to the hospital by 6:30 am this morning.... we arrived there Luca was running a little fever but it's normal after such a big surgery like this... Then a bunch of doctors came around him and discussed a bunch of things that went straight over my head but all I needed to know was obviously one thing: that he was doing GREAT!!! They told me that he is in beautiful shape and that he is a very strong boy... He's 9 kgs now and 72 cm long... never had a cold, never a runny nose, never nothing thank Goodness, so he went into surgery in excellent health and condition which is helping him a lot now... Keeping him in a "bubble" all these 8 1/2 months paid off!!

This afternoon they took him off the breathing machine (he only has a small oxygen tube now on his nose), his urine tube is also out, heart medications are to a minimum and his oxygen level is around 98 - 100%.... so all great news and off to a very fast recovery... Amazing how resilient kids are!!!!!

He wakes up on and off, looks around, follows sounds and looks at his Elmo....his eyes and look are still a bit distant but we know he recognizes us, our touch and our voices...but he has not smiled just yet... when I brought out Elmo he managed to show us 1/2 a smile but not quite a full one yet....our baby Luca is little by little coming back to being himself...Around 7 pm tonight they already fed him a clear liquid thru a regular bottle by mouth.... poor thing, they could only give him 2 oz and he started getting frustrated and grunted a little because he wanted more.... he normally drinks 4-6 oz of formula very fast in one feeding so 2 oz were not even good enough for a snack...but nurse told us that they cannot give him too much yet because he will vomit it all up... Later tonight they will also give him some formula too to see how he reacts...

Tomorrow they will be probably already transferring him to the 6th floor and out of the ICU. Great news again because over there we are one step closer to home... They are also saying that if he continues doing great as he is maybe by Monday we can go home already.... It was so wonderful to hear that.... every doctor that comes around to ck on him says that he is doing great! That's all we care to know...

The CTICU at CHLA is really amazing... ALL nurses and doctors are outstanding professionally and as personally too.... they all have such GIGANTIC hearts and treat us and especially Luca with the best of care possible... Luca is really in great hands...

THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYONE'S MESSAGES.... VERY EMOTIONAL AND HEART TOUCHING.... Like my brother keeps calling him now: "LUCA BRAVE HEART".... indeed he has a brave heart now... always had but particularly now....

If anyone local would like to visit we can probably have you guys come over now... he should be on the 6th floor already by tomorrow morning... visitation hours are 9am-9pm every day... You can give us a call or just show up if you prefer.... we would LOVE to see familiar faces and smiling faces too! ;o)

Below are some photos of these last few days...

Day before we came here (10/28). My father had brought him this little outfit.... it is from my father's favorite soccer team in Brazil....the team is from Sao Paulo and it's called Corinthians...

Vai la' Coringao... o simbolo esta' bem no peito bem do lado do coracao do Lulu, ajuda ai' esse coracaozinho valente a ficar otimo logo.....
PEDRO TIRABOSCHI = Essa foto meu pai encomendou especialmente pra voce...ehehhe.... Coringao no peito e de volta pra primeira divisao...ehehhe....beijos!!

These 2 above were also taken on the 28th with his 1st Halloween custome... Obviously he was not happy with it... well, I think because it was a VERY warm custome and that day we had basically summer temperatures of 95F....hehehe.... no more warm customes in California... with this global warming these poor kids have to be in tang tops for Halloween...ehheheh

Day before surgery (10/29).... taking a bath with antibacterial soap in our room at the Ronald McDonald's House... He LOVED that bath... he stayed there and played around for a lonnnng time...
This was around 5:30am morning of surgery (10/30)... As you can see, we were in good spirits and trying to smile a bit.... Lulu was just as playfull as ever...

Here we had just done a couple more of the pre-op exams and he was already wearing his hospital PJ's....

This one was taken while we were waiting for the nurse to take him to the OR (operating room)... he was already "happy" and groggy here during his zen moment...very cute... ;o)

Lulu and his great friend Elmo at CTICU...These 2 were taken today (10/31) after the breathing machine came off and the oxygen tube went in... He was still very groggy today but already having pretty long periods of being awake... even managed to say "mammah" once... not that he knows that I am his mamma already but I got very happy to hear it anyways....

VERSAO BRASILEIRA - Ola' pessoal... Luca esta' OTIMO... os medicos nos disseram q ele esta' se recuperando SUPER bem, super rapido e ele e' um garotao bem forte... Hoje ele ja' esta' com uma carinha bem melhor, ja' tiraram o tubinho do nariz q ia ate' o pulmao (nao sei o nome em portugues) e agora so' esta' com o tubo de oxigenio pra ajudar, mas ele ja' esta' respirando sozinho... tiraram a sonda da urina, ja' diminuiam os medicamentos pro coracao, e o nivel de oxigenacao do corpo esta' entre 98 - 100%...tudo indo super bem e amanha ja' vai sair da UTI e ir pro quarto normal... se tudo continuar bem assim (e vai continuar) eles estao falando q acham q ja' vamos poder ir pra casa na 2a feira.... Maravilha, ne'? Ja' deram um pouquinho de liquido pra ele hoje na mamadeira e agora de noite iam dar um leitinho tambem... Ele ainda esta' meio grogue mas as vezes acorda, nos olha, resmunga (pois ja' quer sair dali, tenta sentar, etc)...ainda com um olhar um pouco distante mas da' pra perceber q ele nos ve, nos reconhece tb pela voz e tato.... mto legal... Ate' ja' falou um "mammah" hoje q foi bem fofinho mesmo ele nao sabendo o q esta' falando eu ja' achei q foi o maximo.... Essa UTI e' o maximo....todas as enfermeiras, medicos, staff sao maravilhosos.... dao uma atencao enorme pra gente e especialmente pro Lulu... SUPER obrigada de novo pelas mensagens q continuam nos chegando...bem emocionante e voces continuam tocando nossos coracoes... Como disse tio Kiko agora o nome do Luca e':

Luca Coracao Valente.... sempre foi coracao valente mas agora ainda mais...hehehe...beijos pra todos!

LUCA's SURGERY WAS A SUCCESS!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSS......

Hi my dear family and friends.... Uffffffffff..... this day is finally almost over.... it REALLY feels right now as if a BIG HUGE HEAVY CARGO TRAIN passed over all of us here today.... but the good thing is that this train passed and now it keeps leaving us more and more by the hour...

Sorry this update is only coming now.... Gaetano forgot his laptop at the hotel since we had sooo much on our minds this morning.... tomorrow we'll take it and at least I can type a couple words a bit earlier...

Our day began at 5 am when we woke up (actually I slept from 2am to 5am only since I kept doing things, reading last minute instructions, feeding Luca almost every hour, etc)... by 6:30 am we were already at the surgery admitting area where we put on him a cute blue hospital pajama... they did a few other last minute exams, took more blood AGAIN (and this time the DARN nurse could not find his vain and stuck the needle in one arm incorrectly and no blood was flowing...he was screaming and yelling at this time already and my mom and I almost about KILLED that nurse...). After that they separated us from my parents and took Luca, Gaio and I to a waiting area where a bunch of other kids were also laying in hospital beds waiting for their surgeries.... heart breaking to see kids of ALL ages and God knows with what types of surgeries ahead of them today...

We waited there for a little while and Luca started getting a little fussy at this point (hungry, sleepy, tired and all) so they decided to give him the "happy-liquid" that I mentioned yesterday....not a happy- pill as I had said of course he is so little for a pill... I actually took a happy pill myself (Valerian Root based...ehehhe) to calm me down a little and it worked.... even tough I think I probably needed something a LOT stronger, but something it did...eheheh.... After he took this liquid he started being very zen and funny...his little eyes were 1/2 shut and he kept playing with his hospital bed...very calm and totally easy going... We talked to him, explained what was going to happen to him, and touched him a LOT...and of course we told him several times that we love him SO much... difficult moment again...

Finally this one nurse came with the anesthesiologist doctor and talked to us about how things would proceed from now forward... At around 8:20 am we picked him up and went together to a long hallway where the nurse said, OK now it's time for me to take him.... GOSH, THAT WAS REALLY hard as I had antecipated it.... but he made us laugh already there grabbing the nurse's green cap and mask so tight and would not let go...even tough he was quite groggy he was still very strong as usual.... Right after Gaetano and I left him, we walked like 2 zumbies across those hallways without having a clue where we were going....all we both could do is just cry, cry and cry.... another VERY HARD moment!!!

We finally found our way around and found my parents again... at that point Michael Smith, Gaio's 1st boss here in California, was also here to keep us company... His presence was great because he distracted us quite a bit throughout the whole surgery... MIKE, THANKS FOR COMING ALL THE WAY FROM ESCONDIDO AND FOR BUYING US COFFEE TOO!!!! You really did your good action for the year!!

At 11:15 am we were walking around the cardiac dept again and we see a hospital bed coming out of the OR area... and guess what, on that bed was our sweet Luca.... perfect timing and we were able to see him for 5 seconds and the nurses told us we could touch him... This was a VERY emotional time for all of us again... Then we waited, waited and waited approx 2 more hrs and they finally allowed Gaetano and I to go into the ICU to stay there with him for a while.... We did and we stayed there a long time with him... DIFFICULT, DIFFICULT and more DIFFICULT! He has TONS of little tubes coming from everywhere on his little body... very sad to look at him.... and the incision is quite big too...but it's all good, who cares about the incision, right? His heart is repaired now and like my brother Tio Kiko said, he's got a BRAVE HEART now!!! Our nurse at the CTICU was amazing and we felt really comfortable to be there with him....we was doing great, his numbers were great, oxygen level was wonderful and everything was perfect... What a relief...

So then we basically stayed at the ICU at his bed side the rest of the day... Finally now at around 9pm we came back to the hotel... we left him there with a very good and stable condition with his night shift nurse.... She is also wonderful...we are in GREAT hands at the ICU...

Now I am so tired and don't know how I have energy to type all this...but like I said, when I type this journal it helps me to destress a lot... Going now to call the nurse to see how he is doing again and if I can sleep a bit more today...

THANK YOU FOR ALL the prayers, thoughts, messages, emails, candles lit, etc etc.... We DEFINITELY FELT THEM COMING and they gave us such an internal strength!!! And they ALL worked too, BABY LUCA IS DOING GREAT!!!!! :o) ;o) ;o) ;o) ;o) ;o) Love to ALL...

VERSAO BRASILEIRA SUPER rapida.... Estamos nos sentindo como se um TREM de CARGA ENORME tivesse passado em cima de todos nos hoje....mas passou e esta' passando cada vez mais... a cirurgia foi realmente um sucesso....tudo esta' otimo, Luca esta' super bem, reagindo mto bem de tudo... Foi MUITO duro ve-lo com mil tubinhos por todo o corpo e uma cicatriz enorme no peito....mas isso realmente e' o de menos ja' q ele esta' tao bem e agora com seu coracao consertado e funcionando perfeitamente.... MUITO obrigada por todas as oracoes, mensages, emails, e velinhas acesas de todos...tudo isso funcionou pra VALER e nos deu realmente mta forca interna.... Muito amor pra todos!!!

And here we are....

Hello to our lovely family & friends.... ALL OF YOU GUYS are making me cry right now... But it's all good, it's a good kinda cry, the one coming straight from the heart from seeing SO MUCH support, prayers, and wonderful words from all of you.... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the comments, the emails, the phone calls, etc!!! We don't know what we would do without all of you guys in our lives...Right now here it's almost 11:30 pm and I am here sitting on a beautiful computer room at the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald's House... This place is AMAZING!!! It's a house/hotel type thing sponsored by McDonald's and several other people and entities..unbelievable.... brand new (just opened in July), super clean, modern, very cheerful, all decorated for Halloween and super comfortable too... It would be very nice if any of you guys could please go to McDonald's in the near future and order anything to eat or drink...that would be wonderful... That would help us support this great place here and others throughout the world in some way or another...thank YOU!!!

Ok, so tomorrow on 10/30 Luca's surgery is scheduled for 8:30am L.A. time... we need to be there by 6:30am to prep him, etc...They are going to put him on a hospital gown, put a little ID bracelet on him and he's ready to go... we'll take pictures of all this because it's all happy times...or another moment of "Good Times With Luca"..... ;o) The "only" difficult thing will be to keep him without food on his stomach for quite some time... but they told me they can give him a "happy pill" so he can relax a little and get less nervous if he's too hungry while he waits... And we don't like to see Luca hungry, things can get ugly if he is...eheheh...

Another VERY difficult moment I hear, it's when we need to hand him to the nurse that will take him to the operating room... I am a bit afraid of that moment to be honest... but I need to keep strong... I am surprising myself actually and I am keeping A LOT stronger than I thought... Thank YOU for those praying for me to keep strong, it's totally working.... at least for now... eheheh ;o)

Today they did all kinds of exams, blood tests and all (I already cried right there just seeing him cry with that needle on his little tiny arm... heart breaking, but then again, I was strong after that...)... everything went great, he's been REALLY healthy all these 8 1/2 months so this helps a lot... so we are good to go... He should be in for 4-5 hours and then he goes to the CTICU where we'll be able to finally see him....but the nurses and doctors should come out every hour or so to give us updates... These for sure will be the LONGEST 4-5 hrs of our lives....

Tomorrow night Gaetano and I will sleep close to him at the ICU... I am sure we'll find a couple minutes to update this blog again so you guys can know what's going on...

Kisses and lots of love to all.... Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the love and support!!

VERSAO BRASILEIRA... Herbert Richards....heheheh...isso parece filme de sessao da tarde no Brasil, ne'???ehehheh.... Aqui vai uma pequena traducao mto rapida pra aqueles q nao entenderam meu bla bla bla acima.... ;o) Primeiramente SUPER OBRIGADA por todo o apoio e suporte q temos recebido de TODOS voces... isso nos tem feito mto bem e continuamos fortes devido ao carinho de todos, das mensagens, emails e telefonemas q temos recebido... Amanha a cirurgia do Luca sera' as 8:30 da manha horario aqui de Los Angeles, vamos ter q chegar la' as 6:30... Vai ser "so'" duro mante-lo sem comer por tanto tempo...A cirurgia deve durar umas 4-5 horas....serao as 4-5 horas mais lonnnnnnnnngas de nossas vidas!!! Depois disso ele vai pra UTI e fica la' por uns 2 dias... Eu e Gaio vamos dormir por la' pertinho dele na UTI amanha e depois com certeza.... mas vamos achar um tempinho pra escrever um pouquinho neste blog pra voces saberem as noticias... Um beijo ENORME pra todos com mto amor!!!

We Are Leaving for the Hospital Tomorrow Already...

Hello everyone....

Today we are here preparing the last minute things to take to the hospital... It's been a VERY tough week already for us and the worst is yet to come.... Actually the best is yet to come because our baby is finally getting cured this week....that's the way we have to think, otherwise we go crazy...but nonetheless, it's SUPER hard for us and we cry often already... But it's all good, we are keeping strong and keeping our faith.... We are keeping strong because of ALL of you sending us such beautiful messages, phone calls, emails, etc-etc... That's what keeps us going... THANK YOU!!! We will keep this blog so that everyone can read our daily updates while we are at the hospital... we might post some pictures too... Tomorrow is his pre-op day and he'll have exams, x-rays, blood tests, etc to do... and then we'll finally know the exact time of his surgery on Thurs... I'll post another blog message to let everyone know about the time... We will be staying at the Ronald McDonald's House next to the hospital... We hope to be home in approx 4-5 days...

My parents are also here from Brazil to help us, Thank Goodness... ;o)

We really appreciate ALL your thoughts and prayers and PLEASE keep them coming...

For those who wish to visit us while we are at CHLA, it's going to be probably better around the 1st or 2nd of November more or less... later we'll let you know details on that also...

Love to everyone & God Bless!

The Fragoso & Santospirito Families ;o)

BLOOD DONATION was a success!!!

We want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts to the LOVELY people that took the time and made the effort to go all the way to L.A. to donate blood to our sweet baby Luca!!! WE DON'T HAVE WORDS FOR YOU GUYS... JUST TO SAY THANK YOU IS NOT ENOUGH!!!! You guys are blood related to us now and WE WILL BE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL TO YOU....

You WONDERFUL people were (in order of donation):

LIGIA APPARICIO
FRANKIE SAMA
GRAZIANO PESTARINO
ABDI & CHRISTINA KATOULI
GREG & CHERYL BAUMEISTER
JAKE KAUFMAN

You guys are THE BEST!!!! LOVE YOU 4EVER... ;o) ;o) ;o)

Luca turned 8 months old!! ;o)

No pictures for October just yet... Mommy still has to download them... she's too busy these days!