UPDATE

He opened his eyes today and looked around 😍❤️

So this is a long craaazy story! We found out at 30 weeks that our baby had a birth defect called congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Basically his diaphragm didn’t form properly on the right side and his liver herniated up into his chest and was impacting the lungs where they couldn’t grow. I had high fluids because of this and was at risk for preterm labor. I researched and researched this defect to see what the outcomes were. Not a ton of good ones. I found a surgeon though in Florida who had an amazing success rate so we made plans to relocate from Indiana to Florida around 34-35 weeks pregnant. We wanted to make sure I was in Florida when I went into labor as our son would need immediate care the minute he was born.

At 33 weeks 4 days I started feeling extra crampy. Nothing horrible but I felt contractions enough to decide to go to the hospital and make sure I wasn’t in labor. I got there and I was 100% effaced and 4cm dilated. I was panicking. This was NOT the plan and if my baby wasn’t born at a high level of care hospital it was a death sentence. They quickly started meds to stall labor. It was a small hospital who didn’t have the machines and equipment needed to keep my son alive at birth. So after a few hours I was transported to a Chicago hospital about 45 min away that had the proper equipment. My problem was I had looked into birthing my son at Chicago and having his after treatment at this hospital but they only gave my son a 50% chance of survival....and that was IF I made it to 39 weeks and I was nowhere close to that.

I called my doctor in Florida panicked that I would have to birth my son in Chicago where the risk of him dying was great because they don’t have a lot of knowledge on his condition and treatment of it. He told me if I’m still pregnant on Tuesday (I went into labor the thurs before) then I needed to talk to him about how to get me down there.

Tuesday came and I was still pregnant 🙌🏼 my doctor told me we have a medical jet we are sending to Chicago to get you and transport you down here. I couldn’t believe it! My son had a much better chance of survival if we made it to Florida. He got everything in place then the doctors at Chicago refused to sign the transport papers and I couldn’t leave until they did. If I signed myself out of the hospital the medical jet was no longer an option and I would have to figure out how to get my own very pregnant self there.

2 days passed. I finally threatened to sign myself out and get on a commercial flight to Florida since they refused to sign to let me transport on the medical jet with a whole team who was equipped to handle if I gave birth. Since I was trying to leave the unsafest way possible they FINALLY agreed to sign the papers to let the jet come get me.

Friday morning the medical jet arrived to Chicago. The Med team that was on board got in ambulances and came to Chicago hospital to get me and take me to the jet. I was 5cm dilated and 100% effaced at this point so everybody was VERY nervous about me giving birth on the jet but we were as prepared as we could be!

We got to Florida Friday evening where I had minimal contractions and felt good the whole flight! I got settled into my new room and the doctor on call said let me check your cervix! I was 7cm dilated and still fully effaced. He said this baby is coming tonight! He got me down to labor and delivery and we got ready to have a baby!

We had to have him in an OR cuz of the medical attention he’d need immediately. I held off having him until the next morning. I started pushing at 11:35 and he was born at 11:42 weighing 5lb 13oz. A GREAT size for being only 34 weeks along

He is perfect! He already had his surgery to repair his diaphragm at just 36 hours old. He’s doing so well now 2 days later but he has a long road to recovery. 💙