By Lisa Eggleston
Mommy to Ezra
May 24 – May 25, 2019
Acrania
We decided we wanted to start our family fairly young to be younger parents. After a couple of months, we were soon pregnant with our first child in September 2018. We were excited and started making plans for our new little family. We quickly told friends and family about expecting. We started to make nursery plans and bought our baby’s first stuffed animal. Nothing was on our radar to be different than a normal, healthy pregnancy.
We went to get our 20-week sonogram. After a while, we realized there was something the technician was not telling us and began to get nervous. After the sonogram, they brought us into a room where a doctor began to explain that our baby had a Neural Tube Defect called Acrania. We learned in that quick moment that our baby would be born without the top of his skull. Everything else was normal in our baby. We have a picture from the sonogram of both feet where you can almost count all the toes. We were told that our baby would likely develop to full term, but would probably only live a day.
I continued to carry our son for the next 20 weeks. At 39 weeks and 5 days, I went into labor. The drive to the hospital was sad and scary. As my first pregnancy, I was so scared as to what labor and delivery entailed, and I did not want to have to go through it to then lose our baby. When we arrived at the hospital, it was hard to tell the nurse on duty about our son’s diagnosis when she asked if we had any concerns about the pregnancy. After around 12 hours, our son Ezra Lee was born surrounded by friends and family. He was with us for a day, and passed away in the arms of his parents.
Ezra’s diagnosis has impacted us in a number of ways. We are much more aware of pregnancy and infant loss because of our experience and how common it is for so many people. Through the years, we have also learned so much about the peace that passes understanding through the prayers, love, and support of our church family.
When we first found out about Ezra’s diagnosis, we were unsure if we wanted to schedule and pay for any professional photos. However, the gift of On Angel’s Wings was such a blessing to us during that time and continues to be a blessing. Even though we were not feeling up to taking photos, having the photos today of pregnancy and after Ezra was born is something we will treasure and look back on forever. We feel so blessed by On Angel’s Wings many times over. Providing maternity photos for Ezra, being there in the middle of the night when he was born to take photos after he was born, and photographing our journey with our rainbow babies is such a powerful gift.
Three years after our son’s birth, we welcomed a healthy baby girl into this world in March 2022, and our second daughter was born in November 2023. It was difficult to make the decision to try again for another baby with the fears of possibly losing another child. However, the Lord is faithful, and we are so blessed by them in our lives.
