Possible cause for some stillborn babies?

New study out that discovered that a pregnant woman's gingivitis caused her full-term stillbirth.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34979552/ns/health-pregnancy/

Washington Post Article

The Washington Post published an article this week on Stillbirth. It is written by a father who lost a son and his words are very familiar to me. The article is titled "Even Doctors Avoid Talking About Stillbirth." I am so thankful that an article pointing out how Stillbirth has been shoved under the rug has been published. Perhaps this will inspire more awareness and research. It's the least the medical community could do for those of us who will always have open wounds from the loss of a child.

The article is :http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/06/AR2009070602918.html?sid=ST2009070701006

4 Years

"I'm sorry. There isn't a heartbeat. You're still going to have to deliver her. We'll need to know whether you want an autopsy and what your funeral arrangements will be. Your fever had nothing to do with it."

Four years ago those sentences were delivered to us in the hospital on a Saturday morning around 8am in one swift blow from the doctor. We sat there with the air knocked out of our lungs and reality rapidly hitting us like a Mack truck that we'd lost our little girl, our firstborn. She was gone. Our hopes and dreams for our little girl were taken away in an instant.

While four years have since passed, February 19, 2005 still seems like it happened just yesterday--details are still fresh in our memories and the pain is still here and still raw. As time has passed by, we've learned how to readjust and live through the pain, but it's always right under the surface waiting to rear it's ugliness. It will never go away.

We've been blessed to have a precious little boy who brings much joy into our lives, but every milestone he makes is bittersweet because it reminds us of the milestones that Catherine will never make. We're excited and cautiously optimistic to add another boy, "Nugget", into our family very soon but the journey with this pregnancy has been especially tough emotionally for Jill as it has almost paralleled her pregnancy with Catherine. We've relied on the strength in knowing that Catherine is watching over her little brothers and trying to provide some comfort to her parents as well.

Four years ago time stood still. Four years later, time still pauses for us every February 19th.

Happy 4th Angel Birthday Catherine Bailey!
Love Mommy, Daddy, your little brother AJ, and "Nuggs"

Newsweek Article on Stillbirths

A friend directed me to this article that Newsweek published. Excellant read.

The address is: http://www.newsweek.com/id/182572

Annual Christmas Party & Charitable Event

We held our annual Christmas Party & Charitable Event on December 14th. Too often, parents enter the delivery room with expectations for a wondrous new life only to experience the most heartbreaking of losses. The memory boxes people help purchase enable these parents to hold on to the only physical memories they will have of their loved ones. Memories they will cherish the rest of their lives. We're extremely thankful and blessed that over 35 people donated towards the memory boxes this year raising a total of $2105, which is enough for 32 more memory boxes!

Lighting Candles

"A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle"
Their combined light just shines brighter in the dark.

I saw this quote today and found it profound.

Remembering Catherine Bailey

Three years ago I was in Fair Oaks hospital in labor preparing to deliver my firstborn child, a daughter silently into this world. We had just found out about an hour earlier that she had passed away. As the pitocin assisted my labor, the drugs battled my 102.6 degree fever, and the epidural assisted with my physical pain, I listened to my husband make phone calls to family and close friends to tell them the news that our daughter had died over and over and over again. I don't know how he had the strength to do it so many times and tend to me as well, but he persevered.

We were blessed to have the most awesome, caring nurses early that Saturday morning. Sheri Washington was the nurse who stayed by my bedside and talked me through my first delivery. She and the other nurses prepared us for what was to come with the delivery and assisted us with making arrangements for her autopsy and finding a local funeral home. They also dressed Catherine in a beautiful gown, snipped a locket of her hair for us, and took hand and footprints for us.

My cousin, Elaine arrived and took black and white pictures of her and us. Those pictures are the most precious memories we have of our daughter. I will be forever grateful to her. When it came time to leave the hospital, the nurses packaged up our daughter's gown and mementos and put them in a paper machet box. They gave me a teddy bear to hold while I was being wheeled out of the hospital so that my arms would not be empty.

And then we came home. My milk came in, I was still battling some type of illness/infection, recovering from labor and delivery, and all the flowers started arriving. People visited, family came and went, and then Andy and I began to try to find a new normal in our lives because we knew we'd never go back to the way things were.

Three years later, our hearts still ache for our little girl just the same. We now have a son who is the light of our lives, and while we celebrate every milestone he reaches, it's bittersweet because we know it's a milestone that Catherine never got an opportunity to reach. AJ looked just like his big sister when he was born--something that we were not quite prepared for. I wonder if she would look like he does now sometimes, but I guess we'll never know.

Happy 3 year birth and angel day, our dear sweet Catherine! Mommy and Daddy miss you so much! Your little brother AJ sends you kisses!