#30DaysofBrave Day 1- Brianna

When I got pregnant at 30 after being with my husband for 11 years, I had so many plans.

I knew what my baby shower would look like before I even knew I was pregnant.

I knew what trips I wanted to take with my baby, I had it all planned.

What I could never know was that our story wouldn’t go as planned at all.

Our story took a hard left and led us down a path of bravery we were never ready to take. Ready or not, my husband and I braved it together.

On November 30, 2020 at 25 weeks and 2 days, after spending 9 days in the hospital on bed rest from preeclampsia, I was being fetal monitored when suddenly nurses ran in to unstrap me and take me down to L&D. All they said was baby’s heart rate was dropping. They wouldn’t tell me any more than that and I sobbed all the way down as I called my mom and husband because I didn’t know who would make it first. I was taken in for an emergency c-section and the bravery truly began.

Our 1 lb daughter was the greatest gift we’ve ever been given. I can tell you I was brave, but our 25 weeker was braver. When I sat at her bedside crying, she fought for her life. When I went home at night, she kept fighting. After 115 days of bravery in the NICU, we brought our baby girl home on oxygen.

Our bravery, again, was front and center as we learned how to operate the machinery that would keep her alive. Our baby must have been braver, she left the only place she ever knew to begin a life with us that day, and she did it with all the trust her little body could muster.

Bravery is a strange word to associate with what we went through. My husband and I weren’t brave, we were parents. Parents who knew it would take everything we had in us to fight at her side and eventually bring her home. Bravery is everything our preemie was and is still. Now 8 months after being born, our girl continues to wow us!

Every day she wakes up braver than the last and she keeps inspiring us! I could never live up to her bravery, but every day we try to be the best parents we can be, and that feels pretty brave to me!