Belated update

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for the belated update - Julia may be small, but she certainly keeps us busy. We've also had a lot of visitors recently helping us with Julia.

Leticia returned to work earlier in the month and her mom watched Julia for two weeks and then my mom and dad and Aunt Beth came and watched her last week. Today was her first day in Daycare and I'm waiting to hear from Leticia as I write this on how she did.

She has her 4 month appointment next week and we'll try and update her official measurements, but I would guess she is well over 12 pounds now.

In the meantime, please check out her latest photos here.

Take care everyone.

Mike & Le

Video

Hello Everybody,

Here is a little video of Julia dancing on her activity gym!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiY5iP39P3k

Hope you enjoy!

Updates!

Hello Everybody,

So, Julia is doing just great. It has been such a joy to see how much she grows everyday and how much smarter and more alert she is getting. She is a little over 10lbs, and is has really been an angel. She doesn't cry very much at all. Sometimes she gets a little cranky in the evening, but that's about it.

It has been pretty busy month so far....my mom and dad were here for a while, then my gradma and aunt came. We had an awesome time with them. It was specially nice to have my gradma here, since she is 80 and made the trip from Brazil to meet her new great granddaughter!! Now it is just the three of us (actually four with Naia!), so hopefully we'll have more time to post more updates!

Here are some pictures of us...look what a big girl she is!
http://picasaweb.google.com/leticia.ford/JuliaMayJune09?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-4qZWDyO2FhQE&feat=directlink

Some new photos

OK, so we have been a bit lax in publishing here. It has been great having the parollee here with us and she is doing well eating and sleeping and gaining weight very well, but it is hard to get the pictures off the camera and up on the web to share. Feel free to bug us if we haven't posted in a while and you want some new pictures. :-)

She is now right around 7 pounds, which considering she was originally due on May 18th means she is pretty much right on track.

Her Paternal grandparents were here visiting her for a while and now her maternal grandparents are here. There was some overlap during which there was much rejoicing.

The pictures here cover from pretty much right after she got home up to yesterday so you can see her putting on weight as she grows. Hope to have another update from her this weekend.

Mais fotos!

Oi pessoal,

Ai vai o link para mais umas fotinhos da Julia.

http://picasaweb.google.com/leticia.ford/JuliaApril30ToMay4?authkey=Gv1sRgCOHlyMnln9yY0gE&feat=directlink

Tem fotos do primeiro banho dela em casa, do primeira visita ao pediatra, e mais algumas fotos que a gente tirou aqui em casa.

Por aqui tudo em ordem. A Julia ja esta com mais de 2.55kg! Ontem o pediatra ate perguntou se a gente estava dando mignon e lagosta para ela! Gracas a Deus de noite ela esta dormindo que e uma maravilha, entao por enquanto a minha sanidade e a do Mike esta intacta!

Coming home and first pictures at home

Here is the link to the pictures of the jail break episode, as well as her first pictures at home:

http://picasaweb.google.com/leticia.ford/JuliaComingHome042909?authkey=Gv1sRgCMuegNHKqLib-AE&feat=directlink

It is soooo much nicer to take pictures of her without the tube on her nose! And of us without the ugly gowns!

Jailbreak '09

She was set for parole. She had done her time. She was ready to get out.

She heard her main jailer, Ms. France, tell Judge Holliday that she wasn't ready, that she was breathing too hard. That she needed more time in the slammer or she was likely to be a recidivist.

"That's it," she thought, "its time to step up and breath right." She may not be getting out on the 28th, but if she had anything to say about it, she sure would be on the 29th.

As the 29th dawned, her two lawyers, from the firm of Ford & Ford (some relation) made their way to her cell to see how she had done during the night. They were willing to plead her case, but she had to give them something to work with.

She did.

Oh sure, there was a borderline incident where she flirted with falling back into her old, fast-breathing ways, but she had powered through it with only a moderately high reading. She was feeling good and ready to go. Judge Holliday had been replaced by Doc Greenberg who would hear the case. Could the team of Ford & Ford spring her from this joint?

She gazed around with an innocent look on her face as she heard Doc Greenberg tell the Fords that she was their responsibility now. Inside though, she was exultant. She had done it! She was free! Now to take over the world...

That's right everyone, today, April 29th, 2009 Julia Borio Ford has been unleashed on the unsuspecting world. Oh sure, she still has to wear the monitor for now, and check-in with her parole officer/pediatrician - but she is out from the watchful eyes of the NICU and under our care. Updates for the next few days might be sporadic as we get used to being together full-time.

Belated update

Hi everyone,

Sorry that it has been a while since the last update. Julia has been doing well, but there hasn't been much new news to share. However, she has now achieved a few milestones, so we wanted to share them with you.

She has finally learned how to drink from a bottle and now does so with gusto. She is able to finish her bottle in less than 5 minutes and even looks around for more at the end. This is great news, because this is one of the criteria they will use when they decide to let her come home. It is also great news as it means that she no longer has the feeding tube in.

She has also passed her "Car Seat Challenge" - this is simply that she must be able to sit in her car seat for 90 minutes with no problems. They want to ensure that when she goes home that you'll be able to safely transport her.

Today was also her first full bath. Up until now she has only had sponge baths. Unfortunately, we didn't have the good camera with us, so I was only able to grab a few pictures with my cell phone.

In any event, we'll be posting some more picture galleries, but for now, here is one of her without any tubes.

We'll post more soon.

Le & Mike

Albums

Hi All,

We finally managed to organize the hundreds of pictures we already took of Julia. Here are the links to a few albums for you to enjoy.

Julia's birth (fotos do nascimento):
http://picasaweb.google.com/leticia.ford/JuliaSBirth?authkey=Gv1sRgCPG5gO3y7JqZ7wE&feat=directlink

Julia - April 9 - 13th
http://picasaweb.google.com/leticia.ford/JuliaApril0913th?authkey=Gv1sRgCPfZu6z24MKsiwE&feat=directlink

Julia - April 14th
http://picasaweb.google.com/leticia.ford/JuliaApril14?authkey=Gv1sRgCPugornepP756QE&feat=directlink

Julia - April 15th
http://picasaweb.google.com/leticia.ford/JuliaApril152009?authkey=Gv1sRgCOrb-KXro_-OeQ&feat=directlink

Julia - April 16th
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/2mMEMJ9TncSPV2cAL447RQ?authkey=Gv1sRgCKPalfXy4tfvCQ&feat=directlink

Julia - April 17th
http://picasaweb.google.com/leticia.ford/JuliaApril172009?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2ylZL3soyKmQE&feat=directlink

Julia - April 18th
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Nvs3vFMDMCWDt5hVkWNhvw?authkey=Gv1sRgCJuQwIm9uqqzvgE&feat=directlink

Welcome - Bem Vindo

Welcome, everyone, to Julia's Blog! We'll post news about Julia and links to on-line photo galleries as we have time and as we have news. I'll mostly post in English and Leticia will mostly post in Portuguese so both sides of Julia's extended family and friends can enjoy.

For the non-Portuguese speakers who can't read Leticia's first post below, here is a summary:

Julia was born at 1:57 am on April 8th, 2009. At birth she weighed 4 pounds 9 ounces and was 19 inches long. She has been staying in the NICU while she gains some weight and learns to feed on her own. Overall she is doing very well and has already recovered the initial weight loss after birth. We don't know yet when she'll come home - it all depends on her learning to eat on her own. Right now, she is still using the tube feeding at several meals and they won't send her home until they are sure she no longer needs the tube.

Thanks for stopping by.

Esse e o link p/ as fotos da Julia no dia 16 de abril - ela tomou banho e estava bem linda de roupinha nova!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/leticia.ford/JuliaApril16th2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCKPalfXy4tfvCQ&feat=directlink

Julia and her daddy!

P1000058
Originally uploaded by letiborio

Nascimento!

A Julia realmente decidiu que estava perdendo muita coisa no mundo fora do meu utero e resolveu que estava na hora de nascer um mes e meio antes da data prevista!

Ela nasceu dia 8 de April, as 01:57 da manha, com 2.060g, e 48cm. A coisa mais fofa do mundo, tao pequeninha e ja toda espertinha! Como ela e tao pequeninha, ela vai ter que ficar na NICU (unidade neo natal) mais ou menos uma semana, so para ela ganhar mais um pouco de peso antes de ir para casa.