Hayley's Preemie Story: Part 2 - The Rainbow Brings More Storms

On April 27, 2013 I took a pregnancy test. I was amazed, excited, and elated to find that it came up positive! I was pregnant again! We were, of course, cautious this time, but we had achieved pregnancy and, for now, we were expecting a baby. Moments after telling my husband, we sat on the edge of the bed together and prayed over this baby, that we would be able to bring this one home. We knew that God was in control and could allow this one to make it. This time I was put on progesterone to help the baby to hopefully stick better.

At 5 weeks we had just told our family about our baby but hadn't told anyone else except one close friend. That Sunday, on Mother's Day, our Pastor's wife surprised us with a present! It was a tiny winter baby girl outfit! She told us she felt like God wanted her to buy it for someone, and she wasn't sure who. When she got home, the friend that we had told (our Pastor's Daughter-in-Law) said she knew who it was for -- us! It was perfect because it was a newborn outfit and our baby was due January 4, right in the middle of winter, which meant she'd need a warm winter outfit. We took that as confirmation from God that our baby would be OK. And, perhaps, that we'd be having a girl!

Everything went smoothly in the pregnancy with all the normal symptoms and morning sickness until 7 weeks when I had some spotting. We were terrified after our last experience, so we went to the ER for an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a beautiful, healthy little bean in a HUGE sack (so much different than our last experience) with a heartbeat in the 140's! We sighed in relief and were told that it was probably the progesterone that irritated things.

At 18 weeks we had the anatomy ultrasound which confirmed that it was, indeed, a girl! Our daughter, Hayley Judith, was so beautiful on the ultrasound, sucking her little thumb and wiggling around. We were so in love with her already and couldn't wait to meet her!

At 27 weeks, however, our lives were turned upside down when I started swelling up really badly. My eyes were puffy, my hands were swelled, my feet had been really badly swollen for over 24 hours with no sign of going down, and I just didn't feel right. I went into my OB's office for a BP check, which showed that my blood pressure was high at 160/90. I was admitted to the hospital for a 24 hour urine test. The results of the 24 hour test came in the next day and revealed my proteins were at 450, which was not overly high considering normal is 300. I had preeclampsia but was not in immediate danger. The plan was to put me on bed rest once they got my blood pressure under control with medicine.

The next day the doctor walked into my room with a grim look on his face. He asked where my husband was (he had gone to work because things looked stable) and told us he might want to be here. That sentence told me something was seriously wrong. He then proceeded to tell us that the results didn't add up to him and he had the lab recheck the number. It turns out that they had misplaced a decimal point. My protein wasn't 450 like they thought but was 4,500! He told us 5,000 was a level that showed kidney failure, so I was nearing that number! This, of course, was a game changer! They gave me a steroid shot right away and transferred me to the nearest hospital with a NICU, because, at this point, we were definitely going to have a preemie.