Two months after I had given birth to my first son, Elijah, I learned I was pregnant again. This was a surprise for me, to say the least. My second pregnancy was going great. I didn't have any morning sickness, which was very different from my first pregnancy. I started my monthly prenatal check-ups immediately. I agreed to take the AFP (alpha fetro screening) test. During my next visit to my visit to the doctors, my midwife informed me that I had taken the test too early. Apparently there is a certain time during your pregnancy when the test had to be taken. Well, I don't like needles at all, so I decided not to retake the test. Since my first child was fine, I took for granted that my second child would be fine too. I was under the mentality "That happens to�other people, it won't happen to me!" I never even thought about it again. So, I went on with my pregnancy. Everything was great. The baby was growing fine, the heartbeat sounded fine, and I could feel it moving around inside me, although I did notice that it wasn't moving�around as much as my last baby did. I found out that my due date was July 25, 1998.

When I was around six months along, I was involved in an automobile accident. I was getting a ride to my mother's house from a co-worker and I was showing him a shorter route to get there by going down some back roads. There is one 15 mph turn onto a bride and I guess he didn't see the warning sign because we hit the bridge head on going about 50 mph. My first concern was for my baby because my seat belt was strapped right across my stomach. We were taken to the hospital and checked out. My body on the outside was fine, except for a�skinned chin, a sprained ankle, and some bruises in my stomach and�chest from where my seat belt had been. But my baby hadn't been�checked yet. I had to go to another hospital, a few miles away to get my fetal monitoring done. Aside from a few contractions, I was told�that everything was fine. I had asked them to do an ultrasound to see the baby, but they said that it wasn't necessary since I wasn't bleeding or having really bad contractions.

About two and 1/2 weeks before my due date, I went in for my�weekly check-up and it was then that the problems started to surface. When my midwife was feeling my stomach to check the position of my baby, she said that it felt like it might be breech. She took me upstairs and did an ultrasound which confirmed that the child was breech. My options were to either wait it out, and hope that the baby would turn over on its own, or let them try to turn the baby themselves. I chose to let them try and turn the baby, so they scheduled me an appointment for the next day, which was a Friday. I went to my appointment and in the room was my midwife, a nurse, the doctor who would be trying to turn the baby, and a woman who would do an ultrasound to make�sure that the umbilical cord would not get in the way. After a few�attempts to move the baby, the doctor informed me that my baby was not going to move, and he would not try anymore, for fear of hurting the baby. He left the room, but the woman who had been doing the ultrasound had noticed just by chance that something was not normal with the baby. After a few minutes, she informed me that my baby had hydrocephalus.

I was very upset. There I was, laying in hospital bed with and iv stuck in my arm and connected up to a monitor, and someone was telling me that my baby was not normal. I felt so helpless at that point. I had�never even heard of Hydrocephalus before. They explained to me that the baby had "water on the brain" and that Spina Bifida was often�linked to hydrocephalus. They decided to send me to U.C.Davis Medical Center, because they have top of the line technology and doctors. I was sent the Prenatal Diagnostics Center, which�specializes in high risk pregnancies and special needs babies.

I had my appointment that following Monday. At my appointment I had someone sit down with me and explain all about Hydrocephalus and�Spina Bifida to me. I was told what surgeries the baby may need to have and the risks involved, and also what the future could hold for�our baby. Then they did a very extensive ultrasound (I believe it took somewhere between 2-3 hours) where they were checking to see if the child had Spina Bifida or not. At the end of the ultrasound, I asked the woman if she had found Spina Bifida, and all she said was that the doctor would be in to speak with me about the results of the�in a few minutes. We knew right then that the baby did have Spina Bifida, because if he hadn't, she would have just told us that.

The doctor spoke to us and told us that our child had Spina Bifida and that I would have to have the baby by c-section , because it would be very dangerous to deliver a breech baby with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.

My c-section was scheduled for July 20, at U.C.Davis. I was nervous and scared for what my baby was going to have to go through that day yet I was excited and happy at the same time, because my baby was finally going to be born! For a woman who had been pregnant almost two years straight, it was a big deal. My c-section was a success. I wasn't able to see my baby until the day after he was born, because I had a problem when they were trying to give me the epidermal. I f had a kind of nervous attack when they were trying to give me the epidermal. I started sweating really badly, and yes, I cried like a baby.�I couldn't believe myself!!!! I was really embarrassed. So, anyway,�they put me to sleep, and all I remember was waking up in the�recovery room. �

Timothy Tyler Baker was born at 10:39a.m. on July 20. He had a cyst on his back the size of a small grapefruit. He had surgery to close his spine a few hours after he was born. It was a success and the neurosurgeon, who I am told is one of the best in the United States, did an excellent job. They also had plastic surgeons there and they made his incision look really nice. We had to wait ten days for him to get the VP shunt put in, because the doctor wanted to make sure that his�back was pretty well healed up first. We were lucky that he had a very mild case of Hydrocephalus, and his head was just slightly enlarged. While Timothy was in the hospital, we stayed right on campus at the Kiwanis Family House. They waived the fee for us the whole time that we were there and we are really grateful to them for that. Their phone was connected with the hospital's phone, so it was really easy to call and check on our baby. Timothy stayed in the hospital for a total of�17 days, and we were not allowed to hold him. When we FINALLY got to take him home (it seemed like forever), we were only allowed to place him on his back just for the car ride home. We were under doctors orders to keep him on his stomach for another week. It was kind of frustrating because I had never been able to really hold my�baby, and he had been born for almost a month.

Timothy is doing very good and is really growing fast.. We have to�catheterize him every four hours. He goes to his urology appointment soon and we will learn whether or not he will have to be catheterized�for the rest of his life or whether he will have control over his bladder. We have been told that he will not walk because his hips are too weak and one of his legs is not formed correctly. We have high hopes for our son, but we are just taking things one day at a time, and we are�not to take anything for granted. We love him and we think that he is�just the greatest and we are so thankful that we have him in our lives.