“I was allowed no monitors to check on my baby during labor. I didn’t have a clue whether or not he was still alive. I was left in the dark. At 23 weeks, I didn’t dare look as I pushed him out. He was put into a small plastic bag, intubated at my side. I told my family, ‘This is the end.’ We planned his final outfit, said goodbye. Just in the nick of time, he showed us he wasn’t going anywhere.”
‘George was breached. I wasn’t allowed a c-section to save him. ‘If you leave this hospital, you’ll regret it.’ He was so close.’: Woman births miracle preemie despite all odds, ‘I’m so proud to be his mom!’
‘We are merely surviving as we fight it. We are going from one doctor’s appointment to a test to another treatment. Let’s be honest, cancer SUCKS.’: Woman’s has realization in cancer journey, ‘Cancer did not take from me. I took from it.’
“We didn’t choose cancer. It chose us. Getting up was a choice.”
‘The doctor came into the waiting room. ‘Something has gone terribly wrong.’ His temperature skyrocketed.’: Mom recounts son’s experience with Malignant Hyperthermia, ‘It was a day I will NEVER forget’
“He would be so confused as to why he was restrained and had a tube down his throat. I stood bedside, looking at my strong boy who was now lifeless. My world came crashing down. I reflected on how I was going to help my strong dude recover.”
‘The tech lubed my belly. ‘OMG. There are SO MANY!’ My heart dropped. ‘So many what?!’: Mom births triplets after battling infertility, ‘It’s hard, but in the end it’s all worth it!’
“I struggled to eat because my belly always felt so full. Every day I assumed it would be the day we rush to the hospital, but days went by and somehow, I kept them in. When they pulled out the first baby, it felt like a 5 lb. weight was lifted off my lungs. ‘If you can get out of bed and into a wheelchair, you can go see the babies.’ Challenge accepted.”
‘Your daughter will never be more than 2 feet tall.’ My husband and I broke down in tears. ‘…If she survives.’: Mom births baby with rare Thanatophoric Dysplasia, ‘I will never give up on her’
“The news broke me and honestly ruined my pregnancy. I prayed our baby girl would grow, that her little chest would expand to survive this birth. I wanted Paisley to have a life, no matter if it was only for a few seconds or a few years. She deserved the world and I was determined to give it to her.”
‘Alright, I’m cutting open! Get ready to grab.’ Then doctor yelled, ‘He’s out!’ I never heard my son cry.’: Mom rejoices NICU warrior for ‘beating the odds,’ says ‘He’s the strongest person I know’
“All of a sudden, I felt liquid explode out of me… I looked at my nurse. ‘Umm, something just came out of me!’ My nurse lifted up my gown. ‘Her water broke!!!’ Nurses came running in, but the only person who spoke to me was the anesthesiologist. ‘I’m going to stand by your side the whole time. I’ll make sure you’re ok,’ he told me.”
‘You’re getting snipped, right?!’ I told my husband, no more babies. He obliged! The doctor had an emergency.’: After harrowing NICU journey, preterm birth, mom excited for ‘freedom’ husband’s vasectomy would bring to their ‘intimacy’
“My husband told me without hesitation, he’d get a vasectomy. I thought, ‘Yeah sounds good, but we’ll see if he’s really down for the cause when that time comes.’ We prepared for snip snip day by getting him a bag of frozen peas and tight underwear. He was nervous, but ready. My OB knew of our plan, but kept asking, ‘Are you SURE?’”
‘He is broken and breaking,’ the doctors said. ‘No hope. Always fatal. It would be kinder to terminate,’ they tell his mom and dad.’: Newborn with Brittle Bone Disease diagnosis defies the odds to become family’s ‘fighter’
“To us, there was never a question. In room 117, he came into this world. Crying, alive, and doing it on his own! The doctors were wrong. Was he perfect? No, he was perfectly imperfect, and he was HERE. Alive, and a fighter.”
‘When he turned a year old, he couldn’t sit up. He didn’t play with toys. He was essentially a newborn. He kept his left hand clenched, and his entire left side was tight.’
“I’ll never forget the words he said. ‘Knowing what his brain looks like, I can’t believe he is talking like this.’ I went to my car and cried. I cried tears of joy and tears of relief. And if I’m being honest, a few tears of fear. By early May, it was confirmed.”
‘In the hall, I overheard the doctor saying she had ‘rough news’ to break. I walked out of the office in a haze.’: Mom keeps baby with Hydrocephalus despite pressure to abort, ‘she is my miracle’
“‘Can my day just be done?,’ I heard her say. She then said a word that took me by surprise, and scared me: ‘Abort.’”
