My husband Jacob and I met and started dating in 2019. We got engaged Halloween night 2020. A few months before our wedding we decided to stop preventing thinking it may take awhile to conceive.
We were surprised when we got a positive pregnancy test right away! We found out it would be perfect timing to have our gender reveal at our wedding reception on January 22, 2022!
Everyone was so excited when we found out we were having a little girl! We soon named her Harper Lynn McManus.
We had a completely healthy and low risk pregnancy. With no signs of labor starting on its own, our induction was scheduled to start the night I’d be 40 weeks 6 days pregnant, a final OBGYN appointment was scheduled for the day before our induction at 40 weeks 5 days.
The day before our appointment I began feeling contractions but not close enough to go to the hospital in active labor. On July 18, 2022, we packed up our bags anticipating being sent to labor and delivery from my appointment since I was contracting about every 10 minutes. Our midwife tried to find her heartbeat, when we heard the phrase no parent should ever hear “I’m sorry, I can’t find a heartbeat”. They started asking questions about the last time I felt her move which I had thought was no more than 15 minutes before in the waiting room.
We immediately rushed to labor and delivery, where we were quickly met with a team of nurses, midwives and doctors. A stat ultrasound was ordered where it was confirmed Intrauterine Fetal Demise and a full induction was recommended.
Our hospital team was amazing, our parents were all able to come to provide us support (COVID restrictions only allowed for 1 support person). After less than 12 hours of active labor, Harper was born at 10:02pm. She was absolutely beautiful, had a full head of hair. She was 6lbs 13oz of perfection.
Our medical team said there were no obvious signs of what had happened to cause Harper to pass. She did have her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck but they said they were unable to say if that was the cause.
A few weeks after we received the placenta report. Which showed her umbilical cord had a true knot. I joined several support groups and learned about Dr. Kliman at Yale University who studies placentas and is trying to help families understand and prevent stillbirths. Dr. Kliman’s report stated that the main cause of Harpers death was due to an extremely small placenta. My placenta was in the .003 percentile for gestational age and could not sustain her.
We decided to try for baby number 2 after being cleared by our medical team, thinking it could potentially take some time with my body regulating after giving birth. We were pleasantly surprised when we got a positive pregnancy test on September 28th.
Our medical team has been amazing with increased monitoring and testing during this pregnancy.
We welcomed our healthy rainbow baby boy Hudson William on May 22, 2023.
Photos taken by Brooke Lynn Photography.
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