MY MIRACLE BABY

I’m hoping my story may encourage someone out there. Someone struggling with their faith in God wondering if God is really there in your situation. When God does something good to you it's only fair that you tell out your testimony. This is the story of how my faith was put to test but God came through. This is the story of litu Faith-my very tiny miracle

                                                     Fig. 1. My miracle baby

Will start the story from January 2012. On 3rd January i was exactly 38 weeks and my time had come to download. My labor progressed quite fast and in two hours i had dilated from 3cm to 7cm. But once I got to 7cm i stalled there. Then I see my doc trying to get the fetal heartbeat but his face reads bad things. He does A.V.E and there is grade one muconium. I'm rushed to theater and baby comes but does not cry.

 I'm a bit dazed from the drugs but from the background i can hear the pediatrician that was called to receive baby say suction fail...suction fail. I had not done a sex scan so i just kept asking the doctor if it's a girl or a boy then they tell me it's a girl. But i hear the doc say my cord was so short and it had gone round the baby twice. So i go to my room the doctor follows me and explainsa little and says he would come back. This is not the main story so to cut it short baby died 12 hours. A 3.95 kg baby girl named Lilian.

 To say it was a crazy phase would be an understatement. A cs scar with nothing to show for it. I cried, i questioned God. I prayed and stopped praying.Then i kinda went numb. I also almost broke up with the Mr coz he started saying his own things almost blaming me indirectly for babys death.

Fast forward to April and i conceive. Was it in the plan nope. Not with a scar. My obs/gyn here in Nakuru had written on my file in red and in caps "DO NOT ATTEMPT PREGNANCY TILL SIX MONTHS ARE OVER". I had delivered in Nairobi at home so the doc there however told me i could try pregnancy in three months as long as I was emotionally ready. So come April it kinda got me offguard though. So instead of being happy i started worrying about my scar.

I got scared to even go tell my doctor that my p's had bounced. But I talked to someone who told me the more I keep quiet the more risky it will get. So i got hold of myself and went and talked to my doctor. I told him how worried I was but he told me that is his burden now I should just enjoy my pregnancy. So I settled down. Told my mum about it and my pastor and very countable friends. I really didn't want to tell people about my pregnancy. 90% of my friends actually knew of my pregnancy when baby was about 6 weeks.  My scan however at 20 weeks indicated a low lying placenta but the doctor assures me we have a long way to go one and two since i had a very fresh scar this delivery will most definitely be a cs. I continued with life; school, work, home.....until October ,10th 2012.

I had classes as usual. I used to have two classes on Saturday from eight to two. So 7-10 i finished my class then went for the next class. But when i went to the loo i saw something like a mucal plug but yellowish but I thought there had been recent activities that is what was coming out. Mr had gone to the village to look at the progress of the farm as they were preparing for the second planting season. But mum on the other hand was meant to come to see me and even bring some baby things i had left when i delivered. So my class was cancelled and i went to easy coach to pick mum. We then went home i prepared lunch we ate but i told my mum i'm very very fatigued so she lets me sleep. I was quite tired in a not normal way.

I sleep and wake up at around six. I was supposed to wake up at five so we could go take garbage to our main collection point which is quite far but I couldn't make it. I just told mum we would take the garbage the following day. So at six i woke up. Cleaned the utensils for lunch and fixed dinner very fast. We ate at around nine. gossip here and there, catching up with mum and at nine thirty i told her I needed to sleep.We woul catch up the next day. So mum prays, she goes to her room and I go to mine. I had wanted to shower but pregnancy refused. I just changed to my sleeping tee and got in bed.  I could not sleep,kept tosseing and turning for a while and sleep wasn't coming. The tossing was as a result of some mild cramps i was experiencing. I was 28 weeks pregnant.

Took my phone checking on time it's only midnight. I googled and google said it could be false labor I take a shower it will subside. I call my pastor and explain to him what i was feeling and I tell him my day is still far away he prays for me the pain goes away but he tells me something that i am not very happy with. He tells me if God has planned may He have His way. That left me with a not very peaceful mind. So I decided to wake up and behold a huge splatter of blood hits the floor. I sleep nonetheless. Blood at 28 weeks is not a good sign. First thought is that i am losing my pregnancy. I had earlier not wanted to tell my mum coz my mum panics a lot but now i had to wake her up. I actually called her out and told her "Mama, i think i'm losing my pregnancy". I go to the loo and when i wipe myself there is a lot of blood and mucus.

I call my doctor immediately. By the way on Thursday 9th i had had my check up visit and the doc had told me baby is head down but she may turn and he also said next visit we would be booking the hospital. i would have been 32 weeks by the next visit. So when i call him he asks what hospital we had agreed on and i tell him MP Shah but he tells me to go to Aga Khan he will be updated by the doc who would receive me. So before even dressing I knelt down in my sitting room and told God He knows the desires of my heart and I really wanted this baby. I called the cab guy but he said he was away but on his way back. But after getting down the stairs from our apartment I met a cab that had just dropped someone. And i told him that he really needed to rush me to Aga Khan and he agreed.He kept encouraging me that all will be well and that I shouldn't worry. But in my mind i know too well bleeding at 28 weeks is just doom.

Good thing is baby kept playing. Sema miracle! My baby played all through. We got to Aga Khan to quite very pathetic services. I went to those observation cubicles and i had to keep ringing the bell when the pain was getting worse. by now it is official i'm in labor but this doc doesn't want to tell them anything. They ask me some questions then they go. The doc who received me told me he will give me a jab to ease the pain. A different doctor comes and i explain i'm waiting for a jab. Then a nurse comes in holding with a very different jab from the one I was waiting for.In furry I sent her back with it!! Then she came back with the correct one. But the pain didn't go away. Sometimes the pain was so close sometimes it disappears for a while. By now my mum is on full blown panic mode. She even added onto my stress since I was worried for her pressure. She kept saying prayers which really helped. As the pain kept coming, I would just pray and tell God to take away the cup of pain from.So after much bell ringing from my cubicle...I went for an emergency scan which surprisingly showed everything was in order.

Video:my 28week baby:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ETsl2ZBh8DQ


 Everything was fine even my placenta was back in place. So I kept wondering why the bleeding and why the pain. So  think with instructions from my doctor one Dr. Yamal, I was taken to the maternity wing to check baby's heart beat on that machine of theirs. That was pure torture. I found women in labor and in a few minutes toto is crying and the nurses were saying congratulations it's a girl....all along i was asking God if I will hold my baby - Will i really hold my baby. By now i'm that time I was slowly letting go and coming to terms with the fact that i have lost my baby once more and i even said i ain't trying ever again. Tha  aboutt was about three o'clock in the morning.

So we talked of various options. Honestly the bills at Aga Khan would have been insane. He actually told me we were looking at eventually 1.5-2Million Kenya Shillings and my mind went wild. "Ate whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!!!!!!!!!" A freaking two million. "Nitaanzia wapi.(Where will i start from)?" You and I know people don't even contribute to hospital bills. What will happen. He talked of Kenyatta Hospital and I tell him...."for me Kenyatta it is i don't want to stress anyone with bills." By then i have tried calling Mr. and he ain't picking. But i dropped him a message and told him I was bleeding and in hospital. Yamal also tells me we are not having surgery. I will have a normal delivery. My heart stopped for a moment right there.He does not work Kenyatta Hospital so he says he will transfer me to one of his friends who can deliver me who goes to Kenyatta Hospital one Dr. Wanyoike. We do the jab for the lungs and get a transfer letter written and prepare to leave. I call the cab guy but unfortunately he has closed. When Yamal hears that he tells me not to worry he would take me to Kenyatta Hospital himself. So we wind up at Aga Khan and I got the priviledge of riding in a doctor's X6 ......

 In a few minutes we arrive at Kenyatta and he leaves me in the hands of a nurse .He tells me to update him. I went through casualty, the things that i saw there man.....my pain literally went away. The nurse confirmed my ID card and puts me on a wheel chair to the labor ward. I got into the first check in stop and was in utter shock. The bed I was given was being supported by a stone since the one of the 'legs' was brocken. I looked at the state of things there and I told God "this is not what I envisioned but its alright God, have it your way Lord". By that my Mr. had driven flying and he was in Nairobi. He actually arrived in Nairobi as I was going to Kenyatta. We talk and he says he was coming to see me.

The doctors doing round arrived at my bed and when they wanted to do a Virginal Examination. I told them not to, that i was waiting for my doctor. The nurse who received me at the labor ward who tried to put that thing on my tummy that checks on fetal heart beat told me....."Mama kwanza huyu mtoto wako ata siskii heartbeat.(woman, first, I cant even hear a heartbeat from that baby of yours)". By now it is official I know I will push a dead baby. So when i told the doctor doing rounds i was waiting for Dr. Wanyoike they told me i'm in the wrong place, taht I needed to go to the private wing. Did I mention they were really treating me like crap because my report had a letter head of  Aga Khan Hospital-a private hospital, so definitely they wondered what the fuck I was doing in a public hospital...."si angebaki huko ametoka(she would have remained where she came from)". So the transfer process to the private wing started. By the way, if I was to die, I would have died because honestly it took forever concidering all this while I was i'm in insane pain. When the pain came I just waved my fingers in the air. Aga Khan had refused to give us the scan report...but Mr went there to push for it because Kenyatta were refusing to attend to me without that report. By then it was around noon - 12 hours later. Dr. Wanyoike was not picking up his calls. I dropped him a text and he tells me he has transferred me to Dr. Wachira. Dr. Wachira is in church. Basically I was finding one stumbling block after another.

Mum succeeds to admit me in private and i'm wheeled huko. By then my two best friends arrive with baby clothes, diapers and toiletries since honestly this baby caught me off guard. Who in a million years would imagine you would go into labor at 28 weeks. So i got into ward C and got much better service to my relief. The nurses receive me, I changed into the hospital gown. They did Viriginal Examination and voila I was fully dilated but my docotor was nowhere to be seen. Aparently my doc Wachira had tranferred me to another doctor.Then baby's heartbeats were now 104 which is quite faint. A few minutes later the nurses were saying "we are losing the baby". And i'm like haiya kumbe toto is still there. I was put on that syntactic drip to make the urge to push to come because it was not there. And asap nikaenda labor ward. I did the first push wrong because I let out air....so the nurses tell me not to release air and voila one push baby girl is here. baby came out weighing only 1.260 grams.

The incubators at the private wing are full so they say we will have to use the incubators in general. Where an incubator caters for 3 babies at a time. stress!!!. But God works His ways and a mum who had triplets in the incubators in private wing agreed to have her children share the incubator and that is how we got an incubator.....and that my friends was the beginning of a thousand miles with my toto.

I delivered on Saturday 12th i got bad engorged breasts.time to look for a breast pump. I saw hell. My friend brought me an electric pump on Tuesday which was a huge relief. I then started expressing. I din't even bother to go to the nursery to see my baby. I had given up. I had too many thoughts going on. I din't even tell anyone i had delivered. I called a pregnant friend Shiks but she din't pick her call. Later on she called me back and i told her I had delivered and she couldn't believe. She thought i was pulling her leg. Shiks with her belly arrived at Kenyatta at around 4pm to confirm how true it was and much to her utter shock I'm back to the market with a flat stomach.......with a normal delivery nine months after a CS.

I didn't sleep that night. I googled on preemie children.....some were encouraging some were outright discouraging. I wondered if i would leave the hospital with my toto. So Sunday is when I went to the nursery to see my baby. I also talked to the nurses who assured me that all will be well. That my toto at 1.2 is a big baby coz they have seen worse.

On Wednesday I went to town to buy containers for storing milk. I needed to express and take milk to hospital for the nurses to feed her. At the hospital there was a lady who had been in hospital for 40 days so even me I wondered if toto would be here for 40 days. On Tuesday another lady also had complications and delivered at 900grams. She was discharged after being there for 50 days and her bill was 500 thousand. 'Ei Owada.' In my mind I was doing my calculations and wondering Christ where we would get that cash from. Now I was bothered about money and also if my baby would be well.

 On 23rd October i resumed work. I wanted to save my leave days so that when baby was discharged i would start my maternity leave then. I would wake up at four AM and express....I shower...have breakfast...go to kenyatta Hospital....then take a bus to work..evening; i go to class and after we would pass by hospital. It was a long journey my friends. Baby got jaundice the second week and she was put under the UV light for 5 days. I cried seeing her so tiny in that state.

So after 46 days in hospital we got discharged on the 27th October with baby having gotten to 2 Kg's. I walked a mile. But the nurses in the NBU at Kenyatta Hospital were awesome. We were under Dr. Miriam karanja who God has used to work miracles. 
So today I look at my baby and I have a trillion reasons to thank God. God proved me wrong. God held my hand through it all. I have awesome friends who prayed with me through the whole ordeal. Who kept checking on me and who celebrated with me every single gram that my baby added.

 Moral of the story........IT MAY SEEM DARK....YOU MAY LOSE HOPE, THINGS MAY NOT TURN OUT TO YOUR PLAN.....BUT GOD NEVER FAILS. GOD IS THERE. Just learn to move in motion with God's plans. Because we plan but God fall off His chair laughing at our plans. We had an insane bill too but God provided. Did i tell you that Dr. Yamal paid up for my bills at Aga Khan.......so tell me isn't my God a big God. Ebu take time and take this in,.......if you are doubting your God....trust in my God who has taken care of Imani. I have alot of milk. At some point i was expressing 1000mls. My baby has not had colic. I didn't have any issue....and i had a normal delivery after a CS. Tell my God thank you. I tell God everyday thank you.

(Inspirational Experience by a member of Pregnant Mom Supprot Group)