When I found out I was pregnant with Jilliana I was a single mom of 3 so I was not happy about it. I had been dating someone but it wasnt working out...but then I found out I was pregnant. I had gone through 3 pregnancies so i knew the drill and I was planning on getting an ultrasound to find out how far along I was but then not going back for a while after all I had been through all this and I felt like if God wants this baby to be here it will be here. Well at that ultrasound I found out I was 11 weeks pregnant. The nurse didn't act very happy or smiley which I thought was kinda strange but I didn't think too much of it. A few days later I got a call that I needed to come in and talk to the doctor because something was wrong with the baby. Apparently there was excess fluid around the baby's head and the doctor was thinking the baby possibly had Down Syndrome, Turners Syndrome or some other condition resulting from a chromosomal abnormality. I was definitely shocked. I had 3 healthy kids so the LAST thing I was worried about was something being wrong with the baby and I immediately felt guilt for at first wishing I wasn't pregnant. I have also never been the type to worry about my baby being healthy and didn't understand why people worried about that when it's so rare that something will be wrong. At my next ultrasound the fluid was gone but it appeared that there was a heart problem. Since the fluid was gone I thought the baby was fine and that they just didn't get a good enough picture of the heart. But I assumed wrong. More ultrasounds confirmed that the baby, which I found out was a girl, had Hypoplastic Right Heart and would need heart surgeries which really broke my heart. The doctor told me that most couples who's baby has what mine had choose to terminate the pregnancy. I knew that was never an option for me as I am pro-life and well, now was the time to prove it. If she died I didn't want it to be because of me. My doctor would remind me that I could still terminate the pregnancy and I could up to 24 weeks but my answer was always no I'm not gonna do that. My kid's pediatrician told me that it's rare that babies with HRHS live so you can imagine how upset I was to hear that! I didn't buy much for her as I wasn't sure if I would be bringing a baby home! It was terrible I was preparing myself to possibly have to say goodbye to my baby. My due date was December 2nd 2009. I was scheduled to go in for a c-section the morning of Nov. 17th but I had never had a c-section and was incredibly nervous. They were planning on doing a c-section because she was measuring to be over 9 lbs and my 3rd child was 8 lbs 11 oz and I had a hard time delivering him so they were afraid she would get stuck which would be extra terrible because of her condition. Also I was borderline gestational diabetes and babies of moms with gestational diabetes tend to be bigger and there was also a risk to babies of moms with gestational diabetes of passing away late in the pregnancy so to avoid all that they were just going to deliver her early. They were going to do an amniocentesis first to make sure her lungs were developed which I was VERY nervous about because they stick a long needle into your stomach and draw fluid from around the baby and test it to see if the baby's lungs are developed enough to be born. When I got to the hospital I was already 5 or 6 cm so I was already in labor so there was no point in the amniocentesis because she was on her way regardless of her lungs. I was so relieved to not have to get one done! I was still nervous about the c-section though and upset that if I got a c-section I wouldn't be able to leave the hospital and go to Nationwide Children's Hospital to see the baby the next day. Labor progressed well and the nurse thought I should just go ahead and deliver her naturally since I had already had 3 naturally before. So that's what I did and I'm glad because she was only 7 lbs 13 oz. I named her Jilliana Noelle Corcoran. She was the ONLY one of my kids that cried when she came out and she was the one with the heart problems, she was a feisty one from the start. Everyone knew exactly what to do and immediately started doing whatever they needed to do. I only held her for a couple seconds then they took her to the NICU. She was there for an hour or two and then they transferred her to Children's Hospital where they were waiting for her there. That night I spent at the hospital without her was difficult but they let me lave the next morning. I went to see her in the NICU at Children's. The next day they transferred her to the CICU. I cried every time I went to see her it was so hard seeing her with tubes and stuff everywhere and I wished I could stay there all the time but I had my 3 other kids I had to take care of. Jilliana is now 2 years old and will be having her 3rd surgery, the fontan, soon (as she is supposed to have it when she is 2.) She is as feisty as ever and although she has slimmed down and is now on the thin side, (she doesn't eat much), she is doing wonderfully! I thank God for her every day and I want people to know that if your baby is diagnosed with a serious heart defect it's NOT a death sentence and they can have a mostly normal life!
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