My beautiful baby girl, Kaitlyn, turned 11 years old yesterday!!! I can't believe that it's been 11 years since I held that tiny baby in my arms!! She was so tiny, I was always afraid I was gonna squish her.
If you haven't heard our story about how we were blessed with her, here ya go.
We lost two babies after Wendy was born in 1990. The babies were almost half way here. We named both babies, Brandon Jay who died inutero at about 17 weeks in 1992, Peyton Nicole who died inutero at about 15 weeks in 1996. We went through a slew of tests in '96 and were told that we probably would never be able to conceive and carry to term another baby. Of course, we were very sad, but accepted the Lord's will. In 1998, Dave quit his job with Davis County Sheriff's Department and moved our family to Alamosa, Colorado. We settled into our new life in Dave's hometown and continued on with our lives. In the October I started feeling ill (morning sickness) and suspected that I might be expecting. I immediately made an appointment and it was confirmed that I indeed was expecting. We were shocked and excited all at once. At about 16 weeks we had an ultrasound and were told we were having a boy!!! We were so very excited. At about 18 weeks I went into labor, dilated to 2cm, and was scared to death that we would lose yet another precious baby. In order to save this precious one I was ordered to bed for the duration of the pregnancy, that's six months. I spent a lot of time at home, in the hospital and said a lot of prayers. At about 30 weeks we had another ultrasound and we were told it was a girl!! Holy Cow, which is it?! We didn't know what to plan for now!!! I had to receive steroid shots in order to mature her lungs in case Kaitlyn decided to come into the world before July 1. I had lost 50 lbs during my pregnancy, was on a very strict diabetic diet due to gestational diabetes. I had regular doctor appointments every 3 weeks from 18 weeks on. On July 3 I was released from bed rest and we proceeded to walk every night to move things along. We had a friend, Terry, who lived in our ward, Dave was also their home teacher, who was a nurse in the OB ward. She told us what day she worked and her schedule, she wanted to be there when Kaitlyn was born. On the morning of July 14, I started active labor and started bleeding. We called the doctor and the OB ward to let them know we were on our way. We arrived, got settled into our room, the doctor checked and sure enough we were having a baby today!! Terry, came in and said "okay guys we gotta do this by noon because that's when I go home." The IV was hooked up to me and the 'pit' was started at about 9 am. At 1130 my water broke, that was weird!! I have not had my water break on it's own with a full-term baby. Things moved right along and Kaitlyn Renee entered the world at 1235 pm on July 14!! She weighed in at 5 lbs and 1 oz. and was a tiny 17 1/2 inches long!!! My smallest full term baby. She was so tiny and perfect. Terry had even done a little service that day. She clocked out at noon but stayed with me and Dave for the duration. It was awesome!! She was even the first to hold Kaitlyn, and even gave her her nickname "Peanut". The nurses fell in love with our little miracle baby. Her apgar scores were great!! The following day, I went into surgery to have my tubes tied. After my surgery we were told that her billirubin was very high, 16. At 20 they do a blood transfusion. She spent the next 24 hours under the lights. Dave gave her a priesthood blessing and the next day (she was two days old) the billirubin dropped to 6. Most of the nurses were shocked. We were not.
We were so excited about bringing this precious little miracle angel into our family. We had worked so hard and been through so much to get her here. She was greeted with hugs and kisses by two older sisters, Aimee (10 years old) and Wendy (9 years old), grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and a few cousins. We were all so happy to have her here!!!
Nine days passed with lots of visitors and many gifts. In the early hours of our tenth day Kaitlyn aspirated and had a second degree seizure. The paramedics were called and the 911 operator instructed us to do CPR and resuscitate her, Dave literally saved her life. We were taken to the ER in Alamosa where the doctors and nurses did everything they could to keep her alive and tried to find out what was wrong with this tiny baby. We spent three days in the hospital hooked up to IVs and monitors. We discovered that she had sleep apnea and were sent home with a monitor. After two weeks of the monitor going off every 30 minutes whether she was sleeping or not we decided to try our own monitoring. Kaitlyn slept on my chest for the following year and each time she stopped breathing all I had to do was touch her and she started breathing again.
Kaitlyn has been such a blessing to our family!! She has so much faith and hope that she keeps our family on the straight and narrow. She brought light, happiness and laughter back into our family. She was a gift from our Father in Heaven for all that we had been through over several years. She has so many people that love her and are grateful that she is a part of our family.
Kaitlyn loves her sisters and family more than anything in the world. She has a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. She reminds us constantly to have family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. She reminds us to be good, not to swear, be nice to everyone, and to go to church. She loves to sing, dance, draw, read, play games with her sisters. She loves to learn and wants to learn to play the piano.
We love you, Kaitlyn!!! We are so happy that you are a part of our family!!
