The stunning Jenna Edwards, mother to Greyson Lewis (still born at 34 weeks, 09/30/14) and currently 24 weeks pregnant with her rainbow baby boy.
Jenna and her husband will have been together for 10 year this spring. They dated, graduated college, got married and about a year later decided to perhaps not try to start trying to have a baby. They were surprised to conceive just two months later. Jenna says that early in her pregnancy she had a feeling that something wasn't quite right but pushed it away as new mother nerves. She was seeing the OB that had been her mother's doctor and found that her concerns were always just pushed away. Aside from her worry things were going well. She wasn't ill at all and Greyson was growing.
There was a spell in her second trimester that Jenna really started to settle into things. She was feeling her baby move and though a cord accident or complication still nagged the back of her mind, found herself able to enjoy things. The week of her baby shower she realized that her son was moving much differently. There was an evening she stayed up late with her best friend and felt a flurry of hiccup activity. The following days she felt movement but they were more like push outs than the kicks she'd been feeling before. Everyone told her that it was likely just that he was getting bigger and didn't have a lot of room left to move. She called her doctor who told her it was again just normal but that if she wanted to come into the hospital she could. She pushed her fears away and tried to enjoy her baby shower knowing that she could place her focus elsewhere.
Jenna continued to feel pushing movements throughout the following day and on Monday decided to go into the doctor for a check. Her best friend accompanied her and from the first moment she just knew, the nurse practitioner couldn't find a heart beat but chalked it up to inexperience so she called in another nurse and ultimately the doctor. There weren't any ultrasound tech's in that day so her doctor walked her down the hall to a room where she could preform the ultrasound herself. Jenna says that walking down that hall felt like walking the plank - she knew just what was coming. As she had suspected, her doctor told her she was sorry, there was no heart beat and sent her home to process things.
Even though Jenna's intuition had already led her to suspect what was happening she was so overwhelmed with emotion she says she couldn't even cry for hours. She was faced with calling and telling her husband, her mother, the rest of her family and though the doctors bedside manner could have been better was grateful she had the time to process with her friends and family before delivering. She wasn't ready to say goodbye to Greyson just yet and enjoyed that last evening of togetherness.
Jenna and her family headed to the hospital the following morning at 5am for her induction. She had a room full of family and her best friend as things began. Her body took to the cytotec and she progressed to 5cms before her doctor convinced her to go ahead and get an epidural. Jenna says that in hindsight she felt that because her body had caused this to happen she needed to feel the pain. After all that she'd been through the labor and delivery felt too easy. There came a point that though very supported, she was overwhelmed by all the people in her room and asked everyone but her husband and mom to leave for the delivery. Her nurses were very sensitive to her needs and per her wishes, took Greyson and cleaned him up before bringing him to her. Because they hadn't know exactly when he had passed she was nervous to see him right away. They were able to spend the day as a family with their son and her best friend took beautiful pictures to remember him by.
After Greyson was born, Jenna tried to settle into motherhood without a baby in her arms. She went through a very difficult time and found that a week later her body resumed it's previous state. She felt betrayed that in her eyes it had done this to her and then left her with nothing to show for it. In the months that followed she searched for answers. Initial pathology was not able to give her an explanation for why he had died which fed into her fears of it happening again. She found a new care provider who did a lot of testing and learned that she had a MTHFR mutation that lead to her being unable to properly process synthetic folic acids and gave her a propensity to develop blood clots. Her new doctor consulted with her pathologist and learned that her placenta did have clots present. They now believe that this may have contributed to Greyson's death and that he was likely nutrient restricted and held on until he just couldn't hold any more.
This pregnancy has been full of anxiety but Jenna feels she's in capable hands. She's on blood thinners to prevent clotting and has had a lot of additional scans and screening. So far this baby is doing great and now that she's reached viability she has been able to relax a bit. She's going to be induced at 37 weeks and says that at this point she is less concerned about when her baby arrives or how, simply that he gets earth side safely.
After losing her son, Jenna, has become an entirely new person. She spent a long time looking in the mirror and not recognizing the person behind her eyes. While her story is one that many view as sad, her life is better because her son was in it. His pregnancy was joyful, being his mother is joyful. She wants to celebrate his life and her joy as she prepares to also welcome his little brother.