Paisley’s story
Written by: Rossalyn Malcolm
I found out I was pregnant on December 3, 2020. This was after a miscarriage in April. I was terrified of losing this baby, so I called the doctor right away and scheduled an appointment. This was a week after I found out. I did a blood test, and it came back with super high htc, so we thought I was further along, so we scheduled an ultrasound for a few weeks later. We then found out at 6 weeks, we were pregnant with twins. This was a huge surprise as we already have two kids at home.
At 10 weeks, the MFM Dr saw something on Baby A and told us it could be one of 3 three things. I don't remember the third, but it was for sure that it was either omphalocele or gastroschisis. I had scheduled my blood test already for the following week and had a relook at the ultrasound at 13 weeks. This was when it was confirmed Baby A had omphalocele. The blood test came back, and everything else looked good. It was very scary as I went down the Google hole and read terrible things.
Thirteen week ultrasound, when omphalocele was confirmed.
I was told by one MFM doc that the chances of Paisley making it after she was born was low. She pushed for an amniocentesis. I refused to do it because our odds of everything were already adding up. I didn't want to risk losing my babies over a test. This woman doctor was so rude to me every time I saw her. I just learned to ignore her and hope for the best.
Where we live, there were no doctors to be able to help us or do corrections. We had to go down to Salt Lake City, UT. We did this in April 2021, and that's when we found out about the MOO page on Facebook. That was a blessing, it helped calm so many fears. The support is amazing. Shortly after this appointment, we learned that a surgeon moved down by us and could do the surgery and take care of our baby.We still planned to go down to Salt Lake until I went into early labor at 30 weeks. We then decided to stay local and thank goodness we did because I had an emergency c-section at 34.5 weeks.
Paisley a few hours after she was born.
Paisley after closure surgery.
Baby A -Paisley was 4lb 2.5oz. Baby B- Harper was 4lb 10oz. Paisley’s Omphalocele was considered large because it had part liver along with her bowel. Paisley did amazing after she was born; she was on low oxygen and a feeding tube. She only spent 19 days in the NICU. Then, she was home with her sister. There wasn’t any super big surprises, just slow weight gain and a new learning curve for us parents. We did what our doctor told us and were so amazed at how fast Paisley;s omphalocele went in. She had her closure surgery at 2 months old. She was in the hospital 3 days and then back home. She got a staph infection the following week and fought that off and has been perfect since.
Paisley and Harper.
She's now 7 months and just a tiny thing at 10 pounds. But because of the staph infection, there is a possibility of a hernia, and if that happens, we will have to do another surgery to correct it. We are still slow to gain weight but she is the happiest baby in the world. Paisley was born with a genetic deletion that we still are learning about as far as we were told there is no correlation to this and her Omphalocele. We have to go to Salt Lake to learn more about this, but it's nothing major from the sounds of it. We also found out that her left kidney has mild hydronephrosis. We are watching this and hoping it will just go away and not be cause for anything more.
Overall this little girl has proven time and time again how incredibly strong she is and that nothing will stop her. Her and her sister have been a light into our lives.
Paisley’s beautiful family. Paisley is with mom (on left), and sister Harper is with dad (on right).