The Ordinary Doula Podcast
Welcome to The Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Rosier, hosted by Birth Learning. We help folks prepare for labor and birth with expertise coming from 20 years of experience in a busy doula practice, helping thousands of people prepare for labor, providing essential knowledge and tools for positive and empowering birth experiences.
The Ordinary Doula Podcast
E79: Trust Your Gut: How Kimberlee's Journey Changed
Kimberlee Williams shares her emotional journey from planning a home birth after three easy deliveries to facing a life-threatening medical emergency and a 6-week NICU stay with her premature son Houston.
• Mother of four who moved to Utah shortly before unexpectedly becoming pregnant with her fourth child
• Planned a home birth with a midwife after three previous uncomplicated hospital births
• Experienced a severe migraine at six months pregnant that she suspected was preeclampsia
• Midwife dismissed her high blood pressure, attributing symptoms to food she had eaten
• 20-week ultrasound showed baby was measuring two weeks behind with an empty stomach
• Noticed significantly decreased fetal movement and followed her instinct to get it checked
• Ultrasound technician found baby wasn't moving or swallowing properly
• Hospital discovered her blood pressure was dangerously high, in the 200s
• Emergency C-section at 33 weeks resulted in baby born at only 2 pounds 10 ounces
• Community rallied around the family while baby spent six weeks in NICU
• Discovered toxic heavy metals in prescribed formula were causing developmental delays
• Switching formulas led to immediate improvements in baby's development and weight gain
• Learning to trust maternal instincts and advocate for yourself and your baby
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Show Credits
Host: Angie Rosier
Music: Michael Hicks
Photographer: Toni Walker
Episode Artwork: Nick Greenwood
Producer: Gillian Rosier Frampton
Voiceover: Ryan Parker
Welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Rozier, hosted by Birth Learning, where we help prepare folks for labor and birth with expertise coming from 20 years of experience in a busy doula practice Helping thousands of people prepare for labor, providing essential knowledge and tools for positive and empowering birth experiences.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Ordinary Doula podcast. My name is Angie Rozier, I'm your host and we're glad to have you with us here today. We have a special guest named Kimberly and Kimberly is going to share her story with us. Kimberly is a mom of four and her journey, as you will hear, has some pretty interesting twists and turns in it. And one thing I love about Kimberly's story is that it's a story out of advocacy. You will see kind of how her journey. You know some of the choices she made and how they shifted for her, but I love how Kimberly demonstrates how she has to advocate for her and for her baby all the way through her story. So let's take a moment to meet Kimberly.
Speaker 3:I'm Kimberly Williams. My husband and I moved here about a year ago and we had our three daughters in Arizona and we unexpectedly, after trying for a year year, got pregnant here in Utah only like a week after moving here. Yeah, there's something in the water here in Utah, I guess so.
Speaker 3:That's why there's so many kids. But we my husband's a pediatric dentist and we my husband's a pediatric dentist and we yeah, we have four kids. We have the three girls that were born in Arizona and then Houston that was born here. My other three were super easy pregnancies, super easy deliveries like my water breaks, and they're here within 15 minutes um, kind of quick, um.
Speaker 3:And so we decided that we, after having them in Arizona and always using an OB and being in the hospital uh, my husband was in dental school while we were doing that, so he, we were always on Medicaid, um, um, so we didn't have to worry about the bill, um, and so, being here, we're new to learning about the insurance side of things and having to pay for the hospital stay and all of that. So we decided that we would do it more natural with houston, and since the others were so easy, we figured, oh, we could just do a home birth and should be just as easy. And so then we found a midwife and we decided that we'd just use a midwife this time and just do the natural birth.
Speaker 2:And then things went differently. It sounds like oh yeah, very different. Tell me, tell me when, when your journey changed.
Speaker 3:Okay, um, so we went down for a trip, like a weekend trip, to Bryce Canyon and Brian head and we, when we got back, uh, we did a lot of hiking, um, and when we got back, I had it was like the next day I got a really bad headache and I had had migraines before. Um, and the headache just got worse and worse and I it turned into a migraine and it was the worst migraine I've ever had. I've never had a migraine where I was throwing up, and this one was bad. I was throwing up and I couldn't have any light and I honestly probably got really dehydrated. I thought that's all it was, because I was just dehydrated.
Speaker 2:How far along were you in your pregnancy at this point?
Speaker 3:I was about six months pregnant, okay, and I had. So I had texted my midwife and because I had done chat, gpt and like done all of the research to try to figure out what was wrong with me before I reached out to her. And I reached out to her and I told her, I texted her I'm pretty sure I have preeclampsia and and she said, well, what's your blood pressure? And I didn't have a blood pressure cuff at the time. So my husband left with the kids and went and got a blood pressure cuff from her, since she lives just 15 minutes away, and brought it back and took my blood pressure and probably have all of the notes. But my blood pressure was pretty high. It was pretty high.
Speaker 2:And this is not something normal for you, right?
Speaker 1:No, I don't know how old you are, but you look like a young, healthy person.
Speaker 3:Oh, I had been in my best shape of my life and best health of my life right before getting pregnant with Houston. Um, and I, normally in the hospital after I have my babies, the nurses will run in thinking I'm dead, because they're they're like well you're, are you okay? Like, your blood pressure's like 60 over 30. It's really low. I normally have really low blood pressure, so to have really high was way out of the norm, um, and I want to say it was. It was like 160, I think over something, I don't know. It was in the 160s. And so my midwife said, oh, um, what did you eat the day before? Well, we were. We went hiking, so we had had Subway. And so she said, oh, it's the nitrates and stuff from the Subway sandwiches is probably what caused my migraine. And she gave me some magnesium to take and said, oh, the magnesium will help. And it did help. And I had gone in for my 20 week ultrasound as well just before that. And, um, in that ultrasound we saw that Houston was two weeks behind what he should have been, so I was only 18 weeks along because of his size. And then also, my ultrasound tech mentioned that he had an empty stomach as well, he goes. That's something we should keep an eye on. I'll talk to your midwife about it and we'll just keep an eye on that. Talk to your midwife about it and we'll just keep an eye on that. Um, but we didn't schedule any more appointments or anything like that. They didn't say that was needed. Um, so I'm like I don't know how they would keep an eye on it without an ultrasound. But, um, then we so that was in October of the whole migraine thing and I had been taking the magnesium and the migraines did get better.
Speaker 3:And then three weeks later I had noticed that Houston wasn't kicking as much. He had been kicking a whole lot and I noticed he wasn't kicking as much. He had been kicking a whole lot. And I noticed he wasn't kicking as much. And I think it was like it was a Friday I noticed he wasn't kicking as much. And then Saturday rolled around, and Sunday rolled around. I still didn't feel him kicking very much around. And Sunday rolled around, I still didn't feel him kicking very much. And then Monday, I, um, I was like I'm going to do everything I can to get him to kick and just sit there for an hour and see if I can get him to kick. So I dropped the kids off to school on Monday morning and went in Um. I got some caffeine and I got a really sugary drink to try to get him to kick and I used ice packs and tried to put them on my stomach and tried to feel him kick. And I sat there for an hour laying on the couch as still as I could and I didn't feel anything. I felt one maybe like rotation of, like a shoulder or something. It was down pretty low and it was just very slight and I was like something's wrong and sorry, I didn't think I had to get emotional, it's okay. I've said this story so many times.
Speaker 3:I had decided that morning I was going to make another ultrasound appointment with the ultrasound tech and the earliest he could get me in was 5 o'clock that night. So I made that appointment and I told my midwife that I had made the appointment and she goes well, I don't normally work on Mondays. But how about you come over to my house and we'll um, we'll look at you and we'll check you out and stuff, and I said okay. So I went to her house at like 10 AM and she used the Doppler and it took a while, but we found the heartbeat and she goes oh, that's great, we hear a heartbeat, he's doing so good and that he sorry, it's okay. She said that he's doing so good, there shouldn't be really anything to worry about, but go ahead and keep that ultrasound appointment that you made already and just to be sure, and check on everything. She didn't check my blood pressure or anything. She didn't check really anything else and she just told me that he was doing good.
Speaker 3:And I was like, okay, that made me feel a little bit better and I kind of hate that. I hate that. That like reassured me, because it was such a false reassurement. And so then I waited all day. I picked the kids up from school, I took them over to my husband's office, dropped them off and went straight up to my appointment at five o'clock and I had drove all the way up to holiday for it. Um, I got there and we look at the ultrasound and he I think I was just bawling because I knew something was wrong that feeling persist, yes, and I had felt it for weeks and I had been talking to friends for weeks too. I'm like I just I don't want to go into the hospital because before I, with my other girls, I would go into the hospital and they'd be like oh you're fine, go home. Oh, you're fine, go home. And so I didn't want to, especially since we didn't have the best insurance either at the time and we were expecting it to just be an easy delivery.
Speaker 3:Um, I didn't want to go into the hospital and have a huge bill for no reason say just go home sent away again and so I had talked to all my friends and they're like you should just go to the hospital, you should just go to the hospital, you should just go to the hospital, and I should have.
Speaker 3:That probably would have been much better had I have just gone to the hospital. But in the ultrasound the tech looked at it and he mentioned again that Houston's stomach was empty, and I said his stomach's empty. You told me that last time at 20 weeks at my 20 week appointment, and you moved his due date back two weeks because of his size. Which is interesting because in my other ultrasounds with all my other babies my doctor always told me oh, my baby's going to be like eight pounds and they were always like six or under. So they were always really small. So to hear that he was small already was scary for me. And then hearing it again at that ultrasound he said he saw he could get a heartbeat but he wasn't seeing any movement of Houston at all and that he wasn't seeing any movement of Houston at all and that he wasn't Sorry.
Speaker 2:It's okay, kimberly, it's hard stuff.
Speaker 3:He said that he wasn't swallowing anything either and he couldn't see any swallowing movement at all and that by this far along he should be doing all of that. Um, and he said normally when something like that happens, it means that their esophagus, I guess, isn't connected to their stomach or whatever that portion is right there yeah, it's not connected and so they're not able to swallow.
Speaker 3:And he said to go to wherever my husband was. My husband was at Texas Roadhouse with the girls just getting them out, so you're by yourself during this, so I was by myself oh that's hard, wow.
Speaker 3:And so I drove to Texas Roadhouse to meet him and the ultrasound tech said he would talk to my midwife and that they would let me know if I needed to go into the hospital. I wish he had just told me just go straight to the nearest hospital, although that would have been so far away and probably even harder. Um, but so I got to Texas Roadhouse and, as I was pulling in, my midwife called and said are you with your husband yet? And I said no, I'm not. And she goes okay, um, I need you to park your car as soon as you can.
Speaker 3:I parked and I said, okay, I'm ready. What is it? Because the whole drive down. I had talked to my husband, I had called him and I told him kind of what was going on and he did some really quick little research. And he's his research that he was finding was that the esophagus not connected is normally a symptom of Down syndrome, and so that's what we were expecting Is that our baby was going to be Down syndrome and that I don't know if I could handle that that would be so hard. I know they're little freaking angels and they're adorable, but it's not what you're expecting, though no, being a parent to one would be very difficult, very challenging.
Speaker 3:um, and so that's what we were expecting, and my midwife calls and says something is very wrong with him. Um, still, no one has taken my blood pressure at all.
Speaker 2:Um, they just checked on the baby and so there's something going on with you and something going on with the baby.
Speaker 3:Yes, um, and she said I needed to go to the nearest hospital. And so we went to Lone Peak and I just told her. I said I need one that can take my insurance, because I don't have the best insurance but I need. I don't know if I can afford all of that that's expensive, afford all of that that's expensive. And so we went into the hospital and that very night right that night.
Speaker 3:Yep, I headed straight to the hospital and Austin, my husband. He took the girls back home and we're in Saratoga Springs. So we were up in South Jordan and I went over to Lone Peak and he went all the way back to Saratoga Springs with the girls. So it was a little bit of a drive for him and then a drive for him to get find someone to watch the kids for us for a minute and to get back to the hospital to me.
Speaker 2:So you're alone. I was alone again. Oh, kimberly, what a journey. Wow, that's tough. And then we so.
Speaker 3:I get to the hospital, my midwife meets me there and we go up to the front desk and she tells the front desk lady she doesn't have any of my records at all. For the whole time that I had been seeing her she had no records.
Speaker 2:Because she didn't have them with her or she didn't keep any.
Speaker 3:She didn't have them with her Okay, but also, she just didn't, she didn't have any records. She didn't record anything, anything that come prepared for this. No, no, she well, she didn't record anything, even in our the like the little what's it called? The your prenatal visits and, yeah, my prenatal visits. She's got like a little profile for me or whatever on her little site, yeah, and there's there's very few notes, interesting. Um, they took me back into a room, um and got me like examined and stuff um, and within 10 minutes there was another doctor. Uh, he was wonderful. He came in and he um trying to remember his name, dr nielsen, I don't know, but he, he was awesome. He they took my blood pressure and all of the things and he told me with my midwife there he was not very happy with her and very like, obviously not happy with her um, what was your blood pressure when they took it at the hospital?
Speaker 3:um it was? Was it high? Finished it um? It was in the 200s no way, wow, wow, I want to say. He said it was like 220 or like 236 or something like that oh, oh, my gosh Wow. Um, it was way high. And he said um, how do I not have come in? When I came in, um, give it two more hours, and I would have been seizing and had a stroke or one or the other, or both, um, and I wouldn't have been able to make it, and Houston definitely wouldn't have made it.
Speaker 2:Wow, um so this whole time you'd had high blood pressure, but it wasn't being checked on.
Speaker 3:No, Is that?
Speaker 2:what was causing Houston's problems. That's what was causing.
Speaker 3:Houston's problems too. He had um inner growth, inner uterine growth restriction, yep Um and okay, sorry, what?
Speaker 2:how far along were you at this point? How many weeks? I was 33 weeks in a day, so you've been dealing with this for several weeks for three, at least three weeks, Um, probably more.
Speaker 3:I just didn't know um until I had that bad migraine, and I wish that had I. When I had told my midwife about the migraine and like I literally said, I'm pretty sure I have preeclampsia, Like she would have taken it more serious. Like I, I'm pretty crunchy.
Speaker 2:I like, like the, you were going to do a home birth.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's pretty crunchy, I like like the, you were gonna do a home birth. Yeah, that's pretty crunchy. More natural things too, but there is a time and a place for medicine and there is a time and a place for, like, more of the western medicine, stuff um and stuff Um, and my case was definitely the time to use it.
Speaker 2:Um so, Austin, is he with you yet at this point? No, he's not.
Speaker 3:He was still taking the girls back home, um, and they told me that I needed to have an emergency C-section and that a C-section was my, my worst nightmare. Like I, my doctor in Arizona, he had prevented me from having a c-section with my other three girls, with all three of them, and I trust that man with everything. He was wonderful, but I, yeah, it was so scary to have even thought of a C-section. And then I get in there and they're prepping me within 10 minutes and I went right back for an emergency C-section. I asked the doctor is there any way? Like my friend, she has really early babies as well and they'll give her like the Pitocin and they'll, you know, let her do the labor naturally and they'll dilate her and everything. She has really small babies, but they is because she's had so many like stillborns.
Speaker 3:And he said no. He said, with how bad my blood pressure is already, um, that is not an option. Had we have watched the blood pressure better or had we have managed it or come in earlier or whatever, that would be an option, but it's too far along and it's too risky and one or both of us is probably going to die if we do that and I said, okay, well, save my baby. I have three other babies so I need to still be alive too. And so we they prepped me and went right into an emergency C-section and I just I felt so numb. You're just going through the motions, probably right? Yes, just going through the motions. I think I was felt so numb. You're just going through the motions, probably right. Yes, just going through the motions. I think I was probably in shock.
Speaker 2:Yeah, huge, huge surprises there yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they just, I just like stood there and like walked where they told me to walk, but they like threw my hands up and they like undressed me and they then they just like laid me on the table and they strapped me down and the anesthesiologist came over and he put the, the mask on my face with the um I don't know this sleepy stuff.
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, um, and I remember ripping it off and I said I'm gonna be asleep before they start cutting right and I was just terrified like I could feel them drawing where they were going to be cutting and it was. It was just so scary, um. And then I then I remember the next thing I remember I remember waking up, um, and I was in a room. I didn't have my baby. They had already put him in the NICU and I didn't get to see him for a day or two before I got to actually go in and see him.
Speaker 2:So when did Austin come? When did he?
Speaker 3:join austin came.
Speaker 3:He got there shortly after houston like was was born okay um but they wouldn't let him in the room, the operating room or anything either. Um, and so he just I think he met houston, probably, yeah, met him in the NICU, wow, yeah, um, they. I. I had asked my midwife. I I've heard so many horror stories about switched babies at birth and stuff like that and that, and my husband's grandpa was actually switched at birth as well, wow, and so with his own cousin, so there's still family, but like, yeah, the grandma switched them so she didn't want a redhead, I guess something like that.
Speaker 3:You're so cute, he's just looking at you, love you, but yeah, so I was worried about the switched at birth thing and I asked my midwife will you please stay with me until I have houston and then stay with houston until austin can get there? So someone I know is with my baby the whole time. As soon as I went into the, they took. As soon as they were taking me back, she left and I haven't seen her since. Interesting, and she, uh, yeah, she just left and it's very frustrating and it was very frustrating very disappointing.
Speaker 3:I I thought, since we knew similar people and we had friends that were the same people, that I would have been treated better, but I guess not.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 3:But the hospital treated me amazing. That hospital. If I were to have another baby I don't know if I will ever, but if I ever have another baby, that's the hospital I would deliver at for sure yeah, it's a good one wonderful. Um, they made things very easy for me, as easy as you can right in that situation. Yes, wow um, but Houston. He was born at like two pounds 10 ounces. Wow, much smaller than somebody that age right.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, much smaller. He was um at like two pounds 10 ounces. Wow, much smaller than somebody that age right.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, much smaller. He was, um, the size of a 27 week old. Wow, yeah, he was 33. And yeah, he was 33. Um, they say he was like the size of 12 weeks early, but only six weeks early because of the interuterine growth restriction, he hadn't been growing. And, yep, he hadn't been growing. And he's just a miracle baby. Yeah, he is. He's just a miracle baby. Wow For sure.
Speaker 2:So how long was he in the NICU?
Speaker 3:He was in the NICU for six weeks and you guys Five and a half to six weeks or so?
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, and tell me about that. How is you have three kids at home to take care of? You have a little baby in the NICU for the first time, and tell me how that was for you and for your family.
Speaker 3:Well, we don't have any family here in Utah. You and for your family, well, we don't have any family here in Utah. The family we have lives like 45 minutes to an hour away or more. And so we got we just got really lucky, honestly, with the neighborhood that we live in and all of our neighbors and all of our neighbors we had. Austin said he came home after helping me in Houston and, like meeting Houston, he came home, someone was watching, he had gotten some neighbors to watch the kids for us and help them, like go to bed and stuff. And that night that I was in the hospital, we had a group of probably five to ten people just from our ward in our neighborhood that came over and they cleaned our entire house. Wow, our house was pretty messy. It wasn't ready to have a baby yet. Yeah, that wasn't the plan that week. It was not the plan and when we had moved in here we had started a bunch of projects because we weren't expecting for me to get pregnant right away.
Speaker 2:Right, right, we had like half done projects and everything.
Speaker 3:Because everything moved slower once I got pregnant. Because everything moved slower once I got pregnant. And Austin said he just he walked in the door and he saw how clean the whole house was and he just fell to his knees and he just started crying Because we really did have some angels that were just watching over us.
Speaker 2:Wow, Hi baby.
Speaker 3:You're going to make me cry too, kimberly. It's okay. We really just got really lucky. I think had we have moved somewhere else, it would have been harder, yeah well.
Speaker 2:So you had a little village around you that kind of came and supported you. We really did.
Speaker 3:I had, um, one of our neighbors she would take the kids to school for me and then another she's not even a neighbor, she lives in a different neighborhood, but one of my daughter's friends. Moms would pick them up from school and drop them off to school or drop them off to home after school. And um, then for my youngest well, my youngest daughter anyway she, um, she was in preschool and I had to cancel preschool for her for the two ish months that had to cancel preschool for her for the two-ish months the that, um, he was in the NICU and so until he came home, um, I had to cancel preschool. But then I had to have someone watching her. Right, I could go and see Houston and try to feed him, and I felt like if I could just nurse him at least once a day, at least once a day, that would help him, one to bond with me, and then two so he could get out of the NICU faster right and sorry he's fussing a little.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's being very quiet.
Speaker 2:I'm impressed. And it's being very quiet, I'm impressed. He's pretty quiet most of the time. Thank you, buddy.
Speaker 3:But I had one friend that she I didn't even know her before this and she would watch Carly, my youngest daughter, for me every day, um, while I would go and feed Houston at the hospital, um, and I had, for the first little bit, I couldn't even drive because they had me on so much magnesium and so many drugs that I couldn't drive yet. Um, for the first two weeks. Yet for the first two weeks, and I had Austin had gotten some time off and my parents had just driven up here last minute because he was born November 25th, so it was like the day before Thanksgiving or maybe two days before Thanksgiving and we planned on driving down to Arizona the next day, wow Actually. And my parents, as soon as I we told them I was in the hospital and I was having Houston, they were like wait, it's too early, and they just drove up, came up to you.
Speaker 3:So tell me like, yeah, they had to manage your blood pressure, probably for a while afterwards, right, um, I had an appointment with um, an OB, um that was in my surgery, um and she, so she knew just the whole thing your story of everything that happened.
Speaker 3:And, um, I want to say it was like a month after that they managed that they would like check my blood pressure and see how everything's going. Um, and everything seemed to be going down. I had also gotten a blood pressure cuff as well, just so I can manage it on my own, and I was managing that just fine. And yeah, it was a rough like five and a half six weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:It was exhausting when I was hey, you okay, you all right, too much.
Speaker 2:Too much. Okay, it's a big swallows of milk.
Speaker 3:Yes, when I was at home I would feel kind of depressed in a way. I just felt empty, like I felt like part of me was missing. I didn't have him with me, right. And part of it was really nice to have him in the NICU, because I was able to get some rest, I was able to heal a little bit faster and there are like those things that were kind of nice. But a lot of it was also just really hard as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that separation and the logistics of that.
Speaker 3:Yes, I think if it was my only kid it would have been pretty easy.
Speaker 2:but you have a whole life at home to take care of A whole lot easier anyways.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I had asked some of the nurses at the NICU too, like, if I just happened to fall asleep on the couch, would you guys kick me out, like can. I just stay here and they're like yeah, we can't have you sleeping here. And I was like okay, I wish, yes, but all the time with him, that you can yes, and if I have people able to watch the other kids like they understand, they know the baby's in the hospital, they can understand why mom's not here constantly. Wow, he likes to like bobble.
Speaker 2:Come on enough, yes.
Speaker 3:But yeah, it was just really rough. It was hard and my parents came up again for Christmas.
Speaker 2:He's probably still in the NICU at Christmas right Still in the NICU.
Speaker 3:He didn't get out until the new year.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Which was also kind of trying and a little bit hard, because we we had him on one insurance and then we were like, is it going to be a whole nother?
Speaker 3:deductible for the next year because he's still there, or does it count as all one? I don't even know. Still, honestly, I don't know Because he was there longer than 30 days. We, we, I guess we qualified for the emergency Medicaid or something, and so good they, we are very grateful it got written off and yeah, good, that was a huge blessing because it was, it was a five hundred thousand dollar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, half a million dollars, wow, wow. And that's why, for your emergency C-section, his stay, like that's just his stay.
Speaker 3:Just him Wow. I was another 7,000 on top of it.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3:Maybe 8,000 with the anesthesia? Yeah, wow, holy cow, it was definitely crazy. Yeah, and it was hard because he just wouldn't gain weight. Some days he would gain a whole bunch and then the next he wouldn't gain anything. Um, and he never lost weight, but he's a slow gainer. It was a very slow process to get him to just gain enough, and that has continued.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's his journey right now.
Speaker 3:He is. He's five months now and he's still in zero to three-month clothes.
Speaker 2:Wow, he's just a little guy right now. He's just little. Wow, wow, wow, kimberly. Well, thanks so much for sharing your story. This is remarkable Like what a journey, with some unexpected twists and turns in it it was.
Speaker 3:It was Honestly the hospital I went to was the only thing that like made it okay, that was a bright spot for you.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, good yeah, like made it okay, that was a bright spot for you. Yes, yeah, good yeah. And your story continues right like this. It does. It's something that's changed your family.
Speaker 3:so, yes, wow, yeah he uh, we, honestly, we thought, like know the hospital, like knows the best, and like, even with like his formulas, like we, he was on the, the one the hospital recommends, the Similac Neosher, because it's got extra calories and stuff, right, they give that to preemies.
Speaker 3:They give it to preemies to help them gain weight, and he wasn't gaining on it, and I must not have enough fat in my milk, so he wasn't really gaining much there either. And the do you want me to talk about all of that too? Go ahead, yeah, okay, um, we, we had him on the Neo, sure, for till he was, uh, almost four months, like three and a half months old or so, and so it was about two months out of being in the NICU that we had him on it and my husband had done some of his own research of what fats can we feed to him to help him gain more weight and help him just start gaining, enough that the pediatrician wouldn't be so worried anymore. And um, in the more organic um formulas they use coconut oil. So he did some research. Have there been studies done on that? Because we can't feed him butter yet because he doesn't have bile to break it down.
Speaker 3:So we're like, well, what can he break down? And so we started putting some coconut oil in his bottles and he started gaining weight. He went from preemie clothes to, all of a sudden, he was in newborn clothes and he started gaining really good. He gained a good couple of pounds and then he started going a little bit stagnant and our um, our pediatrician, uh, had us go see a gastrointestinal doctor to try to um like a specialist, to see what would help him gain weight. And the gastrointestinal doctor said oh, you're doing coconut oil. That's basically the exact same thing that I would be prescribing for you.
Speaker 3:It's just a man-made version versus the natural version interesting you're doing the natural version already, just make sure it's a high quality one. And I said, oh, we do the like organic one from Costco, and it's like the big tub. And he goes oh, costco is great, costco has high quality stuff.
Speaker 3:most of the time. He said I wouldn't worry about that, do that and just keep doing that. And I said okay, so we did that and we continued doing that until he was about almost four months. It was probably like a week before he turned four months old and I had been out and about and I had noticed that he wasn't he just wasn't gaining very much anymore and he kind of went stagnant for a little bit and I was at Walmart just doing some grocery shopping and he was really hungry and I didn't have any more formula on me or a bottle either. They had happened to, got dirty and they weren't in my bag anymore.
Speaker 3:So I went down the baby aisle and one of my friends had told me about by heart formula and how much she loved it. She was like it's pricey but I love it, it's really great and the babies love it and it's a little easier on their tummies. And so I went and just checked out to see if Walmart had it and they had it and so I was like, well, we'll just try this one and see how he does. We'll buy one can, and I also had bought some of the Neosure as well, like a little can of it to just keep in my bag. So I had some in case the by heart.
Speaker 3:He didn't like it or something like that. And so we went out to the car and I opened it and dang with those formulas, by the way that, can you want to open that outside every time it explodes? Every time, every time it explodes. It went all over the car. But I gave him one bottle of that and immediately after he smiled so big at me and before this he wasn't smiling, this he wasn't smiling, he wasn't looking at us in the eyes he wasn't trying to talk or coo or really try to sit up or anything.
Speaker 3:He hated tummy time. Um. And immediately after feeding him the bottle, he looked up at me and smiled so big wow, and he started trying to coo and I was like whoa, that was just one bottle, it shouldn't like take that much of a drastic change, should it?
Speaker 3:so I, I decided, well, that was a really good result, yeah just keep feeding it to him for the rest of the day, and so I did and he was so happy. I tried tummy time with him and he enjoyed it. He didn't like scream the whole time, um, and he was just a completely different baby. Like honestly, it was like he was autistic before and then and then he was just like a normal baby, he well so you know immediate changes, immediate changes.
Speaker 3:It was so drastic, it was crazy. I was like it's probably just a fluke and I talked to Austin too. I'm like is it? Is it possible that it's like actually the Fila, or it's maybe a faster flowing bottle, or like what was the difference? We tried it in his other bottles as well and the same results. Like he was still just happier and he slept better. He started sleeping through the night all of a sudden and I was like wow this has made my life so much easier, interesting.
Speaker 3:I decided to do a little bit of research into it and both formulas were part of the 41 powdered formulas that were tested for toxic levels of, or just for levels of um, what do they call it? It was um detectable levels of heavy metals, and they were all tested for the heavy metals and the neosher um, the similac neosher the similac neosher had toxic levels. It had come back with toxic levels of arsenic, lead, mercury and then two other ones I really don't remember what the names were. They were a little bit harder to say and not just detectable in that, but toxic.
Speaker 3:Not just detectable in that, but toxic not just detectable but toxic levels, and I was like, huh, I've seen studies recently about, like, um, heavy metals and how they are linked to autism and I was like that seems very valid here as well. It's tracking, yes, it's tracking, it's it, it correlates very so, like direct. It was crazy. And then the by heart formula came back with no detectable levels of any heavy metals at all and I was like, wow, that's what it was. And I talked with like chat GPT, like I got very nitty-gritty with it. I was like, hey, could it be the heavy metals that were the difference? And it was like, yeah, heavy metals in the formula were probably holding Houston's um, his little brain his development, his development back, because now he has cognitive functions and he didn't present any cognitive functions before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's actually 100% true.
Speaker 3:It did it, he didn't have any before and hi, and now he does. Yeah, he looks at me and he babbles all the time. He's a pretty quiet baby, but he is so cute yeah, as babies too.
Speaker 3:And he poops regularly now. He didn't poop regularly before, it was like once a week, and he sleeps through the night now and he's been on it for a little over a month now and he's gained weight. He went from I want to say he was like eight pounds to now 10 pounds. He gained oh, gained eight pounds in a month, which was really great. I can check on it real fast and see, because I know I posted about it. You're happy about it, yeah, yes, yeah, so, yeah. So he was eight pounds at four months old and now he's 10 pounds. Wow, five months old.
Speaker 3:Yep, that's good gains in a month. Yeah, he's, he's doing it, he's getting there. Hi, very cool, but that was the biggest find for us.
Speaker 2:So tell me like looking back on your story, from this pregnancy, you weren't quite expecting your first boy a home birth. You had planned unexpected NICU like. What big lessons of that overall picture? What big lessons stand out to you?
Speaker 3:Lessons, I don't know. Do your research before you find a doctor, before you pick a doctor or a midwife, because I've heard some people have amazing stories with midwives and they don't have any issues. I would just say find some interview questions and interview doctors and midwives. If you want a midwife, um, interview them and make sure that they align with your views and make sure that they will do what you want. Like as picky as that sounds like, make sure that they'll do what you want when it comes to, like, the delivery and everything. Um, because you never know, because I never had any pregnancy symptoms of preeclampsia or the gestational diabetes or anything like that with my other three. It was just with Houston, um, and it's. I think I would.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would just interview, I would interview them because that's what stands out to me about your story is you had to be an advocate for yourself every step along the way, right, yeah, um, and in settings you wouldn't think you would have to, even afterwards, right, you were told things by your home birth midwife that you had to advocate for yourself. You were told even even the formula that the you know like. So we're looking at conventional and non-conventional medicine. You stepped in both fields here. Like you had a, you know, you had a journey and on both of those planes, and still had to advocate pretty hard for yourself, and I love that. Um, yeah, like you said, do your research right for yourself, for your baby, because you, at the end of the day, are the one who is in charge of that. Right, you're the one who has to, 100%, has to carry your own journey.
Speaker 3:I've always been the one to be like oh, my husband can help advocate for me. I'm a smaller person. Anyways, a lot of people don't really take me seriously, like I I normally am like oh, austin like defer to him yeah, yeah, but he wasn't there for any of the steps that I had to advocate for myself right. I had to be and I think also.
Speaker 3:I think the biggest lesson I learned is to trust my instincts to trust my gut, because it is um, it is not gonna lead you astray. Honestly, it's not gonna take you down as long as you're not like too emotional about it. You know, don't get your emotions stuck in it but if you have a bad feeling or you have a feeling like something's not right in your pregnancy, go to the hospital follow that yeah, follow it like I had that feeling for weeks, maybe even a couple months before, and other people were reassuring you.
Speaker 2:Right, they're like it's fine, it's fine and other people were reassuring you.
Speaker 3:right, they're like it's fine Even my husband kept reassuring me oh, you're fine, you're just being emotional. You know you're just, you know you're hormonal.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:No, I, I don't think so. I think you have a strong motherly instinct. So some people want to say it's the spirit, or it's you know, mother's intuition, or it's just mother instincts, or whatever you want to call it, it's yours.
Speaker 2:It's yours yeah.
Speaker 3:Follow it Like. It is gonna save you and it will save your baby too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Had I not have done that for you, yeah, yeah, it did.
Speaker 2:It saved me and it will save your baby too.
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, yeah, had I not have done that for you? Yeah, yeah, it did, it saved me and it saved my baby.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a very different story now, if you hadn't listened, it would have. It would have. Yeah, oh, wow cool, kimberly. Thanks for sharing this is. I know it's been a little bit of a tearful journey and for both of us today so fine. But yeah, I appreciate you being willing to share your story with us because that has yeah, that's some unexpected twists and turns and you're you continue to persevere and keep going, which is amazing, amazing, amazing, anything, any last, any last things you want to say before we wrap up.
Speaker 3:I can't think of anything, thank you for having me, though.
Speaker 2:Oh, such a pleasure. Thanks for being here. So we're going to wrap it up with the Ordinary Dealer podcast and our special guest Kimberly, who shared her remarkable story with us, and, as always, I encourage you to go out and make a unique connection with someone today. Please make a human connection, whether that's online, digital, in person, eye contact, by hand or touch. Please make a connection with another human today. It'll help you and it will help them. Have a great one, and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Ordinary Doula podcast with Angie Rozier, hosted by Birth Learning. Episode credits will be in the show notes Tune in next time as we continue to explore the many aspects of giving birth.