The time has finally come. We get to meet our sweet baby GIRL!  We had waiting and waited for around 3-4 hours before we were told she was born. We had made numerous trips to the nurse’s station to get an update, but they never really had much information for us.  I felt so left in the dark.  This was obviously very hard for me, as with Layken’s birth I was right in the room.  I got to be with her every step of the way.  I think the hardest part was that I wasn’t the first person to hold my child.  I was and still am hurt by the fact that they were trying to get her oxygen levels up and I didn’t even know that she was born yet. I know there is nothing I could have done to physically help the doctors and nurses.  There is one thing I could have done to help Libby, I could have prayed. 

Now the memories I will never forget. I remember it as if it happen just a minute ago. First the swollen, little, blue, baby girl.  My heart instantly drop to see her looking this way. My first instinct was to pick her up. But they wouldn’t let me.  All I could do was touch her check and hold her hand.  This Mama was aching for the most precious act of bonding I could get with my adopted child, the ability to hold her and snuggle her.  The pain of not being able to hold her was like nothing I have ever felt before. Little did I know that pain would become something even more horrifying.  

Later that evening they did let us hold her but once her oxygen levels dropped they would take her away from us again a put her back on the oxygen.  Three days went by and they just couldn’t get her levels up high enough. The hospital we were in didn’t have a NICU so it was then they decided she needed care they couldn’t provide.  Now comes that horrifying pain again.  They give me the papers to sign to have her transported.  In those papers were some words that made me become so ill.  The amazing lady that would be with Libby during the ride assure me though that everything would be alright. After I signed all the papers they brought Libby out in her Isolate for transportation.  THIS was the point at which I broke down completely.  I had keep my emotions to my pillow for the most part, but I broke and there was no stopping these tears and sobs. The elevator doors open and they were about to take my sweet Miss Libby away. It was then an angel stepped between us. A stranger just passing by, places her hand on Libby’s isolate and one on me and Prays for this sweet child and parents.  I get that hard lump at the back of my throat now even typing about it. 

So we are now on our way to yet another very unfamiliar place.  UAB Infant Care Center in downtown Birmingham.  One thing I am so grateful for on this trip is GPS.  We found the hospital and our way around perfectly with the GPS.  Now if the GPS would show us around that hospital we would have been set.  We eventually found the NICU, got all checked in and have never been so amazed.  This NICU was the regions larges NICU.  There was if I recall 3-4 pods (really long hallways) that specialized in different care for each baby.  There was multiple computer screens in every hallway.  These screen showed the stats of every single baby on the floor.  This was very assuring to us. I think each pod could take care of about 10 babies. The nurses took care of 2-3 babies. Their station was right outside each room. With a window into each room.  They could see each baby they were caring for at once.  This was a teaching hospital so at rounds in the morning we would have at least 20 people in Libby’s room.  What I wouldn’t have given to be back in North Dakota where I would have known at least one person taking care of my child.  But she was really receiving the best care possible.