Baby Ziggy

After trying for years, my husband Iain and I finally conceived our son after extensive infertility treatment.  He was a true miracle baby!   I had some bleeding in my first trimester and was diagnosed with marginal placenta previa as well as a small blood clot over the opening of my cervix.  All ultrasounds showed that our baby was doing fine.

In my 20^th week, I was diagnosed with a 2-vessel umbilical cord, and was followed very closely to make sure that he was getting all the nutrition he needed from my placenta.  He continued to grow and thrive and was a very big baby!  I had weekly ultrasounds from week 30 until week 40.  When I made it to, and then passed, my due date we decided to induce my labor on October 11, 2001, which was also my sister’s birthday.  Words cannot express our excitement on October 10^th!  However, that excitement turned to horror as at 10:10 p.m., mere minutes from the time we were going to leave for the hospital to check in for the induction, when my water broke as I stood up from the couch.  At first I was thrilled, thinking “I don’t have to be induced!”  Then, as I looked down and saw blood all over the floor, our lives changed forever.

We rushed to the hospital, checked in and our son was delivered by an emergency C-section at 10:52 p.m. on October 10^th.  He was resuscitated, and put on life support.  We had no idea just how sick he was until late in the afternoon of the 11^th, when the neonatologist gave us the grim news.  Later that evening, we removed him from the life support and held him in our arms and watched the life pass from his little body.  He weighed 7lb., 8oz. at birth, but the nurse told us that if not for the blood loss he would have been a ten pounder!  He had dark wisps of hair just like his dad, and my nose.   

He died due to undiagnosed vasa previa. 

A piece of my heart died that day, and I will live for the day that I see him again.