Help Wrenlee Thrive: NICU and Family Support

On May 5th, 2025, our family was on vacation in North Myrtle Beach, SC. This was our typical vacation that we go on annually, except this year I was a little over 26 weeks pregnant. During our drive, we began to notice significant swelling and edema in my feet and legs. Shortly after this, it began to move to my throat and face. After a couple of days of trying to relax and keep the swelling down, I was urged by my husband to be checked out at a local emergency room.

On May 7th, while at the emergency room, I was told that my BP was very high and there were proteins present in my urine. This was explained to us as signs of preeclampsia. I was not expecting this as all of my prenatal appointments back home were fine and I had not had any high BP’s at appointments. I was transported via ambulance to a bigger local hospital that had a labor and delivery department in order to have more tests run to see how severe my condition was. This second hospital ran a more in-depth test for proteins. Within minutes, the doctor came in and told me that the normal amounts they were looking for would be less than 0.03 and that they had just received my results showing my proteins at 0.11, which was extremely high. They began me on magnesium, some other BP meds, and scheduled another ambulance to transport me 1.5 hours away to McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, SC, where they have a department that handles high-risk pregnancies. While waiting on the transport, many nurses expressed how glad they were that I chose to get checked because my BP was so high that I could have started seizing at any time, which would have likely killed the baby.

I arrived at McLeod Labor and Delivery and began my treatment there. I was told by the doctor that the goal would be to get me to 34 weeks, but that realistically, with my numbers how they were, they expected me to deliver within the week. Sure enough, I began cramping and having high BP’s around 3 am on May 10th. They checked me and found that the baby's heart rate had dropped dangerously low. My nurse left the room to call the doctor and came back within 5 minutes with another doctor to tell me that I would be prepped for an emergency C-section.

Baby Wrenlee was born that morning at 5:38 am and rushed to the NICU. Wrenlee was born exactly at 27 weeks gestation, weighed 1 lb 13 oz, and measured 33 cm long. They told us to expect her to be in the NICU in South Carolina until her due date, which was August 9th.

Our jobs have been amazing with both my husband and myself, making sure our jobs are waiting for us when we get back. With Wrenlee’s condition, she is not able to be transferred back to Ohio, so I am forced to stay in South Carolina for the duration of her time in the NICU while my husband returns back to work. He hopes to fly back and forth every couple of weeks to be able to support me and Wrenlee. I feel as though I am still in shock with how quickly my entire pregnancy turned into this crazy traumatic experience. Some days it just does feel real.

We made this fundraiser in hopes to help us afford housing, meals, my husband's travel costs, and medical bills that are going to come from the hospital during these 3 months. We also have people at home that are caring for our pets for us that we need to provide food and essentials for. We estimate that all of these expenses will exceed $20,000.

We are already so grateful for the amount of support we have received from friends and family, even from complete strangers here in South Carolina. We have been prayed over by strangers, nurses, family members and friends. We would be even more grateful to anyone who would like to donate to help us during this time.

fund usage details: At this time, funds will be used for housing and meals primarily. We are looking at about $25 a night in a local guesthouse near the hospital if we are able to fine space in there. In the meantime we have had to pay for a hotel nearby at about $70 a night. Meal wise, we try to get things from the local grocery store that is shelf stable or things we are able to just microwave to prevent spending too much having to order food from places.