Evelyn’s Story
By Emily Eilers

Evelyn’s birth story has been filled with so many surprises, it’s hard to know where to start – beginning with the surprise of being pregnant. While Ted and I knew we wanted children, we had planned to wait until after I finished graduate school to become a nurse anesthetist. Then, during my 16-week checkup, doctors discovered that Evelyn was having trouble growing. We were warned that she may not make it to 24 weeks and, if she did, she’d need weekly checkups from that point on. This was particularly hard because I was getting used to feeling Evelyn move frequently. If she wanted to get my attention, she’d kick or punch, and I was getting used to feeling her move around in there.
Then, at 23 weeks, I started noticing a decline in Evelyn’s movements. I called the hospital and told them I’d been given a severe growth restriction diagnosis. They insisted that we come in and get checked out – which was the first of many times when doctors and nurses stepped in to save our lives.
Everything seemed fine for the first hour, but then once things started happening, they really started happening. Sweet Evelyn Luella just could not wait to enter the world and to prove it, she arrived at 23 weeks and 5 days, quite a bit earlier than expected. She came into this world with a big squawk but as quite a little human-8 ounces to be exact.
Right away she was taken to be cared for in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and from the very beginning, we knew how important it would be for her to grow and gain weight. I was able to pump and give her breast milk but, because she was preterm and her stomach was so small, she needed more calories than breast milk alone could provide. Luckily, we were able to add human milk fortifier to give her the most nutrition possible each time she ate.
Unfortunately, a few days after she was born, things got complicated. Evelyn suffered and overcame many challenges during her time in the NICU – a hole in her heart and trouble breathing and urinating, a grade 1 brain bleed and subdural hematoma. The biggest hurdles came when Evelyn was about a month old and developed a very serious, potentially life-threatening intestinal infection – necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) – and capillary leak syndrome. Once again, our incredible medical team was on it and stepped in to save Evelyn’s life.
Nearly 8 months after she was born, we were finally able to bring Evelyn home. While she is still on oxygen and receiving nutrition through a feeding tube, she is a typical newborn – and Ted and I are adjusting to life at home. I will always be incredibly thankful for all the incredible nurses, doctors, specialists, surgeons, and therapists who saved our sweet Evelyn’s life and gave her the best chance at success. Thanks to the medical innovation and nutritional options that were available to her, Evelyn has a bright future ahead of her.