Dominie Days: Lila Grace

Our newest Dominie, Lila Grace, entered this world Sunday, May 12, 2013 at 4:16pm; Mother's Day. She weighed in at 8lbs 1/2oz and 18 inches long. Miss Lila came out of that womb looking just like her big sissy, Addy.

We are so smitten. Miss Addy is in love with her and so proud to be a big sister! How are we? Tired. Exhausted. Tired. Worn out. Could fall asleep standing up. And tired. I remember the long nights, but I didn't really remember.

I can't remember who knows the story of where Lila's name came from, so I'm going to tell it here. In the beginning of this pregnancy, way before we knew we were having a girl, Addy and I were talking about the baby in my tummy. We were discussing if it was going to be a boy or girl and what sorts of things she would do as a big sister to help out. I asked her, "Well Addy, if its a boy, what should we name her?" Her response, "No, mommy, its a girl. And her name is Lila." I said,"Lila? Where did that come from? Do you have a friend with that name? Or is it in a cartoon?" Her response still gives us chills...she said,

"From God."

And off she ran to play with the cows leaving me speechless. How could we not listen?

As if Lila wasn't enough of a miracle in itself, we were blessed with one more. This whole pregnancy became stressful in March when we discovered a mass on my ovary the size of a tennis ball. I went on medical leave due to the pain and the increased risk of it rupturing. I was in extreme pain most of the time. Things like cancer, pathology, blood counts were discussed multiple times. It was definately a stressful scenario. The plan was to have a ceserean followed up by the removal of my ovary with the attached tube. So, on Sunday we went in to the hospital because my pain had significantly increased. My doctor was concerned that something major was going on with my ovary and decided to undergo the procedure early. Once Lila left my tummy and graced us with her presence, the doctors proceeded with the ovary removal. The next words I heard from my doctor were, "Uh Leslie, your ovary looks just fine...hold on, let me look around in here." Upon further inspection, he let me know that all was perfectly well, nothing strange, no growths, no masses, no problems. We were both extremely confused...I saw the sonograms with the mass, I endured the pain for two months...craziness. My doctor's theory is that my blood vessels became compressed and that was what was possibly causing my pain. I don't know about you, but maybe it was blood vessels, maybe it was a miracle, maybe it was both. My Grandpa passed in January from cancer and we just lost my Grandma a few backs to cancer...all I'm sayin' is that if you believe in angels, it'd be very easy to say that both of them had their hands in this. And I'll leave it at that. I know what I believe and I believe I'm surrounded by angels everyday, particularly them.