Kayla S' Story

My name is Kayla. I’ve been with my husband, Andrew, for almost 7 years now. In April of 2019, we discovered we were pregnant with our first son, Brady. We had no idea the complications I would endure. From fainting, to silent migraines, to ending our pregnancy at 38w1d with severe preeclampsia and our little guy being deemed a preemie due to his size for his gestational age. We were fortunate enough to avoid the NICU and he’s been a pretty healthy kiddo since then.

In June of 2022, we learned we were pregnant again, but that joy was quickly stolen when we learned our sweet baby had flew into the stars on June 6th, 2022. We named her Emma, and her sign when she visits is dragonflies. We were only allowed 5 weeks with her, but we loved every single second. This jump started our TTC journey.

We did not conceive again until March of 2023. Everything seemed to go great, until my 8 week scan. That scan showed that we had four yolk sacs and two fetal poles, totaling four separate possible babies inside the same gestational sac, making them identical quadruplets. I was quickly put on pelvic rest and told to take it easy, as I also had a sub chorionic hematoma alongside the babies. By our next scan, we had dropped to just two yolk sacs and a single fetal pole, indicating we’d lost at least two babies. We waited yet another week to see if our sweet twins would develop any further or develop heartbeats. They did not. The evening of April 26th, 2023, five days after their dad’s birthday, our sweet babies were officially released to the sky to join their big sister. Our son was insistent that they were girls, so we named them accordingly. Olivia, Willow, Luna, and Stella, our sweet OWLS for short. We know when there’s bees around, these babies have come to play.

After losing our quadruplets, we decided it was time to meet with a fertility clinic to see if there was anything else we could do. Our appointment was scheduled for early September 2023, but we’d learn in mid-August that we’d be canceling it. We found out August 16th, 2023 that we had yet another little one on board. This pregnancy was smooth, normal symptoms just a bit more intense. I requested an early scan due to our previous losses. September 14th we went in for a scan hoping to see at least a little bit of development, but that was not the case. Our scan showed just an empty gestational sac, measuring about a week behind. I was crushed, but tried to not lose hope. We returned two weeks later, on September 26th, to see yet again an empty sac. We knew this was the end for this pregnancy. Our sweet boy Owen joined his sisters in the stars the morning of September 28th, two days before my 25th birthday. Sweet Owen visits us in hummingbirds.

On January 4th, 2024 at 6am, I received yet another positive pregnancy test. I told my husband the next day, and the joy and fear returned once again. I did the SneakPeek testing, which told us that this sweet baby was a girl. Immediately, her name was Magnolia. We toyed with middle names for a few weeks, ultimately settling on Jo. Maggie Jo. Everything seemed normal. She had beautiful heart rates, she was moving on every scan. Our NIPT testing came back perfect. On May 3rd, 2024, we began the downhill slide. We were told our precious baby girl, who just jumped and flipped through her entire 20 week anatomy scan, had hydrocephalus. Her head was measuring closer to 30 weeks. That weekend, I felt something was off. I didn’t feel her move as much. I called my doctor for a scan, and on Tuesday May 7th, 2024, we were told this perfect baby girl no longer had a heartbeat. We delivered all 1 pound 12 ounces and 12 inches of her at 10:16pm on May 9th, 2024. She visits us in the bunnies that run through our yard.

We honor all 7 of our babies with urns, angel plaques, and candles scattered around our house. Maggie has weighted pillows and bears. Her blankets still smell like her. Our 4 year old knows all of his siblings’ names and uses them casually in conversation.

We know our journey isn’t over. Our quadruple rainbow is on its way.

Until then, we wait. And never stop chasing rainbows.