My Guardian Angel...

I gave birth to our fourth daughter four years ago. She was born healthy and weighed in at nine pound and six ounces. However, due to her unexpected birth weight she suffered some trauma during the delivery.

Here we were both my husband and I waiting for her birth for about ten hours and finally she enters our world. Of course, it brings tears of joy to our eyes when they place her in my arms. I start to count all of her fingers and toes, and just try and absorb this moment forever. Then it is time to take her away and wash her up so I can have a fresh smelling new infant. Yeah!

All the time while I was waiting for her birth, my thoughts were also with my ailing mother. She was diagnosed with cancer three years earlier and a week before I gave birth she was placed in hospice at home. I know she was holding on to await the birth of her twelfth grandchild.

Finally, they bring me back my little bundle of joy, but not with good news to follow. The doctor started out with "everything looks well, but" and at that moment I knew something was not right. No-one uses the word "but" when all is well. He explained that due to her unexpected birth weight she had some "damage" done to her right arm. She was not able to move it. I held her in my arms being grateful that everything else was OK, however I still could not help feeling so sad that she may never be able to move her arm. I was told that she had Erbs Palsy, and of course with the power of the internet I start to look this up and see that it is damage to the upper arm nerves (brachial plexus injury). The worst part was not knowing if the damage was permanent or temporary.

I take her home and they start with all the testing. I had to take her to see the neurologist, physical therapist and have home evaluations done.

All the time just wanting to be with my mother, I had to make time to be with my daughter. I tried to make time for both. Seeing my mother so helpless and also seeing my daughter unable to move her arm was so emotional, but I kept strong for them both. I brought my baby to my mother and let her hold her as much as possible. Three weeks after her birth my mother departed this life to start her new life. It was one of the hardest moments to deal with. The same day of her services I had to meet with the pediatric neurologist. I was informed that the possibility of her moving her arm was dependent on how well she does with therapy. Usually improvement is not seen for three months the doctor had said. There was a chance that she would not have full function and that it may be slightly less developed than the other arm. He stated that only time will tell.

The following day of saying farewell to my mother I had another home evaluation, by a social worker. My daughter was lying down with her toys above her when suddenly she lifted her right arm to reach for something, both the social worker and I just sat there not believing what we had seen. It was just too soon to see a recovery.

The next day she moved her arm more and tried to grasp my face, and as each day passed she continued to move her arm more and more.

Within one month her arm had made a full recovery, and till this day I can only thank her guardian angel for watching over her from heaven and to give my daughter what I feared she would not have -- full function of her arm.

Today she is grabbing, throwing, writing and doing as much if not more as any other child would do at her age. So I guess this is not about my guardian angel but my daughters and I will always be grateful to my mother for helping my little girl.