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It was Christmas Night 2008, and we were with family visiting and
enjoying our holiday together. For some reason, I was getting really
grumpy and really uncomfortable--more  than I had been the past week.
That night, I took a Tylenol and thought that when I woke up, everything
would have gone away. But when I woke up the next morning I still felt
awful. I was having some pains, my back hurt, and all in all, I just
wasn't doing so good.

It was December 26th and I had just passed 28 weeks gestation with my
pregnancy. So in my mind, the thought of our baby coming was
non-existent. I had delivered my son on his due date, so at the
earliest, I was expecting to deliver her was a week or two early. I just
kept thinking that the pain and discomfort would go away. Finally, at
1:00 p.m. I called the doctor and explained the symptoms that I was
experiencing. He told me to take a warm bath to see if that would help,
and that he would check back with me for an update on my condition.
Well, I was sitting on a heating pad at the time (which seemed to help a
bit) and I didn't really want to move and get in the bath.

Finally, a couple of hours later, I decided to take a bath, and by
that time my husband got home from work. I got out of the bath, grabbed
my What To Expect When You're Expecting book and started
reading up on my symptoms. My Doctor had called back wanting to see if I
had started feeling any better. Nothing had changed and the pains had
actually started getting closer together. He told me I could go to the
hospital and get checked out. I debated about whether I wanted to go or
not. I just knew that I would go and they would hook me up to the
machines and tell me that I was not having the baby and send me home.
Then I would be stuck with the bills. I continued reading in my book
about signs of when you should go to the hospital. As I was reading, I
noticed that I had all of the signs of labor, and then I had another big
pain so I told my husband "Okay, I will go and have them give me some
medicine and then we can come back home."

My mom met us at the hospital so she could watch our son, and I told
her we would be back down in about an hour or so. We got checked in and
they asked me "Have you ever had premature labor before?"

I gave them a weird look and said, "I don't even know what that
means." Soon after I got into the room, several nurses and people
started showing up asking questions. The more questions I answered, the
bigger their eyes got. I was wondering, "Why on earth are they looking
at me like that?" Then they told me the doctor wanted me to have an IV. I
resisted, telling them I was okay and had plenty of fluid and I didn't
need that (I am not a very good patient when it come to needles). I told
them, "Just give me something for the pain and then I can be on my
way." Well, that poor nurse came back and said "Sorry the doctor said
you have to have the IV and we also need to do a test to see if you are
leaking any amniotic fluid." That test only took a second and the nurse
said "I can already tell you that you will not be leaving the hospital
until you deliver."

I was stunned. I was only 28 weeks along and I didn't know what on
earth I was going to do with our son (Michael). The Nurse said to me,
"If you had not come when you did, you would have delivered this baby at
home. Your membranes have ruptured and you are leaking amniotic fluid."
She said, "We will have to give you medicine called magnesium to try
and slow down and hopefully stop your labor." They also gave me shots to
stop the labor and steroid shots to help Kylie's lungs develop faster.
The steroid shots are set up to be administered twice within a 48-hour
period. Everything they were trying wasn't working, and I was very
uncomfortable. I had to be tilted with my head lower then my pelvis so
there wasn't any pressure.

All night I just prayed that she wouldn't come and that her grandpa
(who had passed away) could hold on to her for a few more weeks. Even
with all the praying she still was determined to come. The next morning
at 7:00 a.m., I called my husband, who had taken our son home the night
before, and told him to hurry and come to the hospital because they were
giving me an epidural to try and slow things down, but she was coming
today. He hurried and got to the hospital. At about 8:00 a.m. they had a
Neonatal specialist come and talk to us about what we should expect. I
was coming off the magnesium medicine, which makes you fell really weird
(like you are having an out-of-body experience), so when the doctor was
talking to us, I was in my own little world. I wish I could remember
more of what he said. The only thing I remember is my husband asking
what the probability was that the baby would survive and hearing the
doctor tell him that out baby had a 95-98% chance of survival.

At 10:23 a.m., I delivered Kylie in the operating room, the NICU
staff was in a room right across the hall so they could start taking
care of her as soon as she was born. Kylie weighed 2 pounds 7 oz and she
was 14 1/2 inches long. As I mentioned earlier, the steroid shots are
supposed to be given twice in a 48-hour period to enhance lung
development. I was only given one dose. From the minute she was born,
Kylie seemed to be doing really really well. She was on a ventilator for
about 24 hours or less, which is truly amazing considering how tiny she
was. She is a true fighter. We had some bumps along the way. Her
umbilical cord I.V. punctured a hole in her abdominal wall, causing her
stomach to fill up with her I.V. fluid. This led to digestion problems
that made it necessary to feed her with a tube. Because of all of this,
her body had a really hard time accepting her feedings. Since her
stomach had so much air in it, it put pressure on her lungs, which made
it hard for her to breathe, and so along with struggling with her
feedings, she was put back on the CPAP (Continuous Positive Air
Pressure) machine to help her breathe. This was considered a step
backwards in her progress, and it made me very frustrated. My emotions
were running wild, and it was at this time that I received a Ryan's
Lion™. It was passed on to me by my sister who had suffered from the
stillbirth of one of her children. I would look at the lion every night
and it helped give me courage that everything would eventually work out
and things would be O.K.

One of the hardest things for us was not being able to hold Kylie and
rock her like we should have been able to. For me, it seemed like I
just went to the hospital and stared at her in her enclosed box. Another
thing that was really hard on us was not being able to have that
immediate emotional connection. But I will never forget how I felt when I
first got to hold her. It was exciting and scary at the same time. She
was so small I was nervous, but it was a very special time for me. They
have such an amazing team of well-trained doctors and nurses at Utah
Valley Regional Medical Center. I truly believe the NICU staff, our
religious beliefs (which allowed her to receive priesthood blessings),
and all the prayers offered for Kylie, are the reason she did as well as
she did. I am truly blessed to have such a beautiful MIRACLE that I was
able to take home on March 22nd 2009.

If you  are struggling, hold on to your faith and everything will somehow be O.K.

While Kylie was in NICU, Kylie's family received Lion # 101, "Junior."

They passed their lion on and purchased a second lion, Lion # 119 -