A little history first. I joined a February 2012 birth group on Baby Center. Stuff can be posted to a forum and then all members are free to respond. I liked looking at the name posts--that's really about it. I soon grew tired of the ladies that posted about their cheating spouses, how they hated their in-laws and silly drama about baby showers. One day I caught a post about a group being started on Facebook so I decided to become a member. I liked it because it was so much easy to post and navigate through postings. Of the 1000+ members on BC only around 100 became members of the Facebook group. I believe the number is now down to 60 something.
Anyways, the group was started in January as we were all nearing the final weeks of pregnancy. There were lots of posts about pregnancy pains and maybe the occasional rant about an unsympathetic spouse. We shared pics of our growing bellies, of decorated nurseries, etc.
The last week of January the babies began to be born. So then the rest of us would complain that we were tired of being pregnant, blah, blah, blah. So almost everyday a new baby, sometimes more than 1, was born. Then we shared newborn pics.
As the months have passed we have watched each others babies go from in the belly, to being born, first smiles, videos of giggles, rolling, eating solids, sitting up and a few are even crawling!!
We span across the United States but most are located in the east. One member lives in Canada. Two members live in California. Me and one other Mommy are in Texas.
OK, finally getting closer to the story of the quilt. I know a lot of that was extraneous info but it just shows how close the ladies in the group have gotten---even though we have never met in person!
At one of the checkup visits (we all post the stats) a Mom posted that the doctor diagnosed her baby girl with Craniosynostosis. This is a condition where the sutures of the skull prematurely fuse together causing the brain to grow differently and deforms the head. Of course this Mommy was very distraught. They had to go see a specialist.....that confirmed that Olivia's case was severe enough to need surgery to go in and open the sutures and reshape her skull.
Step back real quick: the husband is in the army and was stationed in April 2012 to Ft. Drum, New York. They moved from Killeen, Texas to Ft. Drum when Livy was 2 months old. Her pediatrician in Killeen diagnosed this. She had to wait until she got to NY to find a doctor there all while dealing with a newborn and a new home thousands of miles away from her family back in Texas.
Needless to say, Mommy was very, very sad and felt guilty even though this was not her fault. This condition happens 1 in 2000 births.
So, a few ladies started another secret group so we could all join together and do something for Olivia. We decided to make a prayer quilt. Anyone who wanted to participate could (the mom was not a part of this group so it was all done in secrecy--which was hard!). Each person would decorate a 7x7 square of fabric and mail it to me. I would then arrange all of it and sew it together. Most of the squares had the baby's footprint and many had inspirational sayings. By the time everyone got their squares to me I had a very small window of time to sew it all together. Like a few days!! Thank goodness Dani napped great those few days and I was able to work on it a lot!
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| All of the top sewn together |
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| soft material I chose for the back |
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| Complete with binding |
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| view of the back |
I started on this on a Monday, finished on Wednesday afternoon and had it to the post office by late that afternoon. It was expected to be delivered to NY on Friday morning. Surgery was scheduled the next Tuesday with the family leaving to Syracuse on Monday. Wow, did you follow that? Needless to say it was a very close call. I had to get it there by Friday or Saturday to make sure she would have it to take to the hospital so she could literally wrap herself in our love. We all know how cold hospitals are so this was perfect gift. She would have a reminder that even though we couldn't all fly to NY to support her, each and every one of our hearts was there!!
She received the quilt Friday morning and was a bawling mess! She said it was the most thoughtful gift she has ever received. That made all of us very happy!
Olivia had her surgery this past Tuesday. All went well!! She already got to go home yesterday even though they were expecting a week long hospital stay. God is good :)
