Why We Walk in the “March for Babies”
By Jordan Skinner
When I left for work on the morning of February 20, 2007, I had no idea that this would be a day that would weigh on my heart forever. My wife was 17 weeks pregnant, we were preparing to become new parents, and we were overjoyed! When I answered my wife’s phone call that morning, all that excitement turned to fear in an instant. She told me that something didn’t feel right. I quickly jumped in the car and met my wife and her dad at the hospital, hopeful that it was just a false alarm. As soon as I walked into the room, I could see the devastation on her face and I immediately felt a gut wrenching pain. We were told that there was nothing they could do, preterm labor had already begun, and it was too late. We were going to have to say good-bye. There was no explanation for her body going into preterm labor other than “maybe it’s stress.” Our baby boy, Carson Lee, was otherwise healthy! After 8 hours of labor, she delivered our healthy baby, who in the process had already passed.
We laid him to rest in an area known as “babyland” at a local cemetery. Our nurse, Kim, was so passionate about her job. She even sang at Carson’s funeral. She invited us to walk with the hospital team in the March for Babies walk in Hickory, NC for the first time that year. We were honored when we found out that she had used a very touching photo of Carson on the team “buttons” that everyone in the organization wore during the walk.
Less than a year later, on my birthday, we found out that God had answered our prayers, we were expecting again! The excitement and happiness overwhelmed us! We couldn’t wait to tell our family and friends.
At week eighteen we had our sonogram appointment to find out the sex of our baby. “I see……GIRL PARTS…”, the tech said. Our eyes immediately started to water with excitement. Then she said, “I need to go get your doctor.” Suddenly, that same fear that we felt the morning of February 20, 2007 crept into our minds. We tried not to panic because we had no clue what was going on, but didn’t think it was normal to go get the doctor. We were told that her body was trying to go into preterm labor again. We were sent home, and she was put on strict bed rest for a week until the next appointment.
While getting ready for work on the morning of January 19, 2008, our fears were realized once again. My wife had started preterm labor, and regardless of how quickly we acted, we were once again told, “I’m sorry, it’s too late, we can’t stop the labor.” We were told that we may have a minute or two to spend with Kyleigh before she would pass. After hours of labor, Kyleigh was born, alive. God allowed us to spend an incredible hour and 45 minutes with our angel. We watched her heart beat, we told her how much we loved her, and then we told her goodbye. We were immediately brought back to a place of questions, anger, hurt, and overwhelming loneliness. We had another memorial service, and laid Kyleigh to rest beside her big brother.
Kim once again invited us to be a part of the March for Babies walk in Hickory, and we immediately felt like part of the family. We knew at that point that the March of Dimes would play a major role in the rest of our lives.
We prayed for years for God to show us a way to bring a healthy baby into our lives, and in the spring of 2011, we were introduced to Dr. Ponder at WomanCare, in Winston Salem, NC. We told him of our struggles in the past, and about our desire to have a baby. With the support of our family, the strength that God had given us, and the advice of Dr. Ponder, we decided to try again, and by the end of the summer, our plan had been put into motion. We were scared, we were anxious, we were hopeful, but we were pregnant.
One of the many precautionary steps that we took was a Progesterone Supplement. We were clueless as to how this would help us get our baby here safely, so we did some research online. We learned on the March of Dimes website that the supplement would allow my wife’s body to gain strength in the areas it needed, and to prevent the preterm labor that had stolen our dreams two times before. Thanks to the Progesterone, 7 months of bed rest, many rounds of steroid shots, a cervical cerclage, and God’s amazing power, on March 12, 2012, with our closest friends and family by our side, we finally welcomed our sweetheart, Remington Grace. She was born at 37 weeks, and couldn’t have been more beautiful. We took Remington home from the hospital, and a month later walked in the Winston Salem March for Babies walk. Of all the years before when we had walked, this year was different, this year we had proof of this amazing organization’s impact.
Join us as we walk in the Winston-Salem March for Babies on April 12, 2014. Visitwww.marchforbabies.org for more information.
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