Maggie received her first surgery at just 21 hours old. She was born with something called Esophageal Atresia and Tracheoesophageal Fistula. Some babies are only born with one or the other, but Maggie was born with both. Her esophagus was abnormally attached to her trachea rather than her stomach.

When she was first born and pre-surgery, she was blowing bubbles out of her mouth and this was because of the EA/TEF. It was also the reason I had such high fluids during pregnancy because Maggie wasn’t able to swallow.

One of the crazy things about this surgery is that you can’t know if the esophagus is long enough to be surgically attached to the stomach unless you’re cut open and the surgeon has a look inside microscopically.

Sometimes this is the only reason why babies are in the NICU for extended periods of time – they’re waiting for baby’s esophagus to grow longer. Can you imagine?

We were so lucky that Maggie’s was long enough right off the bat, and was able to receive the surgery right away. I had just had surgery myself (c-section) so we were also in the hospital at the time.

Everything about this experience was strange. I’d just had a baby and had only met her one time for a brief few minutes while I was in a wheelchair myself and in too much pain to stand up. She was inside her isollete and seemingly far out of my reach. And then she was in surgery. I was certainly worried about her. It was a whirlwind of emotions honestly.

But Maggie had a fantastic and successful surgery. Her pediatric surgeon came into our room shortly after it was over to tell us how it went. She would be intubated with a chest and breathing tube for the following few days until she was stable enough for them to be removed.

Robby and I held Maggie for the first time at 5 days old. It was incredible.