The Miracle Baby

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The Miracle Baby
By Tammy Batson April 8, 2002

Even as little children, the majority of us wanted to be Mommies and Daddies when we grew up. As a little girl I babied my dolls, fed them, diapered them, and even took them to McDonald’s in my imaginary car! I started babysitting at the age of 13 - I loved children!

At the age of 21 when my soon-to-be husband and I were talking about marriage, I did not know if I would be able to have children because I had been diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 8. (Carefully controlled diabetes was a major factor in carrying and delivering a healthy child.) In September 1994, we had been married two and a half years when my endocrinologist told me it was safe to have children. I was overwhelmed with joy!

My diabetes needed to be in near perfect control just prior to and during the pregnancy to lower the risks of birth defects and risk of miscarriage and that occurred in February 1995. By November 1998 I had miscarried three times. My husband and I had prayed fervently about this and even had different ministers pray for us. We had also been prophesied to that we would have a child of our own.

At times I would cry and pray and ask God what was wrong and I would pray so hard for a baby. In my frustration I visited an infertility specialist. We went through all the tests; I even had exploratory surgery. The doctor said nothing was wrong with me. Then in April 1999 I became pregnant again! The doctor admitted me to the hospital to help prevent a miscarriage. I miscarried in the hospital at five and a half weeks.

All of our friends had children, and most were going on round number two. I wanted to have a baby so bad I craved being pregnant. I longed to mother a child of my own. We talked about adoption and the opportunity even came up a couple of times, but after praying about it we just couldn’t get that “this feels right” peace about it.

I remember a visiting minister pointing at me during his sermon one night and saying, “God’s delays are not His denials.” And then a visiting missionary looked at me during his sermon, pointed, and said, “You will have a child of your very own.” Wow! This gave me great hope and strength! But, at times it seemed my hormones were screaming out, wanting to birth their motherly instincts! I would find myself window-shopping at children’s shops, maternity stores¾at times I felt like I was going crazy!

On December 14, 2000 , my grandfather became very ill, went into the hospital, and never returned home. I was his only living responsible party besides his daughter who is very ill herself. So I had the full responsibility of him, his vehicle, his house, and his bills. I was with him every day and eventually moved him into an assisted living home. Working a full-time, very stressful job (with major overtime), being the Sunday School Director at my church, taking care of him (which meant visiting him every day after work, maintaining the upkeep of his home), plus trying to take care of things at my own home left very little time for myself or my husband. It was almost as if my personal life were put on hold.

On March 13, 2001 , I was attending a computer class for work and while sitting there, staring at the board, my mind began to wander as it would so often do with so much on my plate at that time! All of a sudden I imagined my stomach being cradled by two giant arms and I felt a peace come over me. I sort of shook my head as if to wake up and thought, ‘What in the world? I’m going crazy!’ I didn’t think much else about it.
Still later, while sitting there, I got to thinking back over the last couple of days and I started putting two and two together because of some symptoms I was having and I thought¾could I be pregnant? No way! So many times before the test would be negative and I just couldn’t see those two little pink lines popping up!

This time the lines popped up. This was our fifth pregnancy.
Now, if my husband and I could just get through the next few weeks under strict watch of my doctor and medication, we would have hope. Signs of miscarriage crept up a couple of times in the first few weeks. We just kept praying. With much prayer and dedication to my diabetes I was able to maintain normal glucose levels and soon came off the medication around the third month of pregnancy. I had never made it this far and I was elated!

The fourth month of my pregnancy was eventful. First I was laid off¾without insurance (my diabetes would cost me about $14,000 per year because of my insulin pump). Yet God gave me such a peace during this time. My sugar levels remained near normal and I was able to draw unemployment. (Wow, what an added bonus!) And, I was able to get on my husband’s insurance through his work. (It is so amazing how God works things to our good.)

Also during this month I got a phone call from my doctor who said my blood work came back abnormal from a routine test. He said there was a great possibility my baby would have a spinal cord abnormality and wanted me to come in for an amniocentesis. If he found something wrong, he could abort the baby at that point.

Okay, by now I’m losing it. I said, “No way!” Even if there is something wrong with this child, I will not have an abortion. He said, “Well, if you feel that way then we’ll just do a special ultrasound that will show more than what a normal ultrasound will show.” As soon as I got off the phone, I began bawling. I immediately called my husband and my father-in-law (who is also my pastor), and asked them to pray. He told me it was a trick of the devil and we were going to believe this was not so! I had to wait two weeks before they could see me for this special ultrasound. It seemed like an eternity.

Finally the day came and my husband, mom, and mother-in-law went with me. I remember the ultrasound being in color and at one point seeing a hand. I immediately started counting, 1-2-3-4-5! Yes, all five fingers were there! Then we saw feet! We were all crying! They did a careful study of the spine and they wouldn’t say a word to us about it during the test.

My husband finally asked, “Is it a boy or a girl?” She just smiled and said, “It’s a girl!” Oh my we all really started crying then! Everyone else wanted a girl! I just wanted a “healthy.” Afterwards the doctor called us in his office and told us that he saw absolutely nothing wrong! I think we jumped back out to the lobby to tell our waiting moms! Wow, another prayer answered!

The pregnancy continued and all was well until about the 29th week when some complications landed me on bed rest again for days, and from there on out I had to take it pretty easy. Soon I started having ongoing contractions, but it was just too early to have a baby! The doctor said I’d have to suffer through it.

By the 35th week of pregnancy I was so big I could barely walk. I’m only 4’11” and very short-waisted, and my doctor told me that my body wasn’t made to carry children. The doctor told me that my stomach was the size of an overdue 43-week “twin” pregnancy (mainly due to the diabetes).

I’ll never forget that Wednesday, October 10, 2001 . I was so big and miserable I had to lean over to walk. I prayed and I told God that I couldn’t take it anymore, that He was going to have to do something, then I went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night as my water broke. We were on our way to the hospital within the next half hour! At 3:01 p.m. the next day, LeAnna Rachel was born via C-Section. We were so excited; we still couldn’t believe it was finally happening!

LeAnna was five weeks early and had some trouble breathing because her lungs weren’t fully developed, so they put her under an oxygen tent and eventually had to insert a ventilator tube. Because of the surgery, and her being in the special care nursery, I was unable to go and see her for the first time until Friday evening. The ventilator tube was removed and oxygen placed on her Sunday morning and we got to hold her for the first time on Sunday afternoon. Wow! We just could not believe our baby was finally here.

I’m not going to say it was easy by any means to see her hooked up to all the tubes, needles, and equipment, but she was finally here! The hardest thing for me was going home on Monday night without her.

The doctor told me before I left the hospital that he had never had a diabetic patient that was not admitted to the hospital at least three times during their pregnancy, but I was his first. My blood sugar levels were near perfect the entire pregnancy, which was a first for me in my 23-year diabetic career. The doctor was amazed at our little miracle!
LeAnna Rachel was able to come home on Sunday, which we called “Coming Home Day.”

Today, LeAnna is a healthy, happy near-six month-old baby girl. I look back over the last year and think where God has brought us, the prayers He’s answered, the needs He has provided, and we are so humbled and overwhelmed at His grace and mercy that has been at work in our lives. We are having the time of our lives with our baby and we pray that we never take another day for granted!

ninetyandnine.com
ã 2002, Tammy Batson