The Paladinos

Four generations of Leslie's family

Gabby with Great Aunt E

Gabby and her Uncle Dexter (the dachsund)

Gabby with Mom and her Great-grandparents Garrett

Family shot

Gabby with Mimi

Gabby with Uncle Rob


Gabby with Papa Mike

Gabby with Great Grandma Meme Pitts

Hanging out with Mom

Drying off after a bath

Dressed in her sweater-vest

Smiling in the recliner

Taking a cat nap in our bed

Waking up

Ducky dress and Daddy

At about 3 weeks old, Gabby had a red mark show up on her lip that looked like a scratch.  After a couple of weeks of not going away, we took her to the pediatrician's office and found out it is the beginnings of a strawberry birthmark.  The official name is "Infantile Hemangioma" and from what we read, they grow for the first year or so of a child's life, then begin to recede at some point after that.  They eventually go away leaving anything from no marks at all to significant scarring.

Obviously, we don't want Gabby to have to deal with the social issues of having a growth on her lip, but more importantly it could get bigger which could effect her eating.  So, thanks to much prayer and the persistence of our pediatrician's office, we got an appointment at the Vascular Anomalies Center at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock for May 21.  At first, they offered us an appointment next February, but eventually ended up moving us to the May appointment for which we are extremely grateful.  From what we understand, they sometimes let the strawberry run its course and other times they decide to treat it.  Treatments typically involve a series of steroid injections and laser treatment, but we'll have to wait and find out what the doctor tells us in May.

If you would like to get more information, see the infantile hemangioma section of the website for the Vascular Anomalies Center at Children's.  However, I warn you there are some pretty extreme images on their site.  We're hoping Gabby will never get to anything close to that since we've caught it early and are hopefully getting treatment.

 
Gabby's strawberry birthmark

Gabby had her 2 month checkup on Tuesday and is doing great.  She is 23 1/4 inches long and 11 lbs. 9 oz. which puts her in the 90th percentile on length and 80th percentile on weight.  Woo hoo!  She had a little bit of diaper rash, but that has mostly cleared up in the last couple of days.

Until now, Gabby has only been waking up once a night to feed and usually goes back down pretty easily.  We are now trying to wean her off that feeding and get her to sleep through the night.  The books say that around 2 months is when they can start sleeping through, so we'll see how that goes.

Gabby in her bunny slippers

Gabby with Papa Dino

Gabby with Grandma and Grandpa Duffey

Gabby with Papa Dino

The Paladinos

Pictures from the Pitts visit on the Friday before Easter:

Gabby with Papa Mike

Gabby with Leslie, Papa Mike, and Great Grandparents Pitts

Gabby with Great Aunt Patty

Gabby and Papa Mike taking a nap

The Paladinos