Chavis' Story

“It took us 2 years of fertility treatments to conceive our son. So when I hemorrhaged at only 10 weeks we were devastated thinking we had lost him. By the grace of God there was still a heartbeat but a lasting subchorionic hematoma which never resolved like they said it would. We would later find out weeks after delivery this was the first domino to fall. 

I struggled with high blood pressure my entire pregnancy but was able to manage it for the most part with medication. At my 26 week appointment they discovered concerning dopplers and my son was measuring in less than the first percentile. This happened on a Friday and the office immediately set us up with high risk and genetics for the following Tuesday. At that appointment, after the longest ultrasound ever, the doctor comes in and I’ll never forget her saying “there’s been some changes”. 

The dopplers showed absent reversed end diastolic flow. This was the cause of him being so growth restricted. I was admitted at this appointment at 26+4. They kept telling me they wanted to get me to 33-34 weeks and I just didn’t see how that couldn’t happen. Wednesday and Thursday were relatively uneventful. But Thursday night to Friday morning is when things started to take a turn. My blood pressure was becoming uncontrollable, he kept having decels, they’d give me more meds and nothing improved. At one point I was maxed out on three IV BP meds, one being hydralazine which they typically only administer on ICU floors. They were literally in my room the entire night taking my blood pressure and trying to get him back on the monitors. By Friday morning I started to have a headache and that was the deciding factor to deliver. I was by myself, my husband was at home and our phone plan reset so I wasn’t able to make any calls. I was hysterical trying to get a hold of my husband. An aid sent from heaven let me use her phone and I was able to call my husband who was an hour away at our home. They started me on magnesium again like they did when they admitted me and it wasn’t as bad as the first time thankfully. My husband got there and was barely pulling on his scrub top as they were rolling me down the hall. I got my spinal, my husband came in and then moments later I hear “10:52 congratulations he’s here mom and dad” but I didn’t hear else anything for a long time. I heard the faintest squeak that sounded like a little puppy almost. I never knew 1lb 5oz and 11 inches could literally take my breath away. 

For the next 112 days there were many ups and downs. We battled respiratory failure, BPD, osteopenia of prematurity, NEC, bilateral hernia repair, over 10 picc line procedures, several blood transfusions, feeding and weight gain struggles etc. We later found out my placenta had an infarct and 3/4 of it was dead and falling off. My doctor called me with these results and stressed how lucky my son and I were. He went home with oxygen and pulse ox. We ended up with an NG tube for a while due to poor feeding as well. BUT GOD was with us every step of the way. We are slowly getting rid of specialists, we were discharged from OT,PT, urology, feeding clinic, GI, and now our NICU follow up clinic. We still see nephrology and pulmonology and of course his primary care physician. We are so grateful to be in this new normal. He has really turned a corner this year and is at just a fun age. We are so thankful for his entire NICU team and will forever raise awareness for these miracle babies.” NICU Mom, Mariah