Hadley

Two pink lines...I couldn’t believe it! Something we had been wanting and praying for was finally happening. A day I thought I would never get to see because of what my doctors always told me about how hard pregnancy is on diabetics (I’ll tell you all about my journey with Type 1 diabetes in a few weeks).

I knew right away that I was pregnant, but the waiting for the confirmation of a pregnancy test was killer! It was a crisp November Saturday, the local Christmas festival was going on and we went to see what all they had. I had been so tired and not feeling great. We took a chance and bought a pregnancy test to see what it said. Nervous, anxious, and excited, we got to the house, and I took the test. Quickly, the results showed up! We were going to be parents. Little did we know exactly how much this precious miracle would change our lives.

My pregnancy was high risk since I am a diabetic and they sent me to a Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) doctor. It was honestly not a delightful experience, which I let my obstetrician know about. The MFM was not happy with the fact that Eric and I were not interested at all in having genetic testing done, practically told us we were wasting their time. I went back a couple more times until the MFM ended up clearing me and letting my OB continue my care. To say this shocked my OB would be an understatement. At the last appointment that I had with the MFM, she informed us that everything was looking great, so there was no reason for us to keep seeing her. The report she sent my OB said nothing like that. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It stated that Hadley was tiny for how far I was in my pregnancy. She was measuring almost a full month behind and was diagnosed with Inter-uterine Growth Restriction (IUGR). From that point on, I had frequent appointments to check Hadley’s growth. The scans would show very little growth each time, and eventually she even stopped growing. By this point, I was getting close to the end of my pregnancy and I got scheduled for my induction.

My mom and I made a mad dash, shopping around everywhere we could to find premie clothes because we didn’t have any at the time and they were so hard to find. We finally had everything ready, and it was time for our little warrior princess to make her grand arrival.

I was scheduled to check in to the hospital at 6:00pm on Sunday, July 13, 2014 and we were told to pack quite a bit of stuff and plan on being in the hospital until at least Friday. The hospital was in Kerrville, which is about an hour away from our house, so we packed like we were moving. We got to Kerrville early enough to have one last dinner date just the two of us. My doctor called while we were at dinner and said that the delivery floor was full. The craziness of the super moon had everyone going into labor. He asked if we wanted to wait and check-in the next morning. Not wanting to wait another day, we stayed until a room was available. We went shopping while waiting and while at the store, the only key we had to our car got caught in Eric’s pocket and broke in half. Thankfully, we have some pretty amazing friends who drove an hour to bring us our spare key. The time had finally come to get checked into the hospital and prepare for our greatest gift!

They started my induction at 10:00pm and I remember Eric asking my doctor what the possibility was that she would be born the next morning. He said less than 10% and it would probably be Wednesday or Thursday before she would be born. Much to everyone’s surprise, I was in full-blown labor by 11:00pm! After 8 hours of labor and a close call C-section, Hadley was born at 7:05am, weighing a whopping 4 pounds 10.5 ounces and 16 1/2 inches long, July 14, 2014.

Next week I will share all about Hadley’s diagnosis. The learning, growing, and loving more than we ever thought was possible. We were truly seeing just how special of a life we were living.