Happy 1st Birthday Lily Pad

Our sweet baby girl is 1!
She loved her new toy, giggling while pushing it around.
This was birthday cake aftermath #2
Opening her present from us
Lily's birthday was on St. Patrick's day and because it fell in the middle of the week, we had a small celebration with just us. I threw together a cake with green frosting and let her go for it.


Later, that weekend we had my parents over for more cake and present unwrapping because we are trying to spoil her. I made chocolate cupcakes with the most delicious sour cream chocolate frosting and her her indulge again.


It was during this time that I couldn't help but reflect back to her birth and the circumstances that almost cost us our sweet Lily Pad.


I was 21 when I had the twins. Young, crazy and sure that nothing bad would ever happen to me or my babies. They were both stubborn breech and I ended up having a c/section. A planned c/section, while not the ideal situation, was do-able for me. However, the pain while coming out of the c/section was not. It was the type of pain where you are moaning swearing and vowing to never again have more kids. Obviously, I got over it, because a insane short two months later, I was pregnant again.


Luckily, I was able to deliver Timothy naturally. Called a VBAC (vaginal birth after c/section), I now had rules to follow. An anesthesiologist had to be at the hospital while I was laboring and my doctor was not allowed to leave the building while I was in active labor. We had two hospitals in the area and for awhile, both of them would allow me to deliver there.


Along came Joshua, Elizabeth, Matthew and Hannah, all by VBAC. After Hannah, my doctor retired and the hospital that I normally delivered at decided to close it's doors to VBAC's. When I became pregnant with Lily, I had to find a new doctor that would do VBAC's and register at the only other hospital in the area. Things progressed normally and all was looking good.


My doctor informed me that he would be out of the country the week surrounding my due date. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, a laboring mother could see the on-call doctor. My case was different and I was told that no other doctor would deliver me, they would insist that I be delivered by c/section, even though I had many successful VBAC's under my belt.


I was given a choice, either I could be induced early, while my doctor was still in town, or I could chance it and try to hold out till he returned. Being aware, that if I went in to labor while my doctor was gone, I would have a c/section with an unknown doctor. So after thinking it over for a second I decided to go with Plan A-early induction.


The day before my delivery came quickly and I was all prepared and ready to go. It was late the night before when I realized that I hadn't had my blessing. Normally my father-in-law would come over and assist my husband in giving me a blessing before I would go in and have a baby. But, my father-in-law had moved and I really didn't want to bother anyone so I told my husband that I would be fine and he didn't need to worry about it. He was very insistent that I get one, I remember him telling me "That is what the priesthood is for and you need to take advantage of it." So, he called his good friend, Johnny, and he came right over and I got my blessing.


The next day came, I went into the hospital and my labor was started. I was probably about half-way through, my family had arrived, and everything was going smoothly. The doctor came in to check my progress and while doing so he became very quiet. He then looked up at me and said "We have a situation." Later I noted that he didn't use the word problem, very smart professional to not use the word problem with a woman in labor. I just knew as soon as he said that that I was going to have to have a c/section.


I had sworn promised that if I ever had to have another c/section that I would be done having kids. Period. Since we felt like Lily would be our last baby anyway these turn of events just cemented my decision.


"The cord has come down into the birth canal and you are going to need to have a c/section."


I calmly answered "ok" and then looked to Corey. His face looked shocked. He asked the doctor if he was sure. The doctor said that he could feel the cord and he was positive. The doctor was calm, my husband was calm...I remained calm. I didn't understand at that time that a prolapsed cord is life threatening. I asked the doctor to make bloody sure that I would never again get pregnant "close up the shop" while he was in there.


Then...I had another contraction. I remember laying there, watching the number that corresponded to the baby's heartbeat (was in the 150's) start dropping. It just kept going down and down and down...till it was in the 30's. I knew it wasn't good. My doctor, who knew it wasn't good also, ran out into the hallway and I could hear him yelling. Suddenly, all these people came swarming into my room. My bed was whisked out of the room and down the hall.


I remember Corey desperately demanding to go and then being told no. I closed my eyes and started begging the Lord, in my mind, that he not take my daughter from me. The only word that I could get out was, PLEASE. I thought that word over and over again. PLEASE...PLEASE...PLEASE... Then, a voice came into my head. Not the normal voices that I hear The voice said "You had a blessing, everything will be fine." My eyes flew open and I thought to myself in astonishment that I had actually listened to my husband "That's right, I had a blessing!" Relief flooded my body and I was able to relax and listen to the doctors.


They wheeled my bed into a little room and transferred my whale like body me onto a different table. They must have put something into my iv because I started to feel sleepy. The anesthesiologist leaned down and spoke into my ear, "You are in good hands, don't worry." I remember the silence, I was not hooked up to the baby monitor so I couldn't hear her little heartbeat. The doctor asked if I was asleep yet and that is the last thing that I remember.


From the time they took me from my room till Lily was delivered only four minutes passed. She came out healthy and beautiful and scored 9's on the Apgar newborn tests.


Because she was delivered so fast I ended up with a huge, jaw dropping rather large incision. Sixteen staples this time vs. four with my c/section with the twins. Almost hip to hip. When the recovery nurse looked at it for the first time, she exclaimed "Wow! Someone was in a hurry!" Not a fun recovery but worth the end product.


Later the doctor told us that we only had several more minutes before she would have died. The anesthesiologist said that he rarely gets the kind of page that is a true emergency. But when he got the page that he needed to come he realized that it was truely an emergency and he ran the entire way. Lily was checked out seven times before we left the hospital, just to make sure that she wasn't suffering any ill effects from being deprived of oxygen all that time. She got a clean bill of health every time.


For several weeks, I would hold her, watching her sleep and I would cry. Cry, because I knew how close we had come to loosing her. How grateful I am for the doctors, who were in the right place at the right time, and that I had for once listened to my husband I got a blessing beforehand. It literally was the difference between life and death.


Now, a year later, all her red hair has fallen out and she is a blondie because I can't seem to do anything different, she has a fiery, fiesty personality and is just, quite frankly, the love of our lives.

Happy Birthday Lillian!!!