I was 22 years old when we got married. Because of problems I had with endometriosis and know that I wanted children, my gynecologist said I needed to try to get pregnant as soon as possible. He felt that I would have difficulty, if not unable to get pregnant. We started trying right away and after a several months of not having any results, my doctor started me on fertility medication. After having what was thought to be an early miscarriage, I was able to get pregnant. I loved being pregnant. Knowing that I was carrying a baby made me so happy. We were going to be a family. Everything was going good until I got to be about 24 weeks along. It was New Year's Eve and we had gone out to dinner with friends. My back started hurting and would not stop. Nothing I seemed to do would help. I wasn't sure what was wrong, but never thought it was the baby. I had trouble sleeping that night, the pain was getting worse and by morning, I called the doctor. He sent me to Labor and Delivery just to be checked out. To our disbelief, I was in preterm labor with contractions about 1-1/2 minutes apart. All the labor pains were in my back and since this was my first, I had no idea. They started me on medication to make the contractions stop. The doctor told me that if I were to give birth then, my baby would not live. (This was 27 years ago, so medicine was not as advanced in preterm delivery as they are now). I was devastated. With many prayers the contractions stopped (after having a couple of more episodes within my 10 day hospital stay). I went home to complete bed rest. I eventually went in to labor at 36 weeks and had my precious daughter, Katherine Marie "Katie". She was born in the evening at 7:01. Since this was my first baby, I did not give it any thought that she was not brought to my chest right after delivery and that she was taken out of the room right away. Looking back now, there were so many clues that something was not right, but at the time, I did not see them. They sent me to my room and told me they would bring Katie in later and to get some rest. No doctor came in that night. I slept through the night and my husband, Kenny stayed with me. No nurse came in during the night to wake me up (very unusual for a hospital and one of my clues that I can now see) Very early in the morning, Kenny went home to take a shower and change clothes. I asked to see the baby and the nurse said she would check on her. The pediatrician came in about 6:30 am and set down beside me. "Your baby has had some trouble breathing during the night and we are going to have her transferred to Children's Hospital (another hospital across town). He then asked if I had someone I could call to help me with the situation and I called Kenny. The doctor spoke with him on the phone and told him he needed to get to the hospital. Everything was happening so fast. They brought Katie to my room for me to see before she was transported. She was hooked up to so much and in an incubator. I couldn't believe it. Why was this happening? She looked so weak. I wanted to hold her and let her know that her daddy and I loved her. Then she was gone. One of the nurses came in to give me a heating pad or something and saw me crying and left. She did not come to see if I was okay or say anything to me, she just left me there to cry all by myself. I was so happy when Kenny got there. My gynecologist soon came and told me he was going to release me because he knew he could not keep me there when my baby was on the other side of town. I was discharged that day.
We spent all the time we could to see Katie. She was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and had limited visitation. We had to scrub our hands and arms like we were going to surgery and to "gown up". We couldn't hold her and could only see her through her incubator. She was hooked up to so much. She was on a respirator and had IV's in her arm and even on her head. I was lucky in the fact that I worked for a child and adult neurologist who was called in to see her and he gave me a whole lot more of information than I got from anyone else. Katie had pneumonia and sepsis (which is an infection in the blood). He told me that she was very ill and only had a 5% chance of living. We couldn't believe it. So.....we prayed and had prayer circles from all over praying for her. We would get notes from people that we didn't know telling us that she was in their prayer circle. I wanted her to be baptized. I called our family priest, Father Mullins, who came to the hospital and baptized her. Katie started to improve and each day got better and better. Soon we were able to hold her. At eleven days of age, Katie was sent home. She was not transferred to another floor for further care or needing therapy, she was sent home. The doctors warned us however, that she would probably be blind because of the length of time she was on 100% oxygen and that due to the time she had trouble breathing and other problems, she would more than likely have cerebral palsy. Katie would probably would be retarded. All we could think about was Katie was alive and how much we loved her. We knew that God had gotten her through and that he would take care of her. Katie today is 27 years old and has gotten her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing. She works in the Progressive Care Unit at the hospital she was born in.
Katie is our Miracle.
Katie just a couple of days old.
Katie at her Nursing Graduation
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