Meryah - Born @ 23 wks 6 days

My daughter, Meryah (pronounced Mariah), was born on July 7, 2009 at 23 weeks 6 days gestation. I was beginning to go into heart failure and had placenta previa. My OBGYN and Cardiologist consulted with each other and decided that my best chance of surviving would be to deliver. I was devastated. I knew that there was no way she would survive being born that early. Three years prior I lost Madison who was born at 25 weeks gestation and died 18 hours after being born. I was not prepared to do it all over again. I pleaded with the doctor’s to wait but it couldn’t. It was at that point that I was told the cold harsh truth. If this pregnancy continued any longer both I and the baby would certainly die. Obviously at this point I complied. A few hours later Meryah has born. She weighed a mere 14 ounces. After the delivery I was taken to ICU because I was still unstable. The neonatologist came to give me an update on Meryah and the news was grim. Because of here extremely small size they were having trouble treating were with the equipment that they had because it wasn’t quite small enough. I was told that she probably wouldn’t survive long. For days I waited for the dreaded phone call, but it never came. Meryah is 3 months old and doing well. She now weighs 3 pounds 9.5 ounces. She has come a very long way. We recently learned that she has Cystic Fibrosis so she still has a long road ahead of her. We can’t wait to have her home. I have a new found belief that miracles do happen and any obstacles we face we can overcome!