My name is Jordan and I would like to share my miracle baby’s birth story. I was married to my high school sweetheart in 2010 when I was 19 years old and moved from North Carolina where our families were, to Utah, where we knew no one because my husband is active duty military. Two years later, we had an amazing baby boy. Matthew Connor Reeves was born on March 9, 2012.
When I was 36 weeks pregnant my OB GYN had us begin seeing a perinatologist due to my son’s IUGR. For those of you who aren’t familiar with IUGR, it stands for intrauterine growth restriction. For reasons unknown to us at the time, Connor stopped growing at 26 weeks. I was put on partial bedrest and then began seeing the specialist ten weeks later.
On March 7th, my water broke after having a small leak for the previous two weeks. Upon arriving to the hospital we discovered that my water had broken, I was 3cm dilated and fully contracting. My OB GYN was on vacation at the time so the doctor had the nurse do a swab of the fluid since I was only 38 weeks and 4 days and not 39 weeks. The test was inconclusive so they sent me home. Over the course of the night Connor’s movements began to slow. I called my nurse at the perinatologist’s office first thing the next morning and explained what happened. After doing a non stress test and target ultrasound it was discovered that I was fully in labor and would be having a dry birth. I was admitted to the hospital and they began a pitocin drip to help my contractions. About 8 hours into labor we were told they would be moving us to an OR once it was time to push, because it was their medical opinion that Connor would not survive labor, and c-section wasn’t even an option at this point. Eighteen hours into labor the nurse came back in and said there was a chance we would be doing a c-section because his heart wouldn’t tolerate labor anymore. 10 minutes later we were in an OR.
Matthew Connor Reeves was born at 7:49 am weighing 4lbs 5.5oz and 18 inches long. Later on I found out from my husband that they thought he was a stillborn. They had problems getting him to begin breathing and crying. Connor spent his first night with us and the next two weeks in the NICU due to his low birth weight, inability to maintain a healthy body temperature, and lack of a suck-swallow reflex.
I am proud to say that Connor is now a happy healthy 13 month old weighing 20.5lbs and 27 inches long. He is running around all over the place and I couldn’t imagine life without my little fighter. When everyone said he couldn’t survive he chose to fight and be my little miracle.
