Keira’s Story

(This is a guest blog by Heather about her daughter Keira. Thank you for sharing this with us, Heather.)

My husband and I went through fertility treatments and we found out we were pregnant on the 4th of July, 2012. We were home with my family for the holiday and we were able to tell my close family and tell his on our way home as they were visiting his Grandmother. We were elated!!

We were shocked and surprised to find out at week 9 we were carrying a set of fraternal twins! Two little sacs danced and waved at us from the ultrasound machine. We were very overwhelmed, but excited and started planning for our lives to change 2-fold.

At our appointment at 11 weeks, with our OB that would follow my pregnancy, we found out Baby B (the bottom baby) no longer had a heartbeat. We were devastated-as scared and overwhelmed as we were, we were still very excited to not have just one, but TWO little babies on the way.

I started having bleeding from the twin a few days later, which continued into the second trimester. This made our doctor a bit concerned, but that didn’t seem to be a huge factor in my pregnancy as we had a pretty smooth ride right up to week 36.

When I was 36 weeks pregnant, I thought I was going into labor. I started timing the contractions and I thought it was time to go to the hospital as they were “close enough together” to go in. My husband and I drove to the hospital, all of our baby gear in tow, and were observed for a while. The baby’s heartbeat was good and everything was looking great, but they weren’t strong enough to be in active labor. They put me in a whirlpool tub to see if the cervix would change, but it didn’t. We were discharged.

When I was 37.5 weeks (on a Wednesday night), my husband was pushing and poking my belly and our daughter would kick back. We were having a good time playing with baby and it was time to go to bed so I went upstairs and went to sleep. About 11:30pm, I awoke to hard contractions and I started to time them. About 3:30am, I woke my husband and we were off to the hospital (all the baby gear stayed in the car for this very moment). We were admitted about 4:15am and they were hooking up all the monitors after I had gowned up for delivery. The fetal heart rate monitor wasn’t picking up my baby’s heartbeat. She tried another. No heartbeat. PANIC. They brought in an ultrasound machine and they confirmed Keira did not have a heartbeat… she had passed away already and now I would have to deliver a baby that we would never hear cry.

I wanted my Mom and Dad and I wanted to talk to MY Doctor. My husband and I made phone calls that we never thought we’d have to make. Phone calls that no one EVER thinks they will have to make. Our parents all made travel plans to be with us-something we can never, ever repay them for…being there for us at a drop of a hat (we are blessed!). My Doctor came in for rounds as our Pastor from church was also getting to the hospital for support. He talked about our options for delivery and I decided I’d come this far, so he administered Petocin to kick-start labor again as the shock to my system had halted labor. I was given the medication at 10:07am and Keira was born to heaven at 12:52pm on February 28, 2013 at 5 pounds 9 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. She had the cord wrapped around her 5 times: twice around her neck and body and once around her leg. Her fetal death was due to a “cord accident” (UCA).

Our experience in the hospital was by far above and beyond anything we would have ever expected. Every nurse was so kind and they really took the time to fully explain to us all that was going on and what to expect. They took hundreds of pictures of Keira for us as well as called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep and set up a photographer to come and photograph our beautiful daughter.

We spent the next 24-48 hours in the hospital with our daughter, our closest friends, and family. We memorized every wrinkle and every inch of her precious little body.

She was too beautiful for this Earth.

-Heather Wilkins, Keira’s Mom