Catherine Ramin

11/18/2023

Gabriela da Silva joined us on our first night home with our first child, Daniel on July 5th, 2022. As first time parents with little exposure to newborns and babies, Gaby’s service and knowledge was insurmountably crucial in our baby’s development and our physical and mental health. 

I was hospitalized for urosepsis a week after giving birth to Daniel and both my husband and Gaby were critical in maintaining my son’s health and growth while I was at UCSF for four days straight. She was present for every minute with Daniel by soothing, feeding, rocking, holding, and caring for him in the late evenings and early hours of the morning. While he slept, she helped us with laundry, folding, and cleaning bottles and pumping parts, and supplies. She taught us how to pace bottle feed and assisted me with breastfeeding and latching during those first few days home. 

Week after week, we continued to see Daniel grow, develop, and thrive. While I can give myself credit as a mother, I must recognize Gaby’s contribution as a huge factor to our success as a family. She knew all the important cues that signaled an important transition in Daniel’s life, such as increasing his ounce intake for bottle feeds, transitioning him to an arms-up swaddle 5 weeks earlier than the average baby, relieving his gas, teaching him how to fall asleep independently, identifying growth spurts, pushing for longer sleep stretches at night, and initiating when to start a schedule and nighttime routine - just to name a few. She was always on time and communicated clearly when she would be late or unavailable due to family emergencies or urgent issues. 

I couldn’t recommend Gaby more and she was such a critical part of our lives and Daniel’s.