Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month-Meet Sabrina

Meet Sabrina. This is her story and these are her words.

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Our pregnancy began much like any other. There were no problems through most of the pregnancy.  My father was born with Spina Bifida so at our 20 week scan we went to a high risk doctor for our ultrasound so they could check the baby’s spine and make sure that her spine was developing perfectly.  That day we found out that we were going to have a baby girl.  We were hoping for a boy, as both my hubby and I wanted to have a boy first but we were very happy to be having a girl.  Her name was chosen immediately. She would be named Catherine Victoria, Catherine after my late grandmother and Victoria after my husbands 97 year old great-grandmother.  

At this scan Katie was actually measuring about two weeks bigger than her gestational age but the doctors were not worried.  At our next appointment according to Fundal height, Katie was right on schedule size wise.  I did not think anything about this and the doctor was not worried.  My next appointment was two weeks away.  In that two weeks Katie went from right on schedule to a week small.  I was seeing a nurse practitioner that appointment and explained to her that this was the third appointment where Katie did not grow. She relayed the information on to my regular doctor and she mentioned that pregnancies go through changes so there might be periods of non growth, so again the doctor was not worried. A few days later I had not felt Katie move so we decided to go to the hospital and they could not find a heartbeat so they did an ultrasound to confirm and to check size.

After we were notified of our loss, they explained to us that Katie was measuring about the size of 24 weeks when I was about 32 weeks which is about the time the measurements started dropping. So we were induced and gave birth to a beautiful sleeping baby 14 inches long and weighed 2 lbs 4 oz on June 4 2012. An autopsy was done and they confirmed that the placenta had stopped working properly as part of the condition Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR). Therefore only about 20% of the placenta was working which meant that Katie was not getting the supply of oxygen and nutrients that she needed.

Since our loss, we gave birth to our rainbow baby Aston Allen on July 29, 2013. I was induced at 39 weeks just as a precaution due to my late loss. Aston was 20 inches long and 7 lbs 5 oz. He is now 3 months old and won’t stop smiling. He will grow up knowing that he is a younger brother to an angel and that his sister is gone, but not forgotten.