It was a hot summer day that July. I was getting ready to lay down for a nap and thought I would go ahead and take the pregnancy test I had bought (and been putting off taking) before I went to sleep and get it over with. I just knew it was going to be negative. As the two lines appeared, I couldn't believe it! How exciting .. I was going to have a baby! At 21 years old I was a little scared, mostly that I would miscarry or that I wouldn't make a good mom once I had this baby. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what would transpire with this pregnancy.

I found out that I would be due on March 6, 1999. It seemed so far away .. how could I possibly wait that long to meet this little baby I had already grown to love so much? As the days and weeks went by, things progressed wonderfully. At my 18 week check-up, we found out we were having a little girl! We decided to name her Haley Sierra. Ok, 22 weeks to go, or so I thought ...

On November 10, 1998, at 23 weeks pregnant, I had PROM or Premature Rupture of Membranes and nearly all my amniotic fluid leaked out. I was taken to the hospital via ambulance. I was in the Navy-active duty-at this time and requested to be taken to the Naval Hospital, but I was too unstable due to hemhorraging, so I was taken to a "civilian" hospital. When I got there, first, they listened for a heartbeat. I have never been so relieved as I was when I heard Haley's heartbeat right then! After that, they did an ultrasound and informed me that my water had indeed broken and that my baby was not "viable" because she only weighed 535 grams. They required the babies to be at least 700 grams before they would even attempt to save them.

I prayed so hard for God to make me understand and to help me get through this. I couldn't imagine my life without this baby. I had grown to love her SO much in those, what now seemed to be, short 5 months. As we were waiting for approval for me to be transferred to the Naval Hospital, we were watching television and got what I believe was a sign from God. The Guiness Book of World records show came on, and to our astonishment, one of the records they showed that night was the world's most premature baby! I was 23 weeks pregnant at that time, and the record on the show was 22 weeks. The little boy was a perfectly normal, happy, healthy 10 year old. I knew this was a gift from God in my time of despair; He was telling us that it was not time to give up just yet!

Later that night I was transferred to the Naval Hospital where I was told it would be my choice if I wanted them to try to save my baby when I had her, even if it was that night. So, I was admitted to the Labor and Delivery Unit where I would spend the next nearly 2 weeks in the "upside down" or Trendellenberg position to try to keep anymore fluid from leaking out and to buy Haley some more time to develop before coming so soon into this world.

I was given several shots of antenatal steroids to help Haley's lungs mature more quickly and I was attached to a fetal heart monitor 24 hours a day. I had a lot of people come in to talk to me about preemies and the different gestations and rates of survival. This was all so foreign and overwhelming to me. I was given tocolytic drugs to stop my contractions and labor. They told me they would hold off labor until I reached 25 weeks. At that point if I went into labor, they would let nature take its course because the rate of survival went up so much from 24 to 25 weeks, and the risk of infection was too great since my water had broken so early.

Being on complete, strict bedrest is no easy task. I was not allowed to get out of bed at all. That meant no showers and using a bedpan. I kept telling myself that I could lay there for the next 17 weeks if it meant Haley would be ok. Everytime I moved or even tried to sit up to eat, Haley's heart rate plummetted to the 60's. It didn't help being in the Labor and Delivery room hearing all the mothers happily giving birth to healthy kids all around me. I cried myself to sleep every night and wished that I could have that experience, but knowing in the back of my mind that I wouldn't; At least not this time.

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