On December 24th, at 7:42PM a Christmas Miracle was born. At 27 weeks / 1 day, baby Aiden was born weighing 1040grams.

After 3 weeks of constant trips to and from Nanaimo General Hospital, then an 8 day stay at BC Women’s Hospital, a couple days home and then a code 3 ambulance ride to Victoria Regional Hospital, it became clear that we were in need of a miracle and that our precious son would be coming much sooner than we hoped.

After a year of trying to get pregnant, we were so happy the day that we finally found out that we were going to be parents. We were in shock and overjoyed. My pregnancy started out amazing… well for our baby – me I was so sick. But little Aiden was doing great right from day one, and continued to do well right up to delivery. The problem was his placenta attached in a bad spot and at 19 weeks I was diagnosed with a low lying placenta. This meant that his placenta was very close to my cervix and rubbing, causing me to bleed. It was an upsetting diagnosis as it meant that I would have to have a scheduled C-section, but Aiden was healthy and thats all that mattered.

At 23 weeks we blindly went on our babymoon to Maui. It was such an amazing trip and the first time that I truly felt good during the pregnancy. We were so glad that we went, however on the flight home things changed. I started to bleed again, and upon arriving in Vancouver we rushed home through a fog covered Vancouver to get back to Nanaimo to meet our midwife at the hospital. This time it was decided that there was something more going on and with fears of the low lying placenta being worse that they though, I was flown by air ambulance to BC women’s hospital at 25 weeks.

BC Women’s Hospital treated me very well. They did multriple ultrasounds right away to determine that the low lying placenta was no longer an issue due to my growing uterus, but instead I had a placental abruption. This meant that part of my placenta was pulled off from my uterine wall. We were told we could have the baby now or things could settle down and I could still go to term. After 8 days and everything settling down, we returned home.

After being home for 5 days, at 26weeks and 5 days I went into early labour. I was taken code 3 by ambulance to Victoria General where my water broke the next morning. It was now a waiting game. I was given 2 steroid shots 24 hours apart to help develop Aiden’s lungs in case he came within the week. 27 weeks, is very young and is not when you want to be having a baby as the complication list is very high. We were told we had a 50% chance of having him within the week or things could settle and we could go for a couple weeks, or even month more. It was at this point that I asked everyone for prayers and wishes that our baby boy would be ok, knowing that he was facing huge odds.

On Christmas Eve, at 27 weeks / 1 day, I went back into labor. This time, there was no stopping things. Aiden was breach, and I started bleeding again so within a matter of minutes it was decided that Aiden was coming now.

The staff here were so amazing. They kept us calm and worked so quickly and smoothly. George was taken to gown up while I was prepped for surgery. Through all the tears and fear, they just kept saying to me, your doing great, I know how scared you are. I’ll never forget nurse Wendy who held my shaking body so tight while they gave me the spinal block for the c-section, and I soaked her shirt with my tears.

George was swiftly brought into the room filled with doctors and nurses. Aiden had his own team of 4. There was my surgical team, anesthesiologist, and more. It was shift change, so we had a lot of people in the room. Within 5-10 minutes Aiden was born. Throughout the noise of the room, a faint little squeak could be heard. It was the sound of Aiden crying. The doctors were shocked, we were overjoyed. We were prepared for the worst and got the best possible reaction we could have. The NICU team did his assessment and brought him bedside before taking him to the NICU where George later joined them. As they left the surgeons said they never bring a 27 weeker bedside.

I can’t thank everyone enough for the prayers and well wishes. Aiden truly is a Christmas Miracle and has surpassed all our expectations. As I waited for George to come in and surgery to start, I laid there praying for his strength. I talked to Tayah, asked her to be his angel and look out for him. (ironically I had already see Tayah earlier that day. After waking from a nap, a stream of sun shone through my window and I felt Tayah there with me. Little did I know what was about to happen in the next few hours and hope much I’d needed a guardian angel with me.) I felt strength and energy coming to be and words really can’t explain how I felt that evening.

Each morning we get an update on how Aiden is doing. His strength truly has been a miracle and we are beyond grateful for his resilience. He is know in the NICU as “Mr Feisty” as he likes to pull his feeding tube, or CPAP (air support), but he can sure hold your finger tight too. Each morning the doctor and nurses give us updates to his progress and what their plans are for any treatments, feeding etc for the day.

I will continue to post pictures and stories of our journey here in the NICU for those whole would like to follow Aiden’s story.