Tom & Monica + 1 1/2Tales of our Family.

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Girl

Mommy and Daddy love you so very much and it seems like just yesterday we were blessed with your presence.  

November 5, 2007 @ 3:20AM

day 252…Katie Lynn was here and I was no longer pregnant.  There was such a rush of emotions.  I remember her popping out and the Doctor having to say it twice that it was a girl before I realized that I had a daughter.  I remember telling my friends that we had our baby and it was a girl.  I remember the reaction…WHAT? Seriously? You are joking!

The day after, my precious baby was here and she was in NICU with a tube up her nose.  My thoughts, hard to hear them because they were going a million miles a minute.  All I could think about was, how do I fix her, how can I help her, what do I do?

280…280 days was the mark, our count to our baby.  Our due date was December 4th and it was November 6th and I was no longer pregnant.  Most first time moms carry for 280 days, 40 weeks or 9 months and then some.  This was not the case for me.  As we went to visit Katie Lynn, my thoughts were “if I had carried her longer, she would have been okay” I felt like I had failed her.

All I could think was “my goal was 37 weeks(257 days), full term and everything would be fine” 5 days short, 5 days is such a short time.  Looking back at this now, all I can think about is “Thank God she came when she did, that she was early, that she had her own time frame and that she is so strong willed”

Katie Lynn has taught me so much and I don’t know what I would do without her. 

Over the past 8 months I have met a lot of people through friends and have heard other stories from other mothers of their struggles and successes.  Everytime I hear or read a story of others, it makes me think.  I am so truly blessed and amazed at the hand of God.  He took care of my family and he healed my baby girl.  As many of you know, our first diagnoses was 1825 days until Katie Lynn could hope to be “normal”.  God healed her in 50 days. 

At day 252, when I should have still been pregnant, I did not know what the future held and now at day 252 of Katie Lynn’s life in our world, I still do not know what the future holds but I know for sure that God is there and will guide us every step of the way. 

My emotions today are much different than my emotions were just 252 days ago, today I have a beautiful healthy baby girl who makes me smile just looking at her.  I can’t imagine life without her and I never knew how much I could love her.  Katie Lynn is a miracle and she has taught me so much. 

May God Bless you and be with you every step of the way.  We may not always see his plan or what he is trying to teach us but if we listen and follow it will work out.  There is always a reason for everything, it just takes time to realize why certain things happen.  It may take a day, a month, a year or a life time to realize why certain things happen in your life. 

The end of a long week, it all started of Friday November 2nd. I noticed some changes and I was a little concerned, I called the Dr and they said things were good and if things changed, to call. As of late Saturday I started to get worried that something was going on. We spent the day getting the baby’s room finished, packed our bags for the hospital, packed Honey Bunny’s bag, and we put our car seat bases into our cars.

Around 4 o’clock, I was a little more worried about things, so I called the hospital and explained what was going on. The Dr told me to come in and they would check things out, we arrived at the hospital around 4:30 and went straight to Triage. Once we got there, they ran some test and I figured the Dr would come back in, say everything was fine and send me home. Not the case, the Dr walked back in and said my water had broken, and then he proceeded to tell us that we were having a baby. We were shocked to say the least.

They then wheeled me over to labor and delivery, got me all set up and hooked up to lots of stuff. Both Tom and I called our families; they were on their way to Lubbock. My sister Amanda came up around 9 Saturday night with some magazines and sat around with us for a while. My contractions started around 7pm and were not that bad, around midnight, we decided that we needed to get some rest.

The contractions got stronger as the night went on, needless to say, we did not get much rest. Starting early Sunday morning the Dr started me on some meds. This was to help speed up labor…by 8am Sunday I was only at about a 1.5-2. Things were moving super slow, as the day went on my contractions were really getting stronger. At about 2pm Sunday, I needed an epidural. I went as long as I could, by this time I was very tired and worn out. The epidural helped lots, I kept progressing and at this time it was just a waiting game.

Tom and I at this point were very anxious for the baby to get here, time went on and we waited some more. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel, finally. At around 2:40 am on Monday morning, our baby finally decided he/she was ready. I ended up pushing through about 7-8 total contractions and our baby girl popped out, 42 hours and 50 minutes later at 3:20am on Monday morning the 5th of November. This was the most incredible experience, and it was the hardest thing I had ever done.

Things are going well and here is a picture of me. Getting bigger a little bit..week by week. This is me… pregnant at 32 weeks and 2 days. We have 7 weeks and 5 days left. We can not wait for our baby to be here and find out if the baby is a boy or girl.