Today we’re excited to feature a story and photos from Kristen, mom to a 26-weeker who was born unexpectedly and overcame many challenges before finally making it home after 100 days. If you’d like to be a part of our Prematurity Voices series, email your story and photos to christa@grahamsfoundation.org.
This is my gorgeous girl Ayva – who was at the time a very tiny 2lb 6oz.
At only 3 months into my pregnancy I ended up in the hospital with non-stop bleeding. They found a “subchorionic hematoma”. That’s a huge accumulation of blood between the uterine wall and placenta. They gave me a 50/50 chance of having a miscarriage or pre-term labor.
Luckily, at my 24 week ultrasound I heard great news! They told me that my hemorrhage had dissolved, and I was looking forward to a full term pregnancy. I still took it easy, though, even after the great news I’d just gotten.
But at 26 weeks and 4 days on March 13, 2012, I had pain that would go away as I would sit. I figured it was nothing. But by 10 pm that night the pain had not gone away and just kept getting worse and worse. I rushed to the hospital just in time.
When I got there I was already 8cm dilated. There was no stopping this labor. My OB just made it to my room as my daughter was being born. The worst thing was I was not able to see her, as they rushed her away quickly.
Ayva stayed in the NICU for 100 days. I have never been so exhausted, scared, stressed, or sad as I was during those three+ months. She suffered necrotizing enterocolitis, a large PDA in her heart which was ligated with surgery, hypertension, chronic lung disease and more.
But now after 15 months, she is as healthy as can be, still behind on most things but she is working her way towards being a star!
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