My little miracle Jessica celebrated her third birthday at the weekend. It is amazing to look back and remember how bleak her prognosis was and here we are now, blessed with a beautiful 3 year old who is doing so well. Her birthday is also one of her heart days as she had her first open-heart surgery at just eight hours old. What an emotional rollercoaster that first day was! There were some lighter moments though – I still vividly remember hubby taking me to work with him the morning I went into labour as he was setting up an event that day which was ‘en route’ to the hospital. Asking me if I had any black maternity clothes so I would blend in with the rest of the crew; the look on the security guy’s face as I signed in (I could almost see the words ‘health and safety’ running through his mind) and hubby calmly introducing me to the person running the event with the immortal line “This is my wife. She’s in labour, but don’t worry, she’s just going to sit in the crew catering room and get on with it.” For the next couple of hours, everyone who walked into that room looked at me like I was a ticking time bomb about to give birth on the floor at any moment! In hubby’s defence, I was a midwife at the time and well aware that I was in early labour so he did trust me to let him know when we needed to go!
The moment Jessica arrived and was briefly placed in my arms – that sheer overwhelming moment of joy hearing her little cry for the very first time. A precious, precious moment and a memory that I will treasure forever. Our time together that day was so very brief before she was whisked off to theatre and then the long, awful wait until she was finally back and on the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). And now I look at her – so full of life, so happy, and loving, living life to the full and bringing so much joy into our lives.
We had such a lovely day celebrating her birthday – having lots of family members (and godmummy Katy) popping in to see the birthday girl. Lots of lovely presents including a camera from Mummy and Daddy (Jessica loves taking photos with my phone and loved having a camera of her own – admittedly most of the photos are of people’s knees, the floor and the sofa but she’s having fun), a doll’s pushchair from Nanny and a bike from Grandma and Grandad (a little too big for her as yet but she had fun being pushed around on it and she will grow). Sophie also enjoyed playing with Jessica’s new toys – we did try to distract her with a new toy of her own but Jessica’s ones were much more interesting and thankfully her big sister was fairly happy about sharing some of them.
Jessica got very excited when she saw herself inside Mr Tumble’s spotty bag on her birthday card on CBeebies – “Look! That’s Jessica” she kept saying. She loves watching Mr Tumble on the TV so when I came in with her cake, she got all excited again – “Mr Tumble’s spotty bag!” We nearly lost half of it though when she stepped forward to blow out the candle and promptly reached out to grab a big handful of cake!
Birthday cards in the post plus the Little Hearts Matter magazine – and there on page 10 was an article written by Daddy all about his thoughts on being a heart dad – and a book all about Peppa Pig going to Jessica’s birthday party – such exciting birthday post!
A fun day was had by all and it was a very tired and happy little girl who went to bed that night and a very thankful Mummy and Daddy – such a wonderful blessing to be able to celebrate another birthday with our little girl and we hope and pray that we will have many more birthday celebrations in the future.
Linking in with PODCast for What’s the Story?, The Olivers’ Madhouse for Magic Moments and Let’s Talk Mommy for Share with Me
Huge happy birthday to lovely Jessica! Looks like you had a fab time celebrating. She’s enjoying her pressies, and that cake is awesome 🙂 #magicmoments
Thank you – we had a wonderful day and she really enjoyed her birthday 🙂
Happy birthday to Jessica so wonderful that she’s doing so well, she’s gorgeous!! The picture of you holding her when she was first born and your husband looking at you is the most beautiful thing there’s so so much love in that picture it’s amazing!!
Thank you! I love that photo – we were both so emotional and thrilled with Jessica being as well as she was when she arrived and it was so lovely that that beautiful moment was captured for us
A very very happy birthday what a beautiful little girl!
Thank you 🙂
Fabulous post – what a beautiful little miracle she is. Happy birthday Jessica.
#MagicMoments
Thank you – she had a lovely day 🙂
HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jessica!! looks like she had a fab time!
Thank you – she certainly did! 🙂
Happy birthday!!!! What a milestone to achieve.
Thank you 🙂
Happy Birthday to your lovely little girl. 3 is awesome, I have a 3 and a half year old. The photo with you and your hubby is so lovely, perfect precious moment captured.
Thank you. Love that photo too – was such a joyous moment.
Ah, a beautiful post, and nice to have received so much fabulous birthday post! Happy birthday to Jessica x
Thank you 🙂
A beautiful post full of love and one that should make everyone count their blessings
Thank you 🙂
Ah, happy birthday to your little girl. It sounds like she had a wonderful day.
What a lovely look back at such a worrying time. #MagicMoments
Thank you – she did have a lovely day and it was so lovely to see her running about and enjoying herself 🙂
Happy birthday to your lovely little lady! We have a 3 year old and it is a delightful age x
Thank you – I am quite looking forward to seeing how things change now she is 3 🙂
Happy third birthday to your heart baby! I cannot believe you went to work with your husband on the day you gave birth! It sounds like she had a great 3rd birthday. x #Sharewithme
Thank you! It is quite funny looking back and we did leave very quickly when I felt we needed to and got to hospital when it was still quite early on. Had a home birth second time so he couldn’t do it again, lol!
WOW what a 3rd birthday. Happy birthday! You are super woman. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With me #sharewithme
Thank you – so glad she had such a lovely day. Lovely to link up with you again 🙂
awww Happy Birthday to her! and all of you! .. i am sorry it made me smile with the story about you going into work with him! lol
thanks for linking up with #MagicMoments (sorry im late getting round)
Thank you – it was quite funny – I went along with hubby to an event he was working on about a year later and there was someone working with him who was there that day. Needless to say, I didn’t remember him! Lovely to link up again 🙂