This is Isaiah. He was born on June 17th, 2017 at 25 weeks. By far, one of the scariest days of my life. I'm 20 years old. This is my first child. The whole time I was pregnant was not an easy experience. I had severe morning sickness. Or all the time sickness really since it lasted throughout the day. I couldn't hold down much of anything. I threw up in my car so much I ended up leaving it on the side of the street somewhere because it became too much to even clean out. I was completely drained. I had terrible insomnia too. So on June 17th when I woke up at 2AM, I didn't think much of it. Except I started to get terrible back pain this time and that was new. But it would hurt for a minute and go away so I'd close my eyes only to be woken up by pain again. But I was new at all of this so my immediate thought wasn't that I was in labor. It hurt but it didn't hurt that much ya know? Around 5AM, I was exhausted and desperate for some pain relief so I called my mom. I got her all worried and she asks me typical mom questions but she also comes to the conclusion that it couldn't be labor. No signs of blood anywhere. My water didn't break. And after she tried timing them, they were so irregular she didn't understand it either. So around 6AM we call my doctor, she also is confused cause I'm only 25 weeks so she says to get some rest and suggests ibuprofen to help. Okay. Good plan. By 8AM, nothing's changed. I'm beyond uncomfortable and now I feel something is wrong. I make my mom take me to the hospital. Better to be safe then sorry right? But on the trip there, the pain is gone. Not one second of pain, I'm tempted to just turn around and go home but I figure we're already going so better still be safe. When I got there, I felt like a joke. The receptionist basically laughs at me. 25 weeks? And you think you're in labor? HA. But she sends me up anyways. The doctors do the regular checks and also kind of laugh at me. "You're 25 weeks, you're probably not in labor. Go to the restroom for us." No change. So they hook me up to a machine just to check for contractions in case. As soon as they put it on, I felt pain. They go away for a while. One doctor comes back and calmly says "well it looks like you have been having contractions. We'll check you out down there and see what we can do to stop it." That's when it gets crazy. About 20 doctors/ nurses rush in. They tell me I'm 10 CM, the baby is breached and I need to have an emergency C section. Tears immediately fell. What?? But you all just said it was okay... now I'm terrified. I know I'm only 25 weeks. Will he be okay? Will I be okay? It was just me and my mom. I didn't get a chance to call my boyfriend or anybody. Things immediately sped up after that. People run in and out. I'm thrown so much information that sounded like a foreign language to me. They stick a big needle in my back and then they wait around some. I'm like are u kidding me?? Could we hurry up here. I'm freaking out. There's what seems like 50 doctors around. They all introduced themselves at one point but I look around and all of their names escaped me. They put a curtain up between me and my tummy. I grab onto my moms hand. I don't feel as much pain as I'd thought I would but I definitely do feel some. And I can hear all of what they're saying. I shut my eyes tight hoping if I try hard enough I'll just fall asleep or if I try even harder... I'd wake up from what I'd hope was all a dream. Sadly, no. By 10:21AM I hear them pull him out of my tummy. The doctor rushes to show me before they take him away but all I see is a very blue baby, a very tiny blue baby. And then he's gone. My mom follows them. Im left all alone as they stitch up my tummy. When they finally roll me back to a room, I am in the worst pain of my life. They're asking me a billion questions that I can't even comprehend through the pain. I probably said "sure" to crazy things. Then they start the pain medicine which felt useless for a while. I couldn't move a thing. Finally I get my own room but it's a couple of hours before I actually got to see my baby. We named him Isaiah after his dad, isaac & me, Mariah. It's a combo of both our names plus it's biblical which was important to us too. When I did get to see him, I cried so much. It was involuntary and uncontrollable. I just couldn't believe that he was okay. That I was seeing him there in a little incubator looking bed. He weighed 1 pound 8 ounces and was 13 inches. I could have cupped him in my hands. I'll skip all the other details between then and now but my oh my gosh has this been a crazy experience for us all. Now he would've been 32 weeks if he was still in my tummy, but he's not, so he's actually 7 weeks old from his birthdate. The second picture is him now. 3 pounds 7 ounces. He's come such a long way. He's an incredible tiny fighter and I have never been so in love with someone.