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The Amazing Lil’ Miss Tessaley Defies the Odds

In 2013 on Easter weekend, at only 26 weeks along, I stopped feeling my baby move. I didn’t want to be the overly paranoid mom who went into the hospital over every little thing so I figured maybe she was sleeping. After time had passed and still nothing, I looked online to see if there was a way to help make the baby move/wake up.

The article said to  drink orange juice and lay on my left side for a half hour and that would get the baby to move. After no success with that, and no amount of shifting or discomfort at all, I got very worried and told my husband that we need to head to town and make sure this baby was alive. I had already lost a baby girl the year prior due to her having no kidneys. And though this baby’s ultrasounds came out perfect, something was definitely wrong.

When we got to the hospital in the small town of Panguitch, Utah, they hooked me up to the fetal monitors to make sure there was a heartbeat. Thankfully they found a steady heart rate of 155. Relieved, they assured me things were good and we could go home soon. Suddenly as we kept watching the screen, her heart rate dropped to 60, and then to nothing. There wasn’t even a red line on the screen indicating a heart beat. The doctor then came rushing in saying he just got off the phone with Dixie regional hospital in st. George (2 hours away) and that they had to get the baby out right now. I started to cry as I couldn’t lose another baby and asked the doc if this baby was going to live. He said that we just needed to get the baby out right away.

Being a very small town, almost every doctor from town was there in the operating room. Little did I know before hand, they had everything prepared for her not to make it. Tessaley came out a feisty little fighter from the get go giving a good cry. Immediately the doctors couldn’t believe it and said that was a good sign. She was only 1 lb. 13 oz. and 13 3/4 in. long.

To keep her warm, they put her in a ziplock bag. I was barely coming out of anesthesia when they wheeled her into me and let me hold her sticky little hand before life flighting her. I didn’t know at that point in time if I would see her again. But she was strong. She only needed the secondary form of oxygen on life flight and then no longer needed it when they arrived. 2 weeks later at only 28 weeks, she was completely off all oxygen breathing on her own!

The doctors and nurses couldn’t believe it! At 31 weeks, she started breast feeding. Which was another complete shock as babies don’t even get the suck, breathe, swallow thing until 36 weeks! Then the biggest miracle of all, is all her tests came out 100%! Her heart, eyes, hearing, etc. was all perfect. She never even got jaundice!

They said she was a rockstar and told me they had never had a baby born that early do THAT well before! Only a little over 2 months later, she got to come home at 4lbs. 8oz. She has made all her milestones and thrived ever since and is completely caught up. She’s the sweetest little girl and is sharp as a tack.

The crazy part of it all, is what caused her to come early. Doctors usually don’t get to fly on life flight, but that night, one of the doctors from Saint George felt inspired and had a gut feeling to get on life flight with the crew. Because she was so small they allowed her to come. When they arrived where I was at, they noticed that my uterus was flipped completely backwards making Tessaley’s umbilical cord which was supposed to resemble a hose, but saw that it was rubbed completely thin and looked like a straw. Therefore cutting off my daughters life support. They said had I not gone in that night she would’ve been dead the next day.

To this day we do not know how or why that occurred with my uterus and it’s so rare that we still don’t have any answers. However, we are truly grateful for all the doctors and nurses that helped save her life!! We owe them everything!! ♥️♥️

By Kayla (Mum)

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