Hey Family!! Meet our beautiful baby boy RD3! He has shown us a whole new meaning of love and my husband and I are so blessed to have him. He came and stole our hearts ♥️. And he is currently running our home lol.
He was born January 8th at Winnie Palmer Hospital. He was born with Bilateral Cleft lip and cleft palate. Pregnancy was a roller coaster for me physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Here we go.....
At our 20 week anatomy scan D3 didn’t show us his face but we got to find out we were having a boy 👶🏽💙! At 24 weeks, our son kept hiding his face. We were referred to MFM( Maternal Fetal Medicine) at Winnie Palmer for follow up. Once there, they also had a hard time capturing D3 since he was moving all over. However the profile of him showed possible cleft. We prayed for the best. It was at week 31 when we were finally able to see our precious baby boy’s face and there it was. Although the image wasn’t the best and we were told more had to be determined at birth, we knew we had to prepare for this journey for him. Doctors also said he may have a nasal encephalocele, which is fluid collection between the eyes. However this could not be determined until birth as well. Whether we found out before or at birth, I realized how incredibly blessed we are to have this child and I knew God would make a way no matter what. My faith was strong and I knew God would deliver our son. After all, he is our miracle. We were told we would have difficulty getting pregnant because of my uterine fibroids, and yet and still God blessed us without fertility treatments or surgeries. I just knew D3 would be ok.
Even though I knew God was in the mix, I cannot put into words how I felt.
I couldn’t help but feel like a failure. How could my child have neural tube defects? I’m a pharmacist right. I’ve been taking prenatal vitamins(with way more folic acid than the body needs of course) prior to pregnancy, exercising, eating right, doing everything I knew to do. And it’s not like I just started being healthy, I’ve been healthy my entire life. I blamed myself. Yes I did. This was my fault. We didn’t find out we were pregnant until we were eight weeks along. So I had many questions. How could this happen? Did I stress myself out too much? Was I exposed to anything during pregnancy (I do work 10 hours a day in the pharmacy)? What didn’t I do right? Cleft lip? That doesn’t run in our family so seriously? What’s crazy is right after getting the news of our son possibly having a cleft lip and palate, we avoided two major accidents being directly hit on my side and I also fell and hit my head avoiding my stomach, which could have been devastating, Thank God. God told me right then, D3 is called for His Glory, that he was chosen And that I needed to pray because he will Be a world changer. I was praying before but so much harder now. Everyday at 4am I was in my prayer closet covering our son.
Soon after, I failed both glucose tests, however they didn’t give me medication ( I wouldn’t have taken it anyway. I can treat myself.Yeah, I try to handle things first before medication) since my values were borderline (90's to 120's). At home my fasting blood glucose was in the 70's and 80's. According to my doctor I just needed to watch my diet and exercise. Umm hello, I was already doing that 🤦🏾♀️. I also got tested for preeclampsia since my Blood Pressure readings would spike at the doctors office. Mind you they were perfect, even lower than usual, at home (Of course right). Thankfully with the 24 hour urine test, it was ruled out since there was no protein in my urine. The enemy was busy. It was meant for me to be broken in every way and not enjoy my pregnancy, our miracle.....But God......I refused to let the circumstances the enemy presented dim the beauty of our pregnancy or the beauty of our son. What I was allowed to see was that it doesn’t matter what you do, or try to prepare, we are not in control and what happens to you is meant for you. Period. God’s plan is always the best plan. May not be understood but always best.
Needless to say, this pregnancy has taken me on a roller coaster of emotions and I am so thankful to God for keeping me and to my husband who has been by my side through it all. Pregnancy is a beautiful experience and a lot of what you go through or comes your way can affect your state of mind. My husband made sure I was good and we prayed together every day. He cooked and cleaned when I couldn’t (especially those last weeks), rubbed my feet, and just gave me the support I needed. Believe me, it meant so much to have that and I love you so much Ronald Diltz II ❤️. I could not have done this without you❤️
When D3 was born We fell in love and knew this was God’s will. We are so proud to be D3’s parents and ready to take this cleft journey with him. The journey is more for us than our son since he will not remember any of his procedures. He has a total of three before he is 18 months. What we are grateful for the most is that everything can be put into place with surgery. What a blessing! This is a journey of faith, strength, and love. It was super hard to see him go directly to NICU once being born and super difficult to be discharged without him. I mean, who wants their child to have surgery, to go through anything you didn’t have to go through, to be separated from you? 😭😭😭😭😢😢 But As God brought our blessing into this world, God will see us through. I really didn’t know how much strength I had until this experience. As only HE could do, the separation was short lived and God allowed us to bring him home after only a week in NICU. All praises be to the Most High!
Thank you for all your love and prayers! Continue to pray for us in this journey. We are looking forward to what lies ahead! Right now we are celebrating 🥳 our baby boy! D3 is here ❤️! Hallelujah! Our hearts wrapped up into one! And we Praise God for it all 🙏🏾
Can’t believe he will be 6 weeks old on Tuesday 😩👶🏽
Monique Diltz