I was born on October 6,1999 at the hospital.  I weighed 5 pounds 1 ounce when I was born. They could not get an exact length because it was a life or death situation but they thought I was 14 and ¾ or 15 inches long. I was born at 5:05 pm. I am the only girl and the second child. My parents were excited to see me when I came out because I was a miracle baby. I was 1 day shy of 6 weeks early which meant my mom only carried me for 34 weeks. I was early because my mom got an apron hernia which wraps itself around the baby sac and could kill the baby if it gets worse. I was born via a c-section. I was in the nicu for 15 days. I had two chest tubes on the right side, a feeding tube through my nose, a main i.v in the scallop of my head and in my belly button. My lungs did not develop because my mom lost amniotic fluid from the hernia. I blew out a lung so I was put on a CPAP machine. The doctors took my blood levels every 45 minutes through the tub in my belly button. They did that to check my blood gases and levels. My mom called our pastor but him and his wife were at a church conference in St.Louis. You could see the facial features on my face and tell that I was crying but you couldn't hear anything because I was intubated. The doctor came in on Wednesday night with every bit of 40 plus people in the room and the hallways. He said “If she makes it through the night, it will be a miracle, BUT little girls seem to have a BIG fight in them!” On Thursday, I pulled one of my chest tubes out so they had to insert another one and stitch it in. They did have to sedate me to put the stitches in to keep the tube in place. They did blood draws and lots of tests throughout the day to make sure my brain activity and my lungs were okay. Late Thursday night, they noticed I was losing blood so they watched me into Friday morning and the doctor said again, “If she makes it through the night, it will be a miracle!” My parents went down early Friday morning and the doctors told them that I needed a blood transfusion because my blood levels were so low. My parents asked about family giving blood and the doctors said, “No, we need it now.” They also asked if they could go and pray about it but the doctors said no! They tried every route possible before reluctantly signing the papers. My mom told me,in 1999, the blood was processed but it was still scary because strangers blood was going into her, less than 2 day old daughter. The blood was all from the same donor. They needed at least four 6 ounce packages of blood to get my levels to move. Through the tears, my parents signed the papers and then the nurses and doctors carted me off to the operating room. They went to the room. Our pastor has no idea what was going on. He just randomly called from the conference and said he was in a group of people praying for me and God spoke to him and told him to tell my parents that “God will prompt you in every decision you have to make today,” little did he know, they had just signed the papers for me to have a blood transfusion, so with tears streaming, my parents were relieved because they just got confirmation that they did the right decision. Later Friday, the doctor came in and told my parents that he would be going home for the weekend and that the attendee would be on but if I make it through the weekend that they would talk about a game plan on Monday. My mom said, “What does this mean?” The doctor said, “It does not look too good! It is a miracle that she made it two nights already!” My parents, grandma, and brother, Jordan, were not able to hold me at all until I was 11 days old. Grandma and Jordan came up to the hospital a lot but Jordan wasn't allowed to be in the nicu. Jordan was finally able to touch and hold me almost two weeks after I was born. I weighed 4 pounds and 7 ounces when I went home. I had multiple doctor appointments. My parents weren't supposed to take me anywhere for six weeks because of RSV running rampant. I had to have a RSV shot every month but one shot was $1500 for the insurance to pay. When I came home, only people that were very close with no children came over. Jordan was the only child around me for six to eight weeks. Our pastor made an announcement from the platform saying that when my parents started bringing me to church, for people that knew they were not feeling good or if they knew they were sick, to stay away! He also asked them to not ask my parents to hold me. My parents put this thing under my sheet when they laid me down to make sure I was breathing. This thing was a monitor but without chords. I wore a double zero premi shoe until I was at least six weeks old. I wore premi clothes up to 8 months after I was born. At my 1 year visit, I had grew 5 times the size I was when I first came home.