How it all started

My Husband and I had such a hard time getting pregnant, for over a year we tried with no success, little did we know that the best thing that ever happened to us was planned by god and right around the corner, all we had to do was wait patiently.

We gave up in December of 2004 and hoped that maybe the doctors could help us. January 26th 2006 I felt different, I felt sick and dizzy, needless to say I was a month late, regardless of how typical it was for me to be late I knew I was pregnant but I had to be certain. I went to the Raleys grocery store and bought two boxes of pregnancy tests containing 3 tests in each box. When I got home I took every single test, in awe of the faint line that kept showing I was pregnant. Could it be true? Was I pregnant? I called the customer service number on the pregnancy test box and asked the representative if I had two lines on the pregnancy test but one was faint does that still mean I am pregnant? the gentleman said it was positive. I was so excited that I called my Grandmother, grandfather as well as my mom and asked them to hurry over. When they got there I had all pregnancy tests laid out on the bathroom counter and they were so thrilled.

My first appointment was mid February and I had an ultrasound done, I was supposed to be 8 weeks pregnant according to my menstrual cycle, but when the doctor did the ultrasound she said I was only 5 weeks pregnant according to the size of the gestational sack and there was no baby in my womb, she said I was most likely miscarrying. The doctor told me to come back in two weeks. That was the LONGEST two weeks of my life. When I came back for my second ultrasound she saw our baby and she healthy and growing, however I was still measuring 3 weeks earlier than I should have been, I was supposed to be 10 weeks pregnant but our baby was only measuring 7 weeks, I assured her I was 10 weeks but she insisted I was only 7, but I knew better, I was 10 weeks pregnant with our child and I was sure of it!

Every day I did research on the internet to learn about the changes and growth our baby was going through, what to eat and not to eat, what I should and should not be doing. I wanted to make sure you were as healthy as could be. In my 23th week of pregnancy I was talking my grandmother and she asked how I was doing and I told I was doing well and that today I read that I have hit a pregnancy millstone, that should I go into labor my baby is able to survive out side of the womb, I was certain that I was not going to birth prematurely I just thought that was interesting and I was so excited that our baby had come so far. But god had another plan for our daughter, she was meant to be a very special little girl. That same day was the first day other people could feel her kick inside me, when my husband got home from work I had him hold my belly and feel her kick for the first time.

Just one week later on June 17th 2006, my husband and I went to a routine ultrasound to check my dates and see how she was doing. The ultrasound technician told me that I was due September 24th 2006 and we were defiantly having a girl. I was concerned though, our baby looked really low to me and I asked why that was she assured me you were fine, but after a hour she could not see my cervix, she copied some pictures and left the room and she did that three or four times, I started to get scared. My silly husband said “maybe she’s ready to come out” and he started to sing “All my bags are packed and I am ready to go”. I playfully hit his arm and laughed.
The ultrasound technician had to do a vaginal ultrasound to check my cervix afterwards she had a doctor come in and tell us that I was a centimeter dilated and 90 % effaced and I was in premature labor, that I need to go to the hospital immediately. I wallowed in tears while my husband nervously got the car. We went to Sutter memorial hospital and called our family members to meet us there, that there was something wrong.

When we got to the hospital every one was there, Grandmother, Grandfather, my mom and my step dad. While the doctors were testing me she started to kick and every one got a chance to feel her move around.

I was admitted to the hospital and I was to stay until I had delivered. The plan was to pump me with steroids to help her develop fast and a mussel relaxer to keep me from going further into labor, hopefully I would stay pregnant for at least another 2 months to help her chances of survival be much better.

Later that night I woke up and didn’t feel right, when I got up from bed and I felt a small pop inside of me, when I looked down at the bed there was a puddle of blood. Disoriented I went to the restroom and right outside the bathroom door my water brook and I started to hemorrhage, I opened the door and called the nurses, I was so scared I was going to lose my baby. My grandmother was there spending the night in the waiting room and they rushed to get her, she and I were so scared we both cried and prayed. I was so relieved to find out my baby was ok and that they could try and still keep me pregnant. For a week I would hemorrhage on and off I passed blood clots as big as foot balls. Our little girl some how filled the womb back up with fluid and she was doing well through out my illness. But I knew she was going to come very soon.

A week later on June 25th 2005 at 9:00pm I started to hemorrhage once again but this time I was having contractions and the bleeding was much heaver than usual, Dr. Geoffrey Ghram was on call and insisted that I go in to surgery immediately for and emergency C section, I protested but he said I had no choice if I did not go in at this second my baby and I both wont make it another hour.

At 9:45pm our were delivered but I was still not doing well, the bleeding had gotten worse and they thought they were going to have to give me a hysterectomy. Luckily, my vitals picked up and the bleeding started to ease and I was stabilizing, they did not have to do the hysterectomy.

My husband left my side the second she was born. She was screaming at the top of her itty bitty lungs. She was doing so fantastic that they let my husband cut the umbilical cord. He said that right before he cut the cord she opened her little eyes and looked at him and ripped his heart out of his chest and it’s been hers from that moment on. She was 1lbd. 6.9 oz and 11 ½ inches long

It was still a struggle after she was born, a week after she was born she had to have heart surgery and was on life support for a month. She had many infections and had three blood transfusions, but she fought so hard to stay alive. At one point a doctor told me that I should let her go but I refused to give up on her. She came home three months later, just one day before her due date, September 23rd 2006 at just a little over 5 lbs.