After having a normal pregnancy, Nina Bills saw her doctor when she was five days past her due date. The fetal heart monitor measured her baby's heart rate as 250 to 270 beats per minute, much higher than the norm of 120 to 160 beats per minute.

They monitored the rate for close to an hour, until her doctor said, "You need to go right now."

"I was like, 'What do you mean?'" Bills said.

She quickly learned he was talking about an emergency Caesarean section. She arrived at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital around noon on Feb. 3, and by 1:12 p.m. Isabella Bills was delivered.

"I almost missed it," said her husband Jay, who was preparing for the delivery.

But they quickly learned her heart problem was not improving. L&M told them they didn't have a pediatric cardiologist and that the couple would have to go to the Newborn Special Care Unit at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital.

Nina was still recovering, but Jay remembers that was when he "almost lost it."

"For them to tell us, 'We've done all we can do'..." Jay said, shaking his head.

Isabella was placed in what Nina described as a box with a window so she could say goodbye and was taken away in an ambulance. Jay followed, and Nina had to "fight tooth and nail" to be taken to Yale.

The doctors soon discovered Isabella had a condition called supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT. Nina said she was told it's common in older children, but in infants, the condition can wear the heart out.

For a week, her parents could only hold her amid a mess of tubes and wires. She had an IV in each arm and her belly button. Eventually, they sent the Bills family home with two medications and many lessons on drawing the medication into a syringe and feeding it through a nipple.

But a week later, Isabella was crying constantly and they had to go back to New Haven. After another three-day stay, doctors added one more medication to the list and sent the Bills home. They had one more scare that brought them to L&M again and led to a dosage adjustment.

They like to joke that Isabella finally decided, "I'm done being in the hospital. I wanna go home."

Now, Isabella is 7 months old, and down to just one medication. She still has to wear a holter monitor once a month for 24 hours to measure her heart rate and needs regular bloodwork to ensure the strong medicine is not affecting her

organs.

But her heart's struggle remains hidden inside her chest. She is developmentally normal, with huge, bright eyes and an easy smile. She has a full head of fine, dark hair and a loud voice that demands attention. She loves to grab the fur on their black lab, Sapper, and the dog

obliges her.

Nina, who is back to her job at the Sub Base Youth Center, says she's a "Daddy's girl" and Jay, who works for a defense contractor on the base, jokes that "she's a diva already."

But now that the Bills are settling into life as a family, they want to help others who have to go through the same trauma.

They are organizing a "Babies Heart Run" motorcycle run on Sunday

Sept. 6.

It will leave Poquonnock Plains Park in Groton, go east on Route 1, north on Allyn Street, west on Route 184, south on Buddington Road, and then west on Poquonnock Road again, ending at Christopher's Cafe.

The money is being raised through the run itself. Fees are $20 per rider, $5 per passenger, and $10 for people at the door. Raffles at Christopher's will raise additional funds.

They plan to give the funds to L&M and Yale hospitals for patients' parking, food, or gas. They saw babies in the newborn unit who rarely had visitors because some mothers couldn't afford bus fare.

"It's one less thing that people have to worry about," Nina said.

"We're not trying to change the world," Jay said. "When you have all that going on, you just forget

everything."

Jay, who has a tattoo of a real heart on his arm for his daughter, said "it's something that is on my mind every day."

They hope other families will also know the feeling they had when their daughter was finally free of the heart monitor: "She's really ours. We get to take her home," Nina said.

For tickets or more information, call 287-7776 or 912-4331.