When we decided to try for another baby, I thought to myself “Nothing could be worse than the pregnancy I had with Camden”. I was wrong. From day one of the fertility medication I should have known this was not going to be easy. Aaron even told me “We have to prepare for a lot of ups and downs”. I took those words to heart the whole crazy 7 months! I won’t go into the horrible pregnancy, I will just say the fertility medication gave me severe overstimulation. A VERY painful 14 weeks. Preterm labor started at 14 weeks. We were told Ailyn had a deadly disease and we should abort her. Genetics called us three times begging us to abort. Since I had started preterm labor I wasn’t able to go through more testing. So we put our faith in God and hoped for a miracle.
And, we got one! Born at 28 weeks, weighing 1 pound 14 ounces, Ailyn Rose came crashing into this world. I was home alone when my placenta abrupted. I knew something was wrong and dialed 911 right away. The paramedics rushed me to the hospital. My water broke in the driveway, I thought for sure Ailyn was going to be born in the ambulance. At the hospital, the doctor did an ultrasound and saw that I was internally bleeding. He could not see the baby and her heart rate was rapidly dropping. They rushed me into the OR. All I remember is a NICU doctor saying “I am the NICU doctor, I will take good care of your baby”. And, she did. After having to be resituated , Ailyn came alive! Her apgars were 1,1 and 3.
Ailyn had a rough first week. Each day we would come to the NICU, the doctor would say “I don’t know how she made it through another day, but she did it!” We knew then Ailyn was going to fight with all her might! She did have a grade 1 brain bleed and thankfully it did not get any worse. To keep her body alive at birth, her kidneys and gut shut down to help the other organs stay alive. Ailyn peed strait blood for 2 weeks until her kidneys repaired themselves. At 4 weeks old, Ailyn had PDA surgery to close a valve in her heart.
Ailyn spent 75 long days in the NICU. With amazing doctors and nurses by her side, Ailyn did amazing! She went home at 4 pounds on apnea monitor.
Today Ailyn is 21 months and 18 pounds, 29 inches. She is the happiest baby we know. To say she is a strong little girl is an understatement. She has been through so much and continues to fight on. We have OT, PT and a teacher who come to the house once a week. Ailyn is behind in her milestones, even for her adjusted age. But, she is always progressing and when she masters a skill, she does it perfectly. She is just working on “Ailyn time”.
Medically, Ailyn has kidney disease. She has high blood pressure from it. She also has failure to thrive. In January 2011, Ailyn got a PEG tube placed. She gets fed by tube 10 hours at night and 2 hours during the day. We already see a great change in her weight. Other challenges Aiyn has are chewing and swallowing. In late spring she will start a feeding clinic every day for 6 weeks.
We chose to walk for the March of Dimes to support all of the premature babies and the research they do to prevent early births. I hope you can help out by donating what you can to the March of Dimes in Ailyn “Strawberry’s” name. You can click on the March Of Dimes button on the side of the blog or donate through one of our walkers. If you would like to walk with us, please comment on this blog post and I will get you all the information you need.
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