A true Miracle Child

Don’t think for one minute that I don’t believe every child is a miracle because I do. However, some babies struggle and fight simply to get to be born.

Two years ago, my friend became pregnant after using fertility intervention. To say that she and her husband were devoted to this process is a huge understatement. For a year before the time she became pregnant, she truly regarded her body as a birthing vessel. She ate right, worked out, cut out all alcohol … you get the idea. When she wasn’t able to get pregnant “spontaneously” as the medical profession calls, it, she began seeing a fertility specialist. Long story short, after fertility drugs and several in vitro fertilization attempts, she learned she was pregnant. What a blessing! The waiting was over! Nine months and we’d have a baby or two to love and nurture.

Not so easy as we soon learned … early ultrasounds identified that she was carrying triplets. Another ultrasound that was done around the twelfth week indicated that she was carrying only twins. One baby had perished while in her uterus. Now this isn’t such a dramatic thing … it could happen to numerous women before they’ve ever had their first ultrasound, however, it was an indicator that the pregnancy was high-risk.

We learned that the twins were a boy and a girl. The little girl was growing more rapidly than the little boy. My friend went on maternity leave early to begin bed rest. Soon we learned that the twins were going to have an extremely low birth weight. Another appointment revealed that the mother, my friend, would be lucky to carry to 30 weeks.

During this time, I visited their home, took them meals, brought magazines for her to read and called often. While I didn’t ignore the problems with her pregnancy, I also didn’t ask a whole lot of questions. It was a burning issue on her mind, and she needed respite more than she needed reminding.

At 28 weeks, my friend went to a regularly-scheduled appointment at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville. Her care providers decided that it was time, and an emergency C-section was done. Why? The little boy weighed about a pound. His sister was double that size. Instead of gaining weight, they had begun to lose weight. It was now or never, but if they made it through birth, we didn’t know what was ahead.

The good news is that the twins survived the birth. The bad news is that my little friend, Christopher, whom I never got the chance to meet, hug, or cuddle, died two days afterward.

Christopher’s twin sister, Caitlin, had a long, hard road ahead of her. She was in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Card Unit) for 2-1/2 months. When she was about four weeks old, I took a day of vacation and went to see my friend, who was staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Danville. We had a lovely lunch and did some shopping in Danville before we went back to the hospital.

Nervous, I asked my friend to walk me through the procedure to enter the NICU. I had to “scrub” to enter, wearing a surgical gown and mask. My first vision of my Caitlin was in an incubator with wires and tubes running in, out, up, down and all around her. I had never seen a two pound baby before. Imagine 8 sticks butter, got that visual image? Did you know that in the gestational process babies actually have hair on their backs for a bit? I didn’t. When I saw little Caitlin, I guess I lost the little bit of good sense that I had … I saw a line of fine, dark hair down her back. All I could think was, ok, prom dress shopping is going to be an issue! No low cut backs for this little girl. No, I didn’t say that to her mom on that day, but I did later. It made both of us smile. Guess it was just my nerves.

In any case, while we were visiting with Caitlin, a curtained structure was brought in to surround the incubator beside us. Looking curiously at my friend, she shook her head. I knew that the hospital staff were giving some quiet time to a family that was losing their child. In that place, in that moment, I realized as I have very few times in my life how precious a gift is life. Knowing that sounds trite, I still say it, because it is.

Fast forward a year and a half or so … Caitlin is a healthy, happy, though teeny-tiny two year old. She weighs just over twenty pounds, but has a personality as big as all outdoors. This year, her parents were asked to participate in the Geisinger Children’s Miracle Network.

My little friend, Caitlin, is truly a Miracle Child. Please take a moment to click on the link and read her story. I believe it will touch you in a very special way.

P.S. The story gets even better. Caitlin is going to have a baby brother this October! This pregnancy is completely normal, I'm happy to say. I talked with my friend last week. It was a bittersweet moment. She'd had an ultrasound ... the baby in her womb is almost the size of little Christopher when he was born.