Hey everyone. I am 21 and the mother of a beautiful 3-year-old baby girl, and expecting again any day now. If you have the time, I would like you to sit back, relax, and listen to my story.
In June, I had met my ex at Tim Horton’s. He worked there and I had just moved to a new town and was trying to meet new people. I was with a friend who introduced us and we immediately hit it off. We hung out everyday and decided to start “seeing” each other. He was 4 years older than me and had a job, so of course, at 17 years old, I was thinking, “Right on, I caught a good one.”
July 15th: My best friend was murdered. I had known him since I was 3 so I went into super denial and kept telling my boyfriend that he was coming back. He did everything in his power to console me and stayed with me pretty much everyday, and eventually, he moved into my dad’s house with me.
November 1st: I came home from work and he had decided to stay up and wait for me (I worked the night shift). I laid down beside him and he said “You know I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you, will you marry me?” I told him to shut up and turned around. I saw the look on his face and asked him “OMG, were you serious?” He nodded and I said yes.
November 30: My life had completely turned around. I found out I was pregnant. I kept thinking, ‘What am I going to do? I’m still just a child myself, how am I supposed to raise one?’ At that point in my life, I had nothing. I was into drugs and spent all my extra money (after I paid rent) on extasy. I hadn’t done drugs for a couple weeks beforehand so I knew the baby was safe. I tried to turn to my mom, but she didn’t wanna listen. He and I decided to carry on with the pregnancy and as time went further, we would decide what to do.
April 1st: 5 months pregnant. My first ultrasound, YAY! The technologist was asking me a bunch of questions that I thought may have been routine, ‘have I had any recent infections? have I been sick?’ etc. When I went into the Dr’s office she told me there’s a problem. “You have low amniotic fluid, which means you have caught an infection, You’re not going to able to hold this baby past 6 months.” I was torn. My baby was sick. I realized that this baby was special, this baby was mine.
I was sent to a high risk pregnancy hospital in Toronto, Ont. When I was 6 1/2 months pregnant, I was admitted into the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks and sent over to Sick Children’s hospital and had to undergo multiple tests such as fetal echocardiograms, fetal MRIs, blood tests, and the whole bit. I also found out that my baby was a girl. He and I decided on the name Nevaeh (heaven spelt backwards). I found out that the infection I had caught was called Cytomegalovirus or CMV. I really dont feel like explaining everything so you could google it if you’d like and ask me if you have any questions.
My daughter, Nevaeh Georgia Anne Hope, was born on August 5th, at 4:00 pm via c-section, weighing 2 lb 10 oz, 35 cm long. She was bruised from head to toe. We were told she wouldn’t make it past 3 hours. We were devastated. As soon as she was born, she had to undergo a blood transfusion.
October 27th: My baby girl finally came home! She was still so tiny, 4 lb, 11 oz, but she was as healthy as SHE could be. After almost 3 months and 40 blood transfusions, we were so happy to have her home.
Nevaeh’s first hearing test (at 3 months old) was good but eventually we learned that her hearing was slowly fading. At 9 months old, she underwent a test at Sick Kids and we found out that she had 45% hearing loss in her left ear and 55% in her right. It was a good thing we had taught her sign language before that! Now she knows more than i do!
March 18: We had FINALLY gotten married! Our marriage didn’t last long, 8 months. We were both still really young (I was 19, he was 23) But we are still very good friends and we BOTH co-operate in the raising of Nevaeh.
Today, Nevaeh is now 3 years old. She’s got Cerebral Palsy, epilepsy. She’s hearing impaired and visually impaired in her right eye. Despite the odds, she’s beating it all. I’m so proud of her!
