5:08 pm

Birth Story Part 2

Once I had the epidural and was placed on the OR table things went very fast.  I remember shaking because the room was so cold.  Steve later told me it was 62 degrees.  They had placed a blanket across my arms and chest and had warm arm blowing  through a vent across it, but it didn’t help much.  Steve sat to my left and held my shaking hand.  Before we knew it an ooey, gooey, beautiful Willow was placed between us. Neither one of us expected her so soon.  We were both taken back at how quickly it had all happened.  She was on a yellow blanket and as the nurse turned her, Willow open her eyes at Steve.  She then turned her so that I could see her and I remember saying “oh” and Lisa said “did you see something.”  I said “yes her eyes moved to mine.”  She said “I saw it.”  In the time they took Willow to be measured and bathed she passed away.  They brought her back and handed her to Steve and told us that she was no longer with us.  They dressed her in this little pink hat with a huge bow on it.  The hat was bigger than her, but oh so cute!  They wrapped our little bundle in a pink and white blanket to match.  Our one regret now is that Steve didn’t take her right away and hold her from the beginning.  

Steve held our daughter and cried.  I smiled the rest of the surgery because she had been born alive.  My greatest wish had come true.  The image of him holding Willow and wiping away tears will forever remain with me. 

She was born at 5:08 pm on 9.24.2010.  She weighed in at 1 pound and was 11.5 inches long.  She was beautiful and perfect on the outside.  The only outward appearance of triploidy was on her hands.  Her long graceful fingers were webbed together.  Her feet were beautiful and definitely mine.  She was bald (although I am confidante when I met her in Heaven she will be a red head) and had an adorable button nose.  She was ours and I feel so lucky to have been blessed with her even if our time together was way too short.