June's Rainbow Baby:: The Rainbow Baby Project
- Felecia Williams
- Jul 10, 2018
- 4 min read
I know, JUNE!? Yeah, we got a tad busy here at IEP! Between sessions, and summer family days by the pool, we got a tad busy!
However, I now have time to show off our adorable June rainbow baby, and first boy rainbow baby since we started this project! I had the pleasure of meeting Dylan and his loving family in June. We used some wonderful props provided by Chicaboo, Crafts By Tessa and Three In The Nest.
If you know of anyone who would like to be nominated, or you yourself would like to be considered for The Rainbow Baby Project, please submit your story, or theirs, here.
Here is their story:
My husband and I really wanted a 2nd child. We were ecstatic when we found out we were pregnant the day before Halloween, 2016. Everything seemed okay at first but then I just had some strange feeling that I can't fully explain that made me to not feel comfortable that this pregnancy was going to result in us having our baby with us. I started spotting early (about 9 weeks). The doctor took a look and they could see internal bleeding in me within the pregnancy but it wasn't effecting the baby (thankfully). The symptoms started escalating and I was scared out of my mind. I was at the doctors office every week, if not every couple of days. My sweet Christian was still growing as he should. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do to fix my internal problem.
And then it happened, I had just come home from working a full day and something didn't feel quite right. I was 18 weeks along and my water prematurely ruptured. With my first son he was a week late, I had to be induced and my water had to be broken by the doctor, so I definitely was not expecting that to happen. I wound up in the hospital for a week, was given antibiotics and my doctor wanted to see if I would go in to labor. Thank goodness for my doctor being on my side. Most of the nurses there told me that most doctors wouldn't have done what he did for me and send their patient home. They asked me if I wanted to terminate the pregnancy at that point and there was no way I could do that, my son still had a heartbeat. My doctor didn't want me too either. I was fortunate at that point that I didn't go in to labor (statistically most people do), but some women don't and are able to hang on to their pregnancies and deliver after a viable age.
After a week in the hospital and Christian did not come, my doctor asked if I wanted to go home to be on bedrest or stay at the hospital for the remainder of the pregnancy. He explained that I would have to come back to the hospital at 23 weeks since that was considered the first viable age and start giving me steroid shots and a potassium drip. I was completely devastated because I knew that he current environment my son was in was not idea since he was no longer surrounded by that beautiful amniotic fluid to help his lungs and brain developed. I prayed harder than I ever have before and I know a lot of other people were praying for us too. There were some other women in the hospital wing that I was in that had the same issue, but were further along, so I had hope. I felt terrible and useless being on bedrest because I am always on the go and had a husband and 2 year old son that needed my help. Unfortunately I knew things were happening with my body that I knew weren't good. Honestly, I had been so concerned about saving my sweet boy that I had forgotten about myself.
About two days before I had Christian I laid in bed scared because my body wasn't feeling great and was doing weird things (things I had never experienced but won't go in to detail here) and was afraid that something might happen to me and I didn't want to leave my son and husband, they needed me (I haven't told many people about that). Two days later from that day, I started having contractions and knew we needed to go to the hospital. I was terrified of having a baby at home because my doctor told me since he would be smaller because he wasn't full term that it wouldn't take as long. I prayed so hard that I would make it to at least 23 weeks, but unfortunately I only made it to 21 weeks and 1 day. It was completely devastating knowing that I was going to have my sweet baby boy and that the doctors and NICU team wouldn't even consider saving him. To make matters worse the delivery rooms were all completely full, all the doctors were tied up with the other women in those rooms and the resident was with me. She looked completely terrified, I will never forget. I was losing so much blood and I'm sure my case wasn't something she sees everyday.
Thankfully, my doctor made it in time and I had to deliver my son in the triage room. He was perfect. Perfectly formed, I loved him so much, but it was the saddest day of my life. The pathology report would show that my son and I both got 2 infections, which is the risk you have once your water breaks, which I believe caused my body to naturally go in labor. The doctors could only speculate that I had an internal irritation and that my pregnancy didn't fuse together 100% the right way, and that ultimately that irritation rubbed in my bag of water causing it to weaken and break. They called it a fluke.
I had my sweet son, Christian, a year ago, Friday, March, 2nd. The doctor said it was unlikely for that to happen again, so we waited 6 months and tried again. We are now happily 26 weeks and 2 days pregnant with another baby boy. I am thankful that I am not experiencing the complications I had my last pregnancy and that I also am past the viable age (still need to make it much farther though)! I still have been a little nervous and on edge this pregnancy due to what happened before, but we are optimistic!
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