Prayers and Support for Baby Celestine's Journey

Thank you so much for visiting our page and for praying for our sweet baby Celestine, who has had some challenges while growing in utero.

Update as of January 8th, 2025

Celestine was born on January 8th, at 5:32 am. After preforming a post natal echocardiogram the Cardiologist are thinking she may have a mild coarctation of the aorta which is narrowing of the main artery to the body. So we will monitor her in the NICU to see if the extra blood vessel closes up, this can be anywhere from 5 days to a month, if it doesn’t close up she will need to undergo surgery as this can be deathly.

As well as Large left sided PDA with bidirectional shunting. Think of this as the Mercedes Benz logo instead of having the three parts she has two.

Aside from her heart, we are still awaiting the genetic testing but she is showing Turner Syndrome features such as having low set ears, a webbed neck, and excessive swelling of her feet and hands. Mom is breastfeeding her and plans to stay in the hospital to do so, Dad will need to take off work in order to take care of the two other young children at home to make this possible for mom and baby. We come to our Facebook friends and family humbly asking for shares and donations to make this possible for our family during this trying time. Even one share or $1 would add up to make a huge difference in baby Celestine’s life as we learn to navigate this all.

God bless you all and thank you beyond measure for all the love and support we’ve been given so far

Update as of Dec 20, 2024

They have moved our induction date up by another 2 weeks. At the appointment today, I failed my glucose test & will need to do the 3 hour test to see if I have gestational diabetes. Both of our heart rates were high again this appointment and baby Celly has swelling on her lower extremities especially her feet. The doctor said we’ve made it this far let’s count that as a win and pull her. With everything going on and not seeing her Ductus Venosus we won’t know until after she’s born and undergo testing how long our hospital stay will be.

Please keep us in your prayers. I’m getting extremely anxious to deliver while having two other beautiful babies at home and just want us both to make it through a natural delivery safely and come back home to be a family of 5.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/prayers-and-support-for-baby-celestines-journey?attribution_id=sl:df4dd6b3-9876-412f-95df-95ff74c440e4&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_ft&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link

Update as of Dec. 12th, 2024- They still can not see the ductus venosus on the echocardiograms preformed. After she’s born they will do a post natal Echo and we will make a plan from there and determine how long we will be in the hospital for as well as do more testing to 100% diagnose if she has Turners Syndrome or not as we opted out of doing the amniocentesis due to the risk the procedure comes with.

We found out at 12 weeks that her genetic test came back positive for a chromosomal abnormality (Turner Syndrome). At our first ultrasound, they discovered a cystic hygroma extending to the fetal pelvis, generalized skin edema, and bilateral pleural effusion (bilateral pleural effusion is where fluid accumulates abnormally in the pleural space, which is the cavity between the chest wall and the lungs). Throughout the pregnancy the fluid sacks on each side of her neck, the fluid around her head and lower extremities has remained one of their biggest concerns. These findings were consistent with fetal hydrops.

The doctors were not optimistic, but we started praying and sharing right away for a miraculous healing of our special girl.

At 22 and 26 weeks, they performed an echocardiogram where no definite ductus venosus was seen connecting to the IVC confluence via the umbilical vein, causing the right side of her heart to work harder and dilate while trying to compensate for what she’s missing.

She has had a lot of things stacked against her, but she is a fighter and remains strong even with all of her challenges! The support we’ve received and have continued to receive has been nothing short of amazing. We feel so incredibly touched to know that there are so many people out there praying for our little one while we navigate all of the difficult health findings no parent expects to hear.

We know that her arrival is just around the corner and that we will have a NICU stay. As the doctor and director of maternal-fetal medicine has mentioned to us multiple times, we are just not sure how long that may be, but we would like to be prepared as much as possible. With no family nearby and two other little girls at home, both under the age of two, the girls' father, who is the financial provider of the family, will have to take off work to stay home and take care of the girls while mom stays at the hospital with our new precious baby. We come to you humbly in the hopes of raising some funds to alleviate the financial burden and stress this is going to add to our family. Thank you for your support, whether that is sharing, donating, or just praying for our family during this difficult time.