I was 34 weeks pregnant and went to the doctor for a routine baby check-up. I went to the doctor more often than most pregnant women because I had a miscarriage a few years before. Anyway... when I went to the doctor she thought that my belly was measuring too small for being thirty four weeks along. We did an ultrasound and the nurse calmly said that the head was only measuring at 29 weeks, but every other body part was measuring at 34 weeks. I was rushed to the hospital to have more tests done. All of the doctors' conclusions were that the head was simply too far down to get an accurate measurement. I continued to go to the hospital four times a week for ultrasounds and to make sure the heartbeat was okay. Everything was fine! I had seen all of the top-notch doctors and everyone assured me that the head was just down too low!

At 38 weeks my doctor decided to induce me. I went to the hospital at two in the morning. I was so scared to have my baby (the pain), but very excited too! I got my epidural at 10am and that cured most of the contractions & cramping that I was having. At 11am I told the nurse that I could feel pressure "down there". She said that was normal and left. I called her back in the room five minutes later and asked her if she could check. She did and was shocked that the head was coming out already! She called my doctor and Kaylee Alex Lewis was born at 11:47am on February 18th, 2004. My little Kaylee weighed 5lbs 3-1/2oz and was 18" long. Everything was soo... great and happy! All of my family and friends were there. She scored a high 9.9 on her apgar test! I was soo... happy!

The nurse came in to give Kaylee her first bath. When she took her out of my arms she started choking on her saliva. The nurse pressed the emergency button and tons of doctors rushed in. They took her to the NICU. I went to the NICU and they told me that they wanted to keep her overnight and monitor her. I was there most of the night. I went back to my room to try to get some sleep, but it didn't work. When I started to doze off at about 7am my pediatrician called and informed me that she had microcephaly (small head). She said that she wasn't concerned about the choking episode and that the choking can be common in newborns. It was the microcephaly that she was concerned about. Keep in mind I had no idea what this was! The doctors ran tons of tests on her...genetics, MRI, ultrasound of the brain, etc. They took so many blood tests and poked her so many times it broke my heart. She saw neonatologists, neurologists, cardiologists, geneticists (only three in AZ), etc. The cardiologist discovered that she had four small holes in the lower chamber of her heart. How much more bad news can there be???

Kaylee ate like a piggy from the day she was born! Suddenly her eating slowed down and she needed to be fed through a tube. One more wire added to my baby girl. We discovered blood in her stool. The nurse was going to ignore it, but my husband insisted that the doctor be notified. Guess what...more bad news. Kaylee had NEC. This is where air bubbles begin to form a hole in the lining of the intestines. Less than one percent of newborns get this. Kaylee was hitting all of the odds (microcephaly occurs in one out of every 600,000 babies). The only way to cure NEC is to not have any food go through her intestines. They added two more IV's...one with vitamins and the other with lipids. That was her source of nutrition for eight days. On the ninth day we continued the lipids and vitamins, but started giving her two CC's of formula every three hours. This was a big tease for my piglet. Every day we increased the formula by two CC's. She had survived this! After the NEC was gone the neonatologist told me most babies die from this, but because my husband was observant we caught it in time! Thank you God!