Princess' Birth Story

My little girl is about to turn three this weekend, so I thought I'd commemorate it by sharing her birth story with you.
It begins a while before she was born; at my 20-week ultrasound to be exact. Knight and I were so excited to be expecting our first child and were just as excited to find out its gender. I was working in a different city at the time so I just took the whole day off of work to celebrate my pregnancy. As the ultrasound tech was looking at the screen, she kept checking and re-checking the baby's stomach. Amongst all the measurement taking and listening to the heartbeat, the tech told us that we were having a girl! I was absolutely elated! I'm sure Knight was happy too, but I think he was secretly hoping for a boy. That was when the tech said she would be right back, she wanted to show the doctor something on the ultrasound. After about 15 minutes of waiting, the doc came in and did some checking of his own. He told us our baby had an abnormality on her stomach, and that we would need to go see a specialist in our neighboring city. He gave us some information on a couple of different things it could be, but none of them were minor complications. The doctor told us that at least our baby would need surgery after she was born, if she even made it that far.
It was our worst fear. There was something wrong with our unborn child. Our little girl. I was beyond hysterical. Our families were waiting for our phone calls after our appointment to see what their new grand baby was going to be. We had to tell them that something was wrong, and we didn't know what.

The following week, we saw the specialist. He confirmed to us that our baby had what's called an omphalocele (umf-al-o-seel). Often times with this condition, the baby will have a number of cognitive and developmental conditions, and may not even survive through the pregnancy, let alone the risky surgery that had to be done right after birth. He gave us the option to terminate the pregnancy. It brings me to tears just thinking about that dreadful conversation.
Of course, we decided as a couple that it was in the Lord's hands, and we would keep this baby as long as He would allow. We had bi-weekly appointments for the remainder of my pregnancy, each bringing us the news that the omphalocele was getting bigger, and that she was a very small baby.  But, we had hope. We prayed fervently together as a couple. We held family fasts. And as a result, we were comforted. Our lives and the life of our sweet, innocent little girl were at the mercy of a loving and all-knowing Heavenly Father.
The day came to have my c-section. Because of the protrusion on her abdomen, having a regular birth was out of the question. I was more nervous than ever before in my life. My heart was beating so fast. As my arms were spread out on that operating table I remember thinking, "Everything will be okay. Things will work out for the best." At 9:51am on October 21st, Princess was born!  My eyes welled up with tears when they lifted her little head over the curtain so I could see her. Knight got to see much more than I did. He said he was so glad I didn't see everything because what he saw was so gruesome. The nurses and doctors (there were about 20 in the room during the surgery) began their tests, put her in an incubator and rushed her up to the NICU. Knight went with her, at my request of course. After I was stitched up I had to wait another two hours until I was aloud to be wheeled up to the NICU to see Princess. It was then that we took our first family picture together.

About five hours after being born, Princess had her surgery. It took over three hours to complete, but we received updates from the nurses regularly. What angels they were! The doctor finally came down and talked with us about how it went. All our anticipation and worry came down to this moment. The doctor told us that the baby was much bigger, and the omphalocele was much smaller than they had anticipated. And that in fact, skin had started to grow on the protrusion, so they were able to completely enclose her liver and intestines behind her abdominal wall. That was not something they did often in this particular surgery because of the stress it puts on the baby's body. The doctor even told us what he was able to do was a miracle. We thanked him profusely. Then the waiting game started.
For the wound to heal, Princess was on paralytics and coma-inducing drugs for the first six days of her life. She was hooked up to a breathing machine too. We were not able to hold her until she was a week old. When they finally started weaning her off her medicines and she began moving, her cry was muted due to her breathing tube. It was the most painful sight I've ever had to witness. Finally, at 8 days old, she was taken off her respirator, and the next day she tried eating from a bottle for the first time. What a glorious day! From that point on, all she had to do to be able to come home was gain weight and maintain her body temperature.

3 days old with an extra 1 1/2 pounds of water weight from her drugs.

First time holding her after her surgery

Right after getting her breathing tube taken out

almost ready to go home!

Ready to go home.

Although she had a couple of setbacks, she was able to come home just one month after being born. Only 30 days in the hospital! The Neonatologist told us that they weren't expecting her to even be home before Christmas, and she made it to our Thanksgiving dinner! She still had a feeding tube for a week after she came home, but we were so happy to leave the hospital! It was a wonderful day for our family.

Aside from high blood pressure for about a month after coming home and being teeny tiny for a long time, Princess was and is a healthy, happy, high-spirited little girl. We are so incredibly blessed to have her in our family!

Happy Birthday, Princess! We love you!