AMAZING GRACE TURNS 13!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY!!!!!!
Dear Grace,
I have a little story I'd like to share with you. In begins in the words stories often begin with... Once Upon a Time.
Once upon a time there was a mom named Shannon. (Funny coincidence, I know.) She was pregnant with her third child. (She already had a son who was eight, a daughter who was three) and because she absolutely loved being a mother, she was so looking forward to the arrival of this new baby. A new daughter.
The pregnancy progressed but began to be different from Shannon's earlier pregnancies. She could tell at about eight months along that something wasn't quite right. She was having shooting pains down one of her legs. They hurt ALOT! It was making it almost impossible for her to walk. She told her doctor. He was a silly doctor and told her that all pregnant women have aches and pains. He told her to go home and try not to walk so much. So Shannon went home, tried not to walk much, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right.
Still young, and still believing that doctors ALWAYS know more because they have a certificate on their wall that says so... Shannon tried to ignore the pain and focus on the anticipation of meeting her new daughter.
Then came another doctor appointment to check on the baby's development. The baby was much larger than expected. That baby girl was so large at only 37 weeks of pregnancy that the doctor was surprised and decided to induce her mama for delivery that night. She came out weighing ten pounds. TEN POUNDS AT THIRTY SEVEN WEEKS. Her size created some difficulty, however, in delivery as her mom was a small person. 10 pounds was alot of baby to deliver and the baby's shoulder where just too wide for it to be possible without a c-section. But, suddenly the baby's heartbeat stopped. It stopped beating. Her mama panicked. Like, she was so scared and prayed hard that somehow, someway her baby's heart would start beating. The nurse realized that the little stuck baby was stuck with the ambilical cord wrapped tightly around her neck. There was no time for a c-section. There was no time to waste. What happened next, saved that baby's life. Two nurses literally sat on that mama's tummy and pushed the baby out in one quick maneuver. While, it broke both collar bones and damaged the babies brachial plexus. (She had an herbs palsy and her arm could only hang.) But they were able to resesitate her and she began breathing. That was one of the most pivital moments of that mama's life, waiting to know her daughter was breathing. Not out of the woods yet, it was also very apparent that this baby girl had a skull deformity. They explained that it appared that the baby had been so large in her mommy's tummy that her head had become lodged in her mama's hip socket for probably some time, causing the deformity. Tests quickly revealed more as a result of that. Lodged as she was, the baby wasn't allowed to be in fetal position. The thing about fetal position is that it actually isn't just cute, but it is critical for a baby's development. Baby's develop hip sockets in this position. So, lodged in her Mama's hip socket ironically didn't allow this little girl to have any sockets of her own.
Then came the warning from the doctor that the lack of oxygen this baby experienced during delivery and several moments after had real potential for causing brain damage.
The mamma shed some tears as she looked at this sweet new girl. Her baby was bruised, and swollen, and had obviously been through so much, but her mama still gazed in amazement and gratitude for her new perfectly imperfect baby. She knew in her heart that this daughter's name should be Grace.
The first year and a half of Grace's life was FULL of doctor's appointments. SOOOOOO many appointments. There were regular flights each week for almost a year from Sacramento down to Burbank, California and back, to work with the best possible doctor to help heal her skull. There were weekly appointments at Shriner's hospital in Sacramento for a year and a half to ensure Grace developed hip sockets, and there were were regular weekly appointments working with specialists to help Grace regain full use of her arm. And Grace, well, she was covered in hard plastic braces to help her skull and body heal. It was hard for her mama to not get to hold her and cuddle her like she'd been able to with her other baby's but she tried to focus on her gratitude for good doctors who where helping her daughter heal.
Now, what some may not know, when a child is put into all kinds of braces for medical purposes, this causes their physical development to be delayed (Grace wasn't out of braces for a very long time and didn't get to learn to crawl and walk on "typical" developmental timelines. This kind of physical delay in children trickles down to emotional and social development delay as well.
After Grace's familed moved to Utah, Grace and her mama attended a special preschool together with therapists as teachers who helped Grace catch up emotionally and socially. It was a sweet bonding experience for Grace and for her mama. Both learned A LOT.
Most stories end with the words, "The END." Not this story. For this, my Grace, is YOUR STORY and this is just the BEGINNING! You turned thirteen years old yesterday! Your life is truly JUST BEGINNING! The most exciting years are ahead of you! The teen years are the beginning of truly discovering who you are!
Grace, getting to be on this journey with you as your mother is nothing short of a JOY, a PRIVILEGE, an ADVENTURE, and a BLESSING! God has given you some remarkable talents! Your creativity blows my mind! (Definitely no brain damage from the delivery!) The complicated scientific and mathematical things you understand are so far beyond what I will EVER understand. Your ability to see patterns in numbers, nature, etc. is amazing. It's why playing the drums has come so easy to you! You hear a pattern...sit down...and ba-bing, ba-bang....there you go playing the songs complicated beat.
Grace Katherine Baker, HAPPY THIRTEENETH BIRTHDAY! You are a DELIGHT, you are UNIQUE, you are HILARIOUS, you are BEAUTIFUL, you are remarkably INTELLIGENT, AND THE LIST GOES ON! There is nothing you cannot do if you put your mind to it!
AMAZING GRACE! You will always be that to me!
LOVE YOU FOREVER!
Mama
Christmas 2006...You with Santa :)
I have a little story I'd like to share with you. In begins in the words stories often begin with... Once Upon a Time.
Once upon a time there was a mom named Shannon. (Funny coincidence, I know.) She was pregnant with her third child. (She already had a son who was eight, a daughter who was three) and because she absolutely loved being a mother, she was so looking forward to the arrival of this new baby. A new daughter.
The pregnancy progressed but began to be different from Shannon's earlier pregnancies. She could tell at about eight months along that something wasn't quite right. She was having shooting pains down one of her legs. They hurt ALOT! It was making it almost impossible for her to walk. She told her doctor. He was a silly doctor and told her that all pregnant women have aches and pains. He told her to go home and try not to walk so much. So Shannon went home, tried not to walk much, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right.
Still young, and still believing that doctors ALWAYS know more because they have a certificate on their wall that says so... Shannon tried to ignore the pain and focus on the anticipation of meeting her new daughter.
Then came another doctor appointment to check on the baby's development. The baby was much larger than expected. That baby girl was so large at only 37 weeks of pregnancy that the doctor was surprised and decided to induce her mama for delivery that night. She came out weighing ten pounds. TEN POUNDS AT THIRTY SEVEN WEEKS. Her size created some difficulty, however, in delivery as her mom was a small person. 10 pounds was alot of baby to deliver and the baby's shoulder where just too wide for it to be possible without a c-section. But, suddenly the baby's heartbeat stopped. It stopped beating. Her mama panicked. Like, she was so scared and prayed hard that somehow, someway her baby's heart would start beating. The nurse realized that the little stuck baby was stuck with the ambilical cord wrapped tightly around her neck. There was no time for a c-section. There was no time to waste. What happened next, saved that baby's life. Two nurses literally sat on that mama's tummy and pushed the baby out in one quick maneuver. While, it broke both collar bones and damaged the babies brachial plexus. (She had an herbs palsy and her arm could only hang.) But they were able to resesitate her and she began breathing. That was one of the most pivital moments of that mama's life, waiting to know her daughter was breathing. Not out of the woods yet, it was also very apparent that this baby girl had a skull deformity. They explained that it appared that the baby had been so large in her mommy's tummy that her head had become lodged in her mama's hip socket for probably some time, causing the deformity. Tests quickly revealed more as a result of that. Lodged as she was, the baby wasn't allowed to be in fetal position. The thing about fetal position is that it actually isn't just cute, but it is critical for a baby's development. Baby's develop hip sockets in this position. So, lodged in her Mama's hip socket ironically didn't allow this little girl to have any sockets of her own.
Then came the warning from the doctor that the lack of oxygen this baby experienced during delivery and several moments after had real potential for causing brain damage.
The mamma shed some tears as she looked at this sweet new girl. Her baby was bruised, and swollen, and had obviously been through so much, but her mama still gazed in amazement and gratitude for her new perfectly imperfect baby. She knew in her heart that this daughter's name should be Grace.
The first year and a half of Grace's life was FULL of doctor's appointments. SOOOOOO many appointments. There were regular flights each week for almost a year from Sacramento down to Burbank, California and back, to work with the best possible doctor to help heal her skull. There were weekly appointments at Shriner's hospital in Sacramento for a year and a half to ensure Grace developed hip sockets, and there were were regular weekly appointments working with specialists to help Grace regain full use of her arm. And Grace, well, she was covered in hard plastic braces to help her skull and body heal. It was hard for her mama to not get to hold her and cuddle her like she'd been able to with her other baby's but she tried to focus on her gratitude for good doctors who where helping her daughter heal.
Now, what some may not know, when a child is put into all kinds of braces for medical purposes, this causes their physical development to be delayed (Grace wasn't out of braces for a very long time and didn't get to learn to crawl and walk on "typical" developmental timelines. This kind of physical delay in children trickles down to emotional and social development delay as well.
After Grace's familed moved to Utah, Grace and her mama attended a special preschool together with therapists as teachers who helped Grace catch up emotionally and socially. It was a sweet bonding experience for Grace and for her mama. Both learned A LOT.
Most stories end with the words, "The END." Not this story. For this, my Grace, is YOUR STORY and this is just the BEGINNING! You turned thirteen years old yesterday! Your life is truly JUST BEGINNING! The most exciting years are ahead of you! The teen years are the beginning of truly discovering who you are!
Grace, getting to be on this journey with you as your mother is nothing short of a JOY, a PRIVILEGE, an ADVENTURE, and a BLESSING! God has given you some remarkable talents! Your creativity blows my mind! (Definitely no brain damage from the delivery!) The complicated scientific and mathematical things you understand are so far beyond what I will EVER understand. Your ability to see patterns in numbers, nature, etc. is amazing. It's why playing the drums has come so easy to you! You hear a pattern...sit down...and ba-bing, ba-bang....there you go playing the songs complicated beat.
Grace Katherine Baker, HAPPY THIRTEENETH BIRTHDAY! You are a DELIGHT, you are UNIQUE, you are HILARIOUS, you are BEAUTIFUL, you are remarkably INTELLIGENT, AND THE LIST GOES ON! There is nothing you cannot do if you put your mind to it!
AMAZING GRACE! You will always be that to me!
LOVE YOU FOREVER!
Mama
Christmas 2006...You with Santa :)
