March 6, 2014 was the happiest and scariest day of my life. I remember this day like it was yesterday. On march 5th, Tyler and I were on our way to Memorial Hospital so I could be induced. I was in labor for 24 hours and 30 minutes. My contractions were by far the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life, but I gave birth to Addy pretty smoothly (meaning, I thought it was going to be way worse). Adalynn was born at 10:08 am and I have never been more excited to see that sweet face of hers. She was absolutely perfect! Out of nowhere, NICU nurses were in the delivery room with us, examining Addy. She was rushed to the NICU (at the time I had no idea why). Unfortunately, I was still out of it so Tyler went to the NICU with Addy. He came back to the delivery room to check on me, and had told me we would have to wait later that evening to hear from the Doctors. I kept repeating in my head "Addy is going to be okay." I was so anxious to hear from the Doctors! later that evening, we finally heard from the Dr. and he had noticed she had loud breathing (known as Stridor). They did a ton of tests on her and noticed she had PDA as well.. I honestly felt like we were never going to hear the end of it. The Dr. mentioned that her facial features were not "normal" and they wanted to test her for Trisomy 13, 18 & 21. I had never heard of these except for Trisomy 21 (down syndrome). I was so confused & thought how could this be possible? I was tested for this & my results came back normal. Trisomy 18 is a lethal type of down syndrome and the Dr. was thinking because of Addy's facial features, she for sure had it. We asked him if Addy was going to be okay & he said "I don't know." with this blank stare that I will never forget. It was then, that Tyler & I lost it. Our sweet daughter that we waited 9 months to meet, might not make it. I felt sick to my stomach. I was upset, hurt, confused, angry and questioning everything. I cried every single day. I couldn't eat, sleep, I was a MESS. Tyler & I felt so hopeless. That night we fell to our knees and prayed like we never prayed before. We begged God not to take our sweet baby girl from us. We begged for him to take everything from us, just don't take our baby girl. Later that night my entire family met us at the hospital and we all gathered in a circle and prayed. The Dr. sent labs out and we waited a week until we found out the results. It was the longest week of my life! I had planned to breast feed Addy, so I pumped every 3 hours for her. She wasn't eating by mouth so I wanted it to be ready for her when she did decide to eat. Somewhere in my mind I figured my breast milk would cure Addy, and I felt like I needed to do everything in my power to save her. I felt hopeless, but pumping food helped me keep somewhat sane.
I will never forget all the phone calls, texts and emails I received from family friends saying they were praying for Addy. I loved this! The power of prayer is amazing & I know God could hear us! A week went by and we received a call from the hospital saying the lab results were in. We rushed to the hospital, praying on the car ride there and mixed with a TON of different emotions but we finally made it. We arrived at the hospital and waited for the Doctor to approach us. A couple minutes went by, and he walked up to us and said the results came back normal. NORMAL! That's all I wanted to hear. The Dr. kept talking to us, but I had no idea what he was saying because all I kept saying in my head was, "Thank you God, Thank you God, You are so good!"
Addy was in the NICU for 2 weeks and was transferred to CHLA for further testing. What I thought was the end of a horrible journey, was just the beginning. Addy was transferred to CHLA by helicopter and stayed for 2 months & 5 days. Our stay there was the hardest thing we have ever gone through. We were by Addy's side the entire time she was there and prayed every single night with her. I won't go into too much detail about our stay (maybe for a different post) but Addy was tested for more syndromes & those all came back normal. She was later diagnosed with Laryngomalacia and Micrognathia.
We go to multiple appointments a year but we wouldn't change a thing about it. My daughter is alive and she is the best thing that ever happened to me. What Addy went through, I will NEVER forget.
Adalynn Joy Iwamura is by far the strongest baby I know. She has gone through more than most adults go through in their life. She has overcome so much in a year and I am so proud of my sweet Addy. She is my miracle.
Happy 1st Birthday Adalynn Joy Iwamura! <3
God is so good!!
