This Baby Was Born Early Just So Her Dying Dad Could Hold Her

Savannah Aulger will never have snapshots with her father on her first birthday, at Christmas or at a school event. The only picture she will ever have of them together is the one as sweet as it is heartbreaking. Hooked up to an oxygen mask at the hospital, the man she would call dad cradled her in his arms for 45 minutes.

#1 The Birth Of Savannah Was Happy And Sad

It should have been one of the happiest moments of their lives. But for Mark and Diane Aulger the birth of their fifth child was racked with sadness and despair.

#2 The Auger Family

The Aulger family of The Colony, Texas, had a lot to rejoice about in the weeks before Savannah's Jan. 18 birth, which was induced two weeks early so her father could hold her.

#3 Mark Had Beaten His Cancer

The family had just celebrated Christmas together where a very pregnant Diane, 31, had handed out gifts to her beautiful family, while husband Mark, 52, had just received great news that he had beaten cancer.

#4 Mark's Condition Worsens

But just less than two weeks later life threw the family a huge curve ball. Mark was rushed to the hospital, unable to breathe. Unfortunately, all the months of chemotherapy had ravaged his lungs and left him with pulmonary fibrosis. He had less than one week to live.

#5 She Feared Her Husband Would Not Live Long Enough To Meet Their New Child

Diane decided to have her labor induced. Though she has since been criticized for her push to let her dying husband see his new daughter once before his passing, she stands firm on her belief that it was the best thing to do. So, two weeks before her expected due date, Diane laid in a bed beside Mark while the doctors gave her medicine to begin delivery.

#6 Diane Put Savanah In Mark's Arms

Mark was slipping in and out of consciousness and losing strength by the minute, but he was alert enough after Savannah was brought into the world to hold her in his arms for 45 minutes. "The day she was born his oxygen levels were really high," Diane said, "we both just laid there and cried."

#7 Marks Breathing Grows Weaker

He tried to hold her again the next morning, but could only muster up the strength to keep her in his arms for one minute. His breathing was slow and faint. Then the devoted husband and father of five slipped into a coma.

#8 She Would Lay Savannah On Her Fathers Chest When She Cried

Diane said that when Savannah cried, she would place her on Mark's chest until she stopped. She says that a few times, though in a coma, his hand moved as though to touch his daughter. She could feel him growing weaker and wanted his last days to be spent with all of his children.

#9 Mark Passed Away Five Days Later

Five days after his daughter's birth, on January 23rd, with his family by his side, Mark Aulger died in his hospital bed. "His heart rate started to drop and his breathing started to drop, so I put her in his arms and held his hand until he died," Diane said, "He would have been a very wonderful father to Savannah."

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