Kenzi’s Story

I lost my daughter to IC but also beat it with my rainbow baby. 

 My baby girl was my second baby. I had tried for 6 years to get pregnant again. Pretty much had given up all hope that the cards were not in my favor. About 3 months after giving up all hope I ended up pregnant. It was December 2019 I was completely shocked I requested a dr to see me the next morning after I got my positive pregnancy test. Because I did have an ectopic in 2016. My regular obgyn was extremely booked and I hadn’t seen him since the ectopic. We live in a really small town so I just went with who could get me in to see me that day. My pregnancy was going good my HCG levels were rising nicely the ultrasound showed baby in my uterus with a strong heartbeat. The first trimester went beautifully. 

 Around 17 weeks I started having a weird discharge. I would call my dr and he said to come in but never once did he check my cervix. He would only do an ultrasound and check for a heartbeat. At the time I didn’t even know anything about IC and didn’t understand how important those cervical checks were, other than they were uncomfortable and I hated them. 

 In my first pregnancy, I had no problems so there was no reason for concern. At my 20-week anatomy scan, everything was great with baby. 3 weeks later, on Easter eve 2020, I was in a lot of pain that just got worse as the night went on. Easter morning I woke up at 6 am and realized this was not normal due to Covid no one could be with me so I drove myself to the hospital so my husband could stay home with our son to see what the Easter bunny brought him when I arrived at the hospital they checked my cervix and said I was starting to thin out and my dr said he would do a cerclage tomorrow morning. I laid in the hospital bed and labor progressed harder as each hour passed around 5 pm they brought an ultrasound machine in to check on baby. She was fine moving. strong heartbeat I could feel her kicking and we saw her sucking her thumb when the ultrasound technician moved the probe down to my cervix we could see a huge dark spot and I watched as her eyes grew wider. She turned to the nurse and said call the dr now.. with it being a Sunday and a holiday they had to call the doctor on call he came in and checked my cervix and I’ll never forget the look on his face or the sound of his voice as he said: “she’s dilated to five babies are coming tonight.” Completely scared, they allowed me to call my husband to come to be with me. They also brought a life flight in from the City’s Nicu at 9:25 pm my baby girl was born Weighing 1 lb. 4 oz. and 11 inches long she lived for one hour and 58 minutes as they tried to get her stable for life light. I still don’t understand what that means to this day. 

 I got pregnant again very soon after giving birth to my daughter. I did not get pregnant again to replace her I knew deep down in my heart that if I didn’t get pregnant again now it would be never! And it was going to be extremely scary and hard but that was the fight I was willing to fight and trail I withstood!! I switched back to my first obgyn and told him I think I have IC everything I have read makes sense and matches. He said since my old dr never did checks there is no record to go off of. But he would keep a close eye on me he wanted to see me every 2 weeks. Everything was going fine one week he called me and asked if I was okay to start coming in every week because he would feel better so I agreed to that next appointment at 18 weeks along my cervix changed dramatically and we did an emergency cerclage that day. I was put on strict bed rest, only was to get up to use the restroom and shower. Absolutely no baths.

 I funneled right down to my stitch at around 29 weeks. And was in labor at 34 weeks my cervix couldn’t hold on any longer and I delivered viva c section, by my request at 34 weeks. My rainbow weighed 4 lbs. 12 oz. and was 17 inches long They did life-flight him for extra precautions and he spent 15 days in the NICU and came home on oxygen for two months. He is now 13 months old healthy and so very loved. 

He will never replace the loss of my daughter and we honor her in alot of ways. There is not a day that goes by where I don’t think of her. She was the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen. And I miss her every second of every day. 

 I now will always tell anyone who is pregnant to make sure their dr is checking their cervix,

whether this is their first, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. pregnancy because my daughter would definitely be here today had my doctor check my cervix and put a cerclage in.