Kylie Lynn, Tiny Dancer

Kylie weighed 2 pounds 7 ounces when she was born.

Lion # 119

It was Christmas Night 2008, and we were with family visiting and enjoying our holiday together. For some reason, I was getting really grumpy and really uncomfortable–more  than I had been the past week. That night, I took a Tylenol and thought that when I woke up, everything would have gone away. But when I woke up the next morning I still felt awful. I was having some pains, my back hurt, and all in all, I just wasn’t doing so good.

It was December 26th and I had just passed 28 weeks gestation with my pregnancy. So in my mind, the thought of our baby coming was non-existent. I had delivered my son on his due date, so at the earliest, I was expecting to deliver her was a week or two early. I just kept thinking that the pain and discomfort would go away. Finally, at 1:00 p.m. I called the doctor and explained the symptoms that I was experiencing. He told me to take a warm bath to see if that would help, and that he would check back with me for an update on my condition. Well, I was sitting on a heating pad at the time (which seemed to help a bit) and I didn’t really want to move and get in the bath.

Finally, a couple of hours later, I decided to take a bath, and by that time my husband got home from work. I got out of the bath, grabbed my What To Expect When You’re Expecting book and started reading up on my symptoms. My Doctor had called back wanting to see if I had started feeling any better. Nothing had changed and the pains had actually started getting closer together. He told me I could go to the hospital and get checked out. I debated about whether I wanted to go or not. I just knew that I would go and they would hook me up to the machines and tell me that I was not having the baby and send me home. Then I would be stuck with the bills. I continued reading in my book about signs of when you should go to the hospital. As I was reading, I noticed that I had all of the signs of labor, and then I had another big pain so I told my husband “Okay, I will go and have them give me some medicine and then we can come back home.”

My Mom met us at the hospital so she could watch our son, and I told her we would be back down in about an hour or so. We got checked in and they asked me “Have you ever had premature labor before?”

I gave them a weird look and said, “I don’t even know what that means.” Soon after I got into the room, several nurses and people started showing up asking questions. The more questions I answered, the bigger their eyes got. I was wondering, “Why on earth are they looking at me like that?” Then they told me the doctor wanted me to have an IV. I resisted, telling them I was okay and had plenty of fluid and I didn’t need that (I am not a very good patient when it come to needles). I told them, “Just give me something for the pain and then I can be on my way.” Well, that poor nurse came back and said “Sorry the doctor said you have to have the IV and we also need to do a test to see if you are leaking any amniotic fluid.” That test only took a second and the nurse said “I can already tell you that you will not be leaving the hospital until you deliver.”

I was stunned. I was only 28 weeks along and I didn’t know what on earth I was going to do with our son (Michael). The Nurse said to me, “If you had not come when you did, you would have delivered this baby at home. Your membranes have ruptured and you are leaking amniotic fluid.” She said, “We will have to give you medicine called magnesium to try and slow down and hopefully stop your labor.” They also gave me shots to stop the labor and steroid shots to help Kylie’s lungs develop faster. The steroid shots are set up to be administered twice within a 48-hour period. Everything they were trying wasn’t working, and I was very uncomfortable. I had to be tilted with my head lower then my pelvis so there wasn’t any pressure.

All night I just prayed that she wouldn’t come and that her grandpa (who had passed away) could hold on to her for a few more weeks. Even with all the praying, she still was determined to come. The next morning at 7:00 a.m., I called my husband, who had taken our son home the night before, and told him to hurry and come to the hospital because they were giving me an epidural to try and slow things down, but she was coming today. He hurried and got to the hospital. At about 8:00 a.m. they had a Neonatal specialist come and talk to us about what we should expect. I was coming off the magnesium medicine, which makes you fell really weird (like you are having an out-of-body experience), so when the doctor was talking to us, I was in my own little world. I wish I could remember more of what he said. The only thing I remember is my husband asking what the probability was that the baby would survive and hearing the doctor tell him that out baby had a 95-98% chance of survival.

At 10:23 a.m., I delivered Kylie in the operating room. The NICU staff was in a room right across the hall so they could start taking care of her as soon as she was born. Kylie weighed 2 pounds 7 oz and she was 14 1/2 inches long. As I mentioned earlier, the steroid shots are supposed to be given twice in a 48-hour period to enhance lung development. I was only given one dose. From the minute she was born, Kylie seemed to be doing really really well. She was on a ventilator for about 24 hours or less, which is truly amazing considering how tiny she was. She is a true fighter. We had some bumps along the way. Her umbilical cord I.V. punctured a hole in her abdominal wall, causing her stomach to fill up with her I.V. fluid. This led to digestion problems that made it necessary to feed her with a tube. Because of all of this, her body had a really hard time accepting her feedings. Since her stomach had so much air in it, it put pressure on her lungs, which made it hard for her to breathe, and so along with struggling with her feedings, she was put back on the CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) machine to help her breathe. This was considered a step backwards in her progress, and it made me very frustrated. My emotions were running wild, and it was at this time that I received a Ryan’s Lion™. It was passed on to me by my sister who had suffered from the stillbirth of one of her children. I would look at the lion every night and it helped give me courage that everything would eventually work out and things would be O.K.

One of the hardest things for us was not being able to hold Kylie and rock her like we should have been able to. For me, it seemed like I just went to the hospital and stared at her in her enclosed box. Another thing that was really hard on us was not being able to have that immediate emotional connection. But I will never forget how I felt when I first got to hold her. It was exciting and scary at the same time. She was so small I was nervous, but it was a very special time for me. They have such an amazing team of well-trained doctors and nurses at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. I truly believe the NICU staff, our religious beliefs (which allowed her to receive priesthood blessings), and all the prayers offered for Kylie, are the reason she did as well as she did. I am truly blessed to have such a beautiful MIRACLE that I was able to take home on March 22nd 2009.

If you  are struggling, hold on to your faith and everything will somehow be O.K.

While Kylie was in NICU, Kylie’s family received Lion #101, donated in honor of “Junior.”

They passed their lion on and purchased a second lion, Lion # 119 – Kylie, that was passed on to another recipient.

Kylie Lynn, home and healthy