Liv is Here!

So just when we think we’ve got our lives planned out, things change, plans are broken, and life gets crazy. The last couple days have definitely not gone the way we planned, but though God’s grace, everything has been as smooth as we could ask for.
We were planning to pack up our family and drive to Houston this past weekend so that Beth could finish her pregnancy & deliver Liv full term under the care of Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH). As we were packing on Friday evening, Beth’s water unexpectedly broke, and we drove to Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge to see what to do. Little did we know that Liv would be born the next day.

When we first arrived at Woman’s Hospital, we immediately asked if we could have Beth or Liv transported to TCH. After initially being told that Woman’s Hospital wouldn’t transport Beth or Liv (and after many, many phone calls), we finally were told that they could transport Beth by ambulance before she went into labor, or transport Liv by air after she was born. The catch was that TCH did not have any available room to accept Beth before she delivered Liv. Woman’s Hospital called TCH every hour through Friday night and Saturday morning to see if a bed would open up for Beth. Finally, on Saturday morning, we were told that a room had opened up at TCH! Just at that time, Beth started to go into labor and along with the doctors, we decided that no matter how badly we wanted to be at TCH for Liv’s birth, it was too risky to take the 4 ½ hr ambulance ride to Houston. This turned out to be an excellent decision, as Liv was born only 2 hrs later (quick labors at 36 weeks seem to be Beth’s “thing” – the twins were born at 36 weeks 4 days and her labor only lasted 4hrs).

(where Liv would have been born had we taken the ambulance ride)

Lively Mae Hembree; August 23, 2014 at 1:09pm; 4lb 1oz; 36 weeks 1 day

Liv is beautiful and is our pride and joy. There’s nothing that quite compares to the joy of seeing and holding our daughter for the first time. We are constantly reminded of how blessed we are to have Liv in our lives, and are overwhelmed by the joy of having a daughter and being able to see and touch her.

The TCH air-lift team is called the Kangaroo Crew. They came to the NICU at Woman’s Hospital to pick up Liv and transport her to TCH on Saturday night. They were the nicest, most caring group of people we have ever met. Every one of them were super understanding of what we were going through and went way out of their way to let us know everything that was happening and assure us that they were taking good care of Liv. They even called us at every step to let us know where Liv was and how she was doing.

(Kangaroo Crew transport to Texas Children’s Hospital)

We spent that Saturday night in the hospital in Baton Rouge, as Liv safely made her way to the cardiovascular ICU (CVICU) at TCH. Thanks to Beth’s quick and easy labor and delivery, she was able to be discharged from Woman’s Hospital on Sunday morning 19 hrs after having Liv. The only part of our original plan was that we drove to Houston on Sunday; everything else was completely out of our hands.

Because our plans didn’t work as we thought, we have had even more of a chance to appreciate how God takes care of us and provides for us at every step. It was awesome to have Liv in Baton Rouge because of the chance we had for family and friends to be close and to be able to see us after Liv’s birth. We are so very grateful for all of the help, encouragement & prayers that we received from everyone (especially so for those people who took care of Asher & Eli when we couldn’t). The boys even got to go to a birthday party on Liv’s birthday, haha.

 (Our boys having fun in the water)

Also, the medical community at Woman’s and TCH have been wonderful in taking care of us and Liv. There have been so many people already involved in her care, and each of them have been exceedingly kind and understanding of our situation.

 

(Just a few of the wonderful people that are taking care of Liv)

The road ahead is long and difficult. The road ahead is scary and uncertain. However, we have great joy in our daughter, and joy in the expectations of the plans God has for her. We know that God has a plan for her life and that this physical life is only transient.

(Beth holding Liv for the 1^st time at 2 days old)