As a Kelowna Photographer, during our newborn portrait sessions, I love chatting with my clients about their birth story and the arrival of their little one.

Having spoken to mom Jordan a number of times prior to our meeting, I knew her little one had been in the Kelowna NICU for 7 weeks and was going to be just under 6 pounds when I photographed him.

He was the most adorable little man during our session and as I was getting this blog post ready for his portrait reveal, I sent Jordan a text and asked for a few more details about his birth story.

Having not written it all down before, this is Jordans’ raw and emotional story.

Thank you Jordan for sharing so openly. I hope it gives hope to those who have lost and loved and those who have a health crisis such as you all did.

From Leo’s Mom:

I have a rare uterus anatomy that put me at risk for preterm labour. We were told that baby could come as early as the second trimester. All throughout the pregnancy, the doctors were saying we might have to head down to Vancouver for that reason but if we make it beyond 30 weeks, we could stay here.

We had a preterm labour scare at 20 weeks which put me on bedrest and then again at 29 weeks. Between all of that, I was also dealing with Kidney stones (ouch). 

When we were admitted to the hospital at 29 weeks 3 days, I was given steroids shots as a precaution incase he decided to come early — this would help his lungs to mature quicker and would help him to breathe better if he did come. 

We were sent home from the hospital the morning of December 7th at 29 weeks 6 days but was readmitted 2 hours later for possible “pre-eclampsia”. 

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication due to high blood pressure that can cause seizures and organ damage. 

After 24 hours of observation and lots of testing (December 8th), we were told that I had preeclampsia and it could be just a few short weeks, possibly even days, until we got to meet Leo depending on how quickly the preeclampsia progressed. 

Later that day, my preeclampsia was getting worse and we were told it was no longer weeks to days that we would meet him, it was now days to hours but they were going to try to hold out as long as they could to keep baby cooking longer.

A few short hours after that, my preeclampsia had turned into the life threatening pregnancy complication called “HELLP syndrome”. It had progressed into the most severe form and baby needed to be delivered right away to basically save my life and his. I was put on anti seizure medication and at 11:37 pm that night on Dec 8th, at exactly 30 weeks to the day, born 10 weeks early, our 2lb 11oz baby boy was born via emergency c section. 

He was rushed up to the NICU right away with his Dad while I was in recovery. I was wheeled through 1.5 hrs later for a quick glance at him but I was too unstable to stay.

Leo had a rough start. He was in critical condition but in the best hands possible. We weren’t even able to hold him until he was 5 days old. After just over 7 long weeks in the NICU, we were sent home with a 5lb 1oz healthy baby boy! 

It was a scary, emotional rollercoaster. Leo is our rainbow baby (2 prior losses in a row), and our little miracle. 

We named him “Leo” because Leo means “lion” and he had to be so strong throughout the pregnancy and even more so when he was fighting for his life after he was born.

Baby Bliss Photography specializes in newborn, baby & family photography in Kelowna and Vernon and works as a Kelowna Photographer

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