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*Contact Leyda and Brian at: BrianAndLeyda@yahoo.com | Para español, haga clic aquí.
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To God Be The Glory.
Romans 11:36 | For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
My name is Brian and my wife's name is Leyda. This blog was made to keep our friends and family updated on our preemie daughter Victoria, to share our journey, and to reach out to you for prayer. As I have told many of you I want to BOMBARD HEAVEN with the PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS. We believe in God's power, we believe in prayer, and we believe God can and will heal and deliver Princess Victoria.
Leyda and I got married in 2009 and now we've been tied together for 6 years. Wow, how time flies! As with most couples, we have been very excited about the idea of bringing in the next generation. Since 2011 we were ready to have kiddos, but the path to parenthood has not been easy for us. I'm going to be somewhat transparent, open up publicly, and tell you much of our story.
Both of us have reproductive issues so in order for us to have 'biological kids' we had to do 'in-vitro-fertilization' (IVF.) It took us a while to get comfortable spiritually and financially to go forward with IVF, but eventually we proceeded. In 2013/2014 we had a successful IVF attempt, but sadly we lost our son Jason Kareem at 20 weeks due to incompetent cervix [IC]. We miss Jason and we look forward to meeting him in heaven with Jesus. It took us a while to recover from the loss, but eventually in 2015 we attempted IVF again. After one failed IVF attempt, we had another successful attempt about a month later in late 2015. For the record, I am stating these comments not for people to feel sorry for us, but rather so you can understand how much we yearn for Victoria to come home healthy. This means a lot to us in so many ways and we sincerely request your prayers.
Regarding the 2015/2016 pregnancy, aside from some morning sickness, Leyda's pregnancy went well in the first trimester. Because of the IC diagnosis in 2014, Leyda was given a 'cerclage' to tighten her cervix. At the 19week mark we found out we were having a girl and we were both thrilled! I was looking forward to baseball, but softball is A-OK! At the 20 week mark we had a fun dinner with friends on a Friday night, and then the next day, Leyda was experiencing some symptoms. We called the doctor and went to the hospital. After running some tests, it was determined that Leyda's amniotic sac was leaking. This was heartbreaking news. The amniotic sac is very important to the baby's well-being for many reasons. If there was any good news, it was that the pregnancy could continue, but there were a lot of risks. I'll go into statistics, odds, consultations and details in another writing. (Side Note: For those that don't know, currently the medical field deems 24 weeks the time of viability, but it's starting to stretch more and more to 23 weeks.... Leyda was at 20 weeks when this occurred.)
The next few weeks were rough, we were always on the edge. Every symptom was frightening. My work hours were ridiculous, but thankfully my co-workers were understanding. At 22.5 weeks gestation, the symptoms got too serious and we went to Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital [MHH] in the medical center of Houston. Many hospitals have protocols in place to make firm decision on whether or not they'll mechanically help a baby to live... this is dependent on baby age, size, and a few other factors. The cut off for MHH is 23 weeks. We were just behind that point and Leyda was having pretty severe difficulty holding on. By the Grace of God, after many sleep-deprived nights, Leyda held on to 23 weeks and 4 days... partially against the will of the lead doctor. At this point, there were too many complications occurring and both Leyda and Victoria were in danger. Doctors said they'd have to do a C-section and take the baby out. We prayed, we sent out requests, and we went forward.
Leyda delivered tiny little Victoria on April 6th via C-section. The specialists were able to get a breathing tube into her trachea. I can't minimize the importance of that step. Thank God for the medical experts. Victoria weighed 1lb 3oz at delivery. So many emotions rolled through my mind. They brought me to my baby in the delivery room, and I froze. Her eyes were open and she looked straight at me with alertness (very unusual for a 23-weeker / small preemie). As excited I was to see her because she was alive and breathing with her eyes open, I was also frightened because she was soooo tiny. The only words I could think to say were, "breathe baby girl, breathe baby girl." - - - They showed Victoria to Leyda for about a minute and Leyda was overjoyed. Not long after they rushed Victoria to NICU where she has been since.
NICU is a world by itself. As I am writing this, we are a few weeks into the NICU journey and this experience has been just as hard to endure as the pregnancy difficulties, if not harder. Day 1 of NICU was one of the toughest. To see so many lines and tubes connected to our baby and hear several alarms going off non-stop is beyond uneasy. I cried more than a few tears that night. It was rough. NICU has been and is a challenging experience.... life changing. We've had some ups and downs throughout the time here just as they informed us. It gets a tad more manageable as times goes by, but it doesn't get much easier. We long for the day when Victoria comes home. We don't know when that memorable day will come, but at the least, she'll be in NICU until sometime near her original due date; which is at the end of July; four months after the actual delivery.
I'm going to write a new post for every week going forward. Thanks for reading and remember to Pray For Victoria! God is Good and God is able to Heal!
BJCoop
Week 1 - Week 3 (Ventilator Days)
Week 4 - Week 6 (2lbs & Kangaroo)
Week 7 - Week 9 (Extubate & Cries)
Week 10 - Week 12 (Big Bed Big Breaths)
Week 13 - Week 16 (Machine Support Gone)
Week 17 - Week 20 (Leggo Home)
