Hollie Walls was already a mother of two when she remarried. So, she and her husband were eager to expand the family with another member and hoped to have a baby. However, they both knew that could take a lot of time and energy as doctors told them the chances of Hollie conceiving naturally were slim.
But then, something incredible happened. Despite she had undergone two surgeries where a massive mass was removed from her uterus, Hollie was pregnant. When the pregnancy test showed two lines she was certain she either did something wrong or the test was faulty.
“I didn’t even want to tell my husband at first because I was sure it would just be another disappointment and we had been through too many of those,” Hollie said, sharing her story with Love What Matters.
But Hollie was pregnant, and her pregnancy was perfect. All the ultrasounds showed her baby was developing just great and that there was nothing she should be worried about.
When she was 41 weeks pregnant she went to her final OB visit to schedule induction because as it looked, her baby wasn’t going to get out on her own. The OB made a quick ultrasound and Hollie noticed their face somehow changed. Her mother instinct told her something was wrong although everyone assured her everything was going to be just fine.
Moments later, she was told she had Oligohydramnios, a condition characterized by a deficiency of amniotic fluid and was rushed to the hospital. There, doctors ran a bunch of tests and did another ultrasound which showed the levels of amniotic fluid were low but they did locate some fluid pockets. It was Friday, and Hollie was scheduled for induction the following Monday.
However, on Sunday morning, Hollie noticed the baby didn’t move as frequently as before and could sense things weren’t right. “To this day I can’t explain it. I put it down to mother’s intuition. I just knew I had to go to the hospital urgently. I called my doula and she said she would meet me there within the hour. I wanted to be excited about meeting my baby but I was so worried,” Hollie said.
Once at the hospital, doctors noticed the baby’s heart rate was dropping and then accelerating and it had to be delivered via an emergency c-section. “I had people working frantically to try and get an IV line in me, I had other people trying to get me in to a position to get her heart rate to stabilize, I had someone else bringing me paperwork to sign,” Hollie recalls.
This scared mom-to-be feared for her baby’s life and prayed for her to be delivered healthy after doctors told her those heart rates could cause for the little one to be born brain dead.
Luckily, everything turned for the best, and moments later, baby Winter Josephine was welcomed into the world. This sweet baby was perfectly healthy. However, what caught everyone’s attention was the “angry” face the baby had. “Once we got out of recovery and back to our hospital room, I just held Winter in front of me and stared at her. As perfect as she was, I couldn’t help but laugh because she looked so angry,” Hollie said.
Hollie joked how her daughter’s grumpy expression was her way of saying, “why did you get me out of there, I was great in my mommy’s tummy.”
Little Winter Josephine had her first photoshoot and her photos are just amazing. A photographer who took them would also take photos of angel babies at hospitals. He told Hollie how many of those babies actually die because of oligohydramnios and it made her realize that she was extremely lucky that her baby survived.
We are sorry Hollie had to go through such stressful event, but at the same time we are very happy everything turned well at the end. As for baby Winter Josephine, she is one of the cutest and bravest babies, and her “angry” face only makes her even more adorable, don’t you agree?