When the young Nebraska couple discovered they were having a child, they were virtually in shock. However, the tests also showed that both mother and child may be in danger, necessitating an urgent c-section within 48 hours.
Peyton Stover, 23, had just begun her career as a teacher and had no idea that she was expecting; instead, she simply attributed the symptoms to stress at work.
“This is my first year as a teacher. I thought it was normal to be tired all the time,” she said. But after noticing that her foot was also swollen, she decided to see a doctor and soon found out that she was expecting a baby. An ᴜʟᴛʀᴀsᴏᴜɴᴅ scan was performed after two tests confirmed the pregnancy.
But that wasn’t the only sʜᴏᴄᴋɪɴɢ news. The doctors determined that the life of both the mother and the baby could be in ᴅᴀɴɢᴇʀ. “My kidneys weren’t working properly and my liver wasn’t working properly,” Stover said .
Doctors diagnosed her with ᴛᴏxᴇᴍɪᴀ of pregnancy (ᴘʀᴇᴇᴄʟᴀᴍᴘsɪᴀ), which involves high ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ ᴘʀᴇssᴜʀᴇ and can ᴅᴀᴍᴀɢᴇ multiple organs, including her liver and kidneys, and said she needed an ᴇᴍᴇʀɢᴇɴᴄʏ C-sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ.
“If I hadn’t come into the hospital then, I probably wouldn’t have made it through the weekend,” Stover said.
The woman’s partner, Travis Koesters, went to the hospital as soon as he found out what was happening, and the couple’s baby boy was born that evening. “They said my baby would be born in 15 minutes. It was very scary,” Stover recalled.
The woman had absolutely no time to prepare for motherhood, but she says that after her son, Kash, was born and she was able to hold him in her arms, she began to calm down.
“Now that I’ve actually held it in my arms and fed it, it’s all a lot more real. He really is my little boy,” said the mother, adding that she learned a lot from what happened and understood that she should pay attention to what her body is signaling.
“I don’t really like going to the doctor. I try to let things work themselves out, and I’ve learned now that you can’t necessarily do that all the time.”
Kash was born 10 weeks early, weighing less than 2 pounds, but his parents say he’s making rapid progress, though they don’t yet know when they’ll be able to take him home. Another interesting fact is that Kash was born on his mother’s birthday, so now they will share this special day forever. Now that they’ve gotten over the sʜᴏᴄᴋ, the parents say they’re glad things turned out this way because they definitely planned to have children later.
When they shared the unexpected news of their baby boy’s birth on social media, their friends were sʜᴏᴄᴋᴇᴅ but happily congratulated the young parents. “Scary, but joyful! I pray for a speedy recovery. Congratulations!” wrote one of Stover’s friends.
