Sarah’s Story
©Susie Reynolds 2005
Sarah 2004
My pregnancy with Sarah happened as a result of months of infertility drugs. At about eight weeks after we went for our first ultrasound, the tech said we had miscarried. My regular doctor wasn’t in that day, and the doctor filling was ready to schedule a D&C. Having already suffered a miscarriage with my first pregnancy, I didn’t want another D&C, due to the scarring.
My doctor called me the next day and told me she wanted to schedule another ultrasound because my hormone levels were still very high. The next week I started spotting, and she got me in ASAP. They soon discovered that I had been pregnant with twins, and had lost one. But my little Sarah Grace was still holding on. I was a high-risk pregnancy because I had to "pass" the first twin without losing Sarah. If I could get to fifteen weeks, things would be better.
After week fifteen passed, I thought things would be smooth sailing--but at twenty-four weeks, everything changed. They noticed abnormalities in an ultrasound and sent me to a Perinatologist. She told me, "Your baby has a very serious condition and will not make it. It is dangerous for you to carry to term so you need to terminate the pregnancy."
I am very against abortion and told my OB as much. She said I would be fine and sent me to see some doctors in Louisville, KY. They told me the same thing about Sarah's condition. They said she had Thanatophoric Dwarfism. Children do not live with this. So, at four months into our pregnancy, we were told that Sarah would not live.
She had a list of problems. Her ribs did not reach all the way around her chest; her bones were breaking (I could actually hear them breaking throughout my pregnancy); her limbs were too short; her neck was misshapen. You name it, she had it. After we had five different doctors tell us that she had only a 1% chance of making it through the birth, we made all of her funeral arrangements the day before our scheduled C-section.
That night, I couldn't sleep. My grief was overwhelming. I prayed so hard that God would just do His will. And the next morning I had peace and comfort going into the OR. All the medical personnel knew our situation, and our wishes. No heroic measures; just let us have her so she can go peacefully.
However, the C-section did not go as planned. They ended up having to knock me out completely, and when I awoke, I did not see my baby or my husband. I thought I had missed her short bit of life. My OB told me that the Neonatologist needed to talk to me…when I got to my room, there was my little Sarah Grace! They told me she was all right for now, but they didn’t know what was wrong with her anymore.
It wasn't until she was seven months old that we found out she had EvC, and that she would be okay. Now we have our beautiful son, Seth, who is four, and our beautiful daughter, Sarah, who turned fourteen months old in May. Both of my children are blessings--and now we have a true miracle as well.
Sarah in car - a small video clip
©Susie Reynolds 2005