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| About 5 hours after Lillia was born, her breathing became rapid and shallow, which is a symptom of Group B Strep infection which I was positive for during the pregnancy. Group B Strep can cause serious complications, even death, so this was actually life threatening. The nurse who noticed the irregular breathing took her to the Waverly Health Center's very small version of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and hooked her up to IV's to give her an antibiotic. They also put her on oxygen to stabilize her breathing. I was in the bathtub while all this was happening, so when I came out of the bathroom, the nurse told me what was going on. She put me in a wheelchair and took me to an observation window where I could see Lillia. I was in shock at what I saw...my tiny helpless newborn surrounded by doctors and nurses with tubes and monitors and an oxygen mask over her face. I immediately burst into tears and called Tim. It was the middle of the night and he was asleep, but miraculously he woke up to the phone call. I struggled through my emotion to tell him what was going on and he said he'd be there as quickly as possible and asked me to call someone to come and give her a blessing. I called our Branch President, President Rowley, and his wife answered. I felt so terrible disturbing them at 1:00 in the morning! But his wife was so kind and gracious! She said of course he would come. Tim arrived at the hospital and we were both allowed to go in to the room with Lillia so we could touch her and talk to her for a little while. A short time later a team arrived from the hospital in Cedar Rapids to assess Lillia's condition. They determined she needed to be transported by helicopter to Allen Hospital in Waterloo. Tim and I agreed later that watching our brand new baby girl being wheeled away in an incubator by complete strangers was one of the most difficult, heart-wrenching moments of our lives. We just had to trust in God that she was in good hands! I was transported by ambulance to Allen while Tim picked up the girls and drove there. A little while after we arrived, President Rowley and our former Branch President, Brother Durbin, were able to give Lillia a blessing. The blessing brought us so much comfort and peace! |
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| Here is Lillia in the NICU hooked up to monitors and the CPAP for oxygen. She has an IV in her little tiny fist and her feet are bandaged because of all the times they had to prick her to draw blood. Thank goodness babies sleep so much because she looks so terribly uncomfortable, I would've hated for her to feel that uncomfortable all the time! |
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| Here is a picture of the room we were in. The room also had a pretty comfy couch that I slept on quite a bit, a sink, counter and cupboards, a TV, shelves and a rocking chair. It's set up so that parents can live in the NICU with their baby if they so choose. During the week Lillia was there, we stayed every day and night. Tim was there whenever he wasn't at work or home sleeping. I only went home for a few hours on a few days. Eliza was there whenever she wasn't at work or at home doing laundry and anything else she could do to help out. Amanda was there almost 24/7. It was so comforting to me to have them there. The doctors and nurses were so amazed at how much time we spent there. They were especially amazed that our teenage daughters were there so much! One of the greatest things about being there so much was that I got three free meals a day! And the food at that hospital was amazing!!! Amanda and Eliza ate with me whenever possible and they loved the food, too. When it was time to leave the NICU, we were sad because we would miss the food!! We've been back there a few times just to eat in their cafeteria. Weird, huh? |
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| Our poor little baby girl. There are tubes taped to her cheeks and elastic bands holding the CPAP over her nose. The cap held the CPAP wires to her head and was so tight it pushed her eyes down so she could barely open them. I felt so bad for her, but I also knew that she was SO blessed to be so well taken care of! |
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| Lillia was taken off the CPAP and I got to hold her! This is the text I sent to all my loved ones to describe this moment:
July 24th, 2012, 6:14
p.m.
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| A little closer up picture of her precious little face! |
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| Amanda gets to hold her baby sister for the first time since she was admitted to the NICU. She's SO happy! |
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| I was able to bottle feed her too. It broke my heart to not be able to nurse her but I did pump. It was surprising how hard it was sometimes to keep up with pumping as well as the feeding and bathing schedules for both of us! |
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| Yay! No more CPAP, no more nasal canula! They took all those tubes off her face, but left these bright red marks on her cheeks from the tape. Poor little baby!! This is the text I sent out to all our loved ones at this time:
July 25th, 2012
Lillia is doing great!! She’s off
oxygen and the tube to her stomach has been removed. She still has an IV and
several other monitors on her. Her lungs are mostly clear so she is responding
well to the antibiotics. It was not caused by Group B Strep, just fluid in her
lungs and the immaturity of her lungs. She is able to take the bottle now and
the amount she can eat has increased so that is wonderful! She will be here
until Monday. Thank you for your love and prayers!
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| This is Lillia's amazing NICU doctor. We will never forget this wonderful man! It is rare to find a doctor as comforting, reassuring, thorough, kind, attentive, knowledgeable, humorous and tender as this man. He made us feel at ease from the very beginning, reassured us we did nothing wrong, kept us informed, and complimented us repeatedly for spending so much time with Lillia. He kept her alive and helped her get all healthy and prepared to go home. We are so grateful God provided this angel in our lives! |
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| Eliza's turn to feed her baby sister. |
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| She's so happy to do it! And Lillia's so happy to be fed!! She looks so content! |
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| Lillia happily eating. Do you think she's just filling up those cheeks with milk? Saving it for later? The first thing most people said about her was "Look at all that hair." The second thing was always, "Look at those cheeks!" |
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| And now the burping commences! Eliza's doing such a good job with her! |
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| "Oh man...I just can't get that burp out! You can pat my back all day sister, it just ain't comin' out!" |
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| Eating and burping is hard work! "I'm all tuckered out!!" |
Here's just a sweet little video of Eliza holding Lillia. She's got her eyes open and is just looking all around. So precious!
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| Grandma and Grandpa are here!! They had been in Arizona with my sister, Heidi, and her family, meeting their newest grandson, Benjamin, who was born just 11 days before Lillia! Lilly was supposed to wait until they got back to be born, but apparently, she was in a hurry to get here and just couldn't wait that long to enter the world! So Grandma and Grandpa first met Lilly when she was 3 days old. Here's proud Grandpa holding her for the first time! |
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| She looks like a little papoose! So peaceful and content in Grandpa's arms. |
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| Doing what newborns do best...sleeping! |
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| Big sister gets to feed her again! I LOVE this precious picture! |
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| Amanda flashes her beautiful smile! So happy to finally be a big sister! |
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| Grandma's turn!! She's beaming! Two grandbabies born in two weeks! If Grandma beamed any brighter, she'd glow in the dark!! |
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| The morning of the 26th, Lillia was put under the bili lights to treat her jaundice. In this picture, she is resting easy...finally! It was quite a battle to get her to this point. I left the NICU room for a short time and came back to find Lilly under the bili lights, not swaddled, wearing nothing but a diaper, flailing about, screaming, the mask falling off her face exposing her eyes to the bright lights, and no nurse in sight! I was SO angry. If a baby's eyes are exposed to the bili lights too much, it can cause blindness! I immediately put my hand over her eyes and tried to comfort her. A nurse came in and I asked her to find another mask that would fit Lillia better and stay on. I also asked the nurse if I could hold her or partially cover her so she could feel warm and secure and calm down and stop screaming. The nurse said we couldn't do that because her whole body needed to be exposed to the bili lights and then she said she would try to find a mask. She never did find a mask so I stood there for at least an hour with my hand over her eyes and trying to comfort her. I finally told the nurse she HAD to do something! I was not going to stand there forever with my hand over her eyes and watching her scream because she was used to being swaddled and now was just laying there all uncovered! So she did at least let me hold her for a while with the bili light over the rocking chair. Long story short, it wasn't until late that night that a different nurse finally figured out a way to fix the mask so it stayed on her eyes. She also swaddled Lilly's bottom half to comfort her and then in an hour swaddled her top half and just kept switching the swaddling so at least part of her was always exposed to the lights. She was such a wonderful, compassionate nurse, she even took pity on me and let me sleep while she took care of the midnight feeding. I LOVED that nurse!! |
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| Is there anything more heavenly than holding a sleeping newborn? Eliza's beautiful smile says "No, there isn't!" |
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| Eliza's best friend, Hannah, paid us a visit. She was so happy to get to be our first friend to hold Lillia! |
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| Getting lots of rest so she can get better fast! |
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| I LOVE this picture! I love her "milk lips" and just look at those CHEEKS!! |
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| This is such a Lilly face - eyes closed with raised eyebrows. She made that face a lot in her first few months. |
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| Lillia appears to be pondering the universe! "Whoa! What am I doing here? Who is that strange looking lady holding me? She seems to be around a lot so I think she might be important!" |
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| This was the same pose she was striking in one of her ultrasounds - hand over the forehead, like "Woe is me!" We're thinking she might be a bit of a drama queen! |
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| Sooooo sleepy! Sweet dreams, baby girl! |
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| I just thought she looked so precious here with that one little leg up! You can see here that even without the CPAP and nasal canula, she's still got lots of wires hooked up to her, plus the IV and the bandaged foot from all the pokes for drawing blood. But she has been a strong little girl and endured it all! |
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| Lillia at ONE WEEK OLD! Look...no more wires! She looks SO happy! Here is my text to everyone that day: July 29th, 2012, 9:44 p.m. Lillia has gone WIRELESS! No more monitors or IV! She is nursing and has received a clean bill of health from her doctor! We will be heading home tomorrow! YAY!!! |
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| Our little cutie pie!! |
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| We were discharged on Monday, July 30th. Before heading home, Lillia had to spend 45 minutes in her car seat while hooked up to the monitors to make sure the position she's in while sitting in a car seat won't lower her heart rate. The nurses called her "The Tank" because she was the biggest baby in the NICU. In fact, she weighed more than all three of the other babies combined! But here in this picture, she looks SO small!! |
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| Eliza and I got all our stuff packed up and ready to move out of the room. I wanted to get some pictures of the room we spent the first week of Lillia's life in. It's crazy, but I cried a lot the day we left. I was excited to be able to go home and so happy and grateful that Lillia was doing so well, but it was overwhelming to think of going home without the safety and reassurance of the nurses and monitors and while the experience was difficult and scary, it was also miraculous and comforting and kind of serene! That couch doesn't look very comfortable, but it was. We got all our meals brought to us. There was no cleaning, cooking, running of errands, etc. and I was able to completely focus my thoughts and energies on Lillia. It was amazing! |
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| Eliza and her baby sister. I love that the sign behind her says "Memories". Eliza, Amanda and I spent many hours in that room and in that hospital and made so many memories. Some good, some not so good, but thank the Lord Lillia recovered so well so that most of our memories were good!! |
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| Lillia in her going home outfit. Her bib says "Everybody loves me" which is so true. She is a baby loved by so many!! We felt such an outpouring of love from all our friends and family during this time! We are so blessed! |
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| I love this precious picture. Eliza and her new baby sister having a conversation! |
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| Here she is...all ready to go home!! She looks SO tiny!! |
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| Our beautiful healthy baby girl! |
