Alyssa's Journey

With four children now—all girls—Alyssa Pederson and her husband are contemplating a move into a new house soon. Pederson has a general vision of what that will look like, with one rock solid stipulation.

“We’re gonna need two bathrooms,” she said.

With the biggest sister (Nora, 6) holding the baby (Lydia), and the next biggest one waiting to pitch in (Kinsley*, 5, who likes to throw the diapers away), Pederson was able to find a moment to talk about her relationship with midwife Kay Weina of Women’s Care of Wisconsin.

“Well, not sure that you know this [full disclosure: I didn’t**], but I actually worked with Kay before I was her patient,” said Pederson. “Kay’s medical assistant went back to school for her nursing degree, so I became her MA.”

Pederson did her medical assistant internship at Women’s Care of Wisconsin when she was pregnant with Kinsley and was hired two months before her delivery. She returned to her duties following, then went on maternity leave with her third child (Hazel, now 2), came back for a short stint, and then left Women’s Care to be a full-time mom two years ago.

Weina would deliver both Hazel and Lydia (16 weeks). The midwife experience, in general terms and with Kay specifically, has made Pederson an advocate.

“What I like the most about having a midwife is that I just feel like they have more time to be with you,” said Pederson. “While I was in labor with both of the younger girls, Kay would pop in and out whenever she could or she'd come up there and spend her entire lunch break with me. After the clinic day was done, she was up there until I had Hazel. When I was walking the halls while I was laboring with Lydia, Kay was up there walking with me.”

She gives Weina and her delivery nurse kudos for their support and encouragement which allowed her to deliver Lydia without an epidural.

“I was really glad I was able to do that,” said Pederson. “I almost caved.”

Partnering with Weina as both a colleague and a patient, Pederson appreciates Weina’s approach to care.

“Kay takes time to listen to your concerns, your wishes, your questions,” Pederson said. “You don't feel rushed with her. She’ll take as long as she needs with you, even if that means the rest of her day is now running late.”

Pederson, like many other patients before her, touched on Weina’s almost mythic aura of serenity.

“For labor and delivery, when she walks in the room there’s just a feeling of calmness,” said Pederson. “With Lydia, the nurse texted Kay when I was eight centimeters, but I needed her back because the baby decided right then it was time. I was freaking out a bit until I heard Kay’s voice. Then it was like, ‘Okay, I can do this.’”

From the very first appointments to confirming the baby’s heartbeat up until the time of delivery, Pederson’s expectations with Weina have always been exceeded. She ends with a final anecdote about Kay.

“Kay loves to go camping,” said Pederson. “But if she has a patient that goes into labor while she’s camping, she’ll go to the hospital and deliver the baby, and then she’ll go back. I must say, Kay is the sweetest human on earth.”

NOTES:

*Kinsley: How parents arrive at names sometimes works without a hitch. But sometimes you need a process:

 With Kinsley, we really struggled. We both had two names each that we liked, but we couldn’t decide from those four. One day, I got up to get ready for work and my husband came in with a hat.

“Pick one,” he said.

“What am I picking?”

“Her name.”

“WHAT?”

I picked Kinsley, and here we are!

**I didn't: In addition to not knowing Alyssa was a former employee at Women’s Care of Wisconsin, I also happened to contact her on May 3, hoping she would talk to me about Kay. The timing could be considered serendipitous. Or insensitive. I choose the former.

Her response: “I will definitely reach out to you once I get a look at my calendar at home. We are currently at the in the hospital as Kay actually just delivered our baby yesterday!”

Angie's Journey

In a recent survey, respondents voted hosting a dinner party with family as the number one stress inducer during the holiday season. Yeah, right. Angie Christopherson’s tale includes a positive Covid test on Christmas Day and a rescheduling of her inducement date, moved from December 26 to January 3. Oh, and because Santa’s gift to her regular OB/GYN was appendicitis, Christopherson would be meeting a brand new provider for the delivery of her second child.

Good thing Christopherson is the kind of person who can go with the flow.

“Long story short, I was given Dr. Brubaker,” said Christopherson, “and she was the greatest gift to me.”

But let's try the short story long and let Christopherson tell the tale of her experience as only she can:

My original provider ended up getting appendicitis, so then she was out. So I was just gonna have a random provider do the birth. And I was like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ It’ll make things interesting because it’s someone I never met before. Honestly, I was okay with it.

I was supposed to get induced on December 26, but on Christmas morning I woke up and felt awful. Probably the sickest I’ve ever been in my whole life. I’m usually the kind that can push through things, but this time I couldn’t even get off the couch. Felt like I was going to pass out all day. So I called the nurse and asked if we should still get induced, because I honestly didn’t think I was capable of pushing a baby out.

The nurse told me I should take a Covid test just to make sure and rule that out, then we’d go from there. I had an at home test and, yep, I had Covid. And then it all made sense. We canceled the inducement and had to wait for a new date because of the quarantine protocol.

And then my husband got Covid.

And then I was notified that my doctor got appendicitis.

And I was chasing a toddler around too.

We ended up scheduling the inducement on January 3. I was like 40 weeks and five days, so yeah, I was ready. We went in, got the Pitocin, and everything was moving along well. At eight centimeters they sat me up to see if they could get me to ten, but I felt like I was going to pass out. I didn’t, which was good. But when I got to ten centimeters, all of a sudden a bunch of nurses came running in. I’m thinking, ‘Okay, why are all these nurses here?’ 

Things had started to go a tad bit sideways: they couldn’t find my baby’s heartbeat. 

Enter Dr. Brubaker, who was downstairs with another patient. I don’t know if they press a button or something when they can’t hear the baby’s heartbeat, but Brubaker must have launched herself up the stairs, because she was a little bit out of breath when she got there. I asked her if everything was alright. ‘I just sprinted up here!’ she said. 

They ended up finding my baby’s heartbeat, but it just kept dropping, mostly because he was kind of in the birthing canal. So it was kind of a scary thing. But Brubaker was so calm, went through the options if the heartbeat continued to drop.

Maybe this was where I was a little too go with the flow, because out came, ‘I don’t really know, so why don’t you pick!’ 

That didn’t fly with Brubaker, so I think I went with, ‘Okay, whatever’s safest.’ But I knew I was to keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing. For like an hour and a half. (And I thought the second delivery was supposed to be easier!) Anyway, the pushing continued and I’m not entirely sure what happened, but basically the baby’s shoulder got stuck. They did some maneuvering and voila!

Charlie was born! 10 pounds, 13 ounces!

He was a large guy. One nurse asked me if other nurses could come in and see him. At this point I was so relieved that I just said, ‘Sure! Bring ‘em in!’

And the nurses were like, ‘Holy cow! This is the biggest baby we’ve ever seen!’

So yeah, it was kind of a hoot, I mean once the scary stuff had passed and we could push out this almost 11-pound baby.

Sometimes when you hear stories about women giving birth, or just being in the hospital in general, you hear about how they just felt like another patient or another number. But I truly felt valued, and I felt Dr. Brubaker truly cared about my baby’s health. She was able to deliver him with ease while keeping me educated about possible outcomes during the entire labor.

She was so professional, so calm, and we absolutely loved her.

 

 

 

Sarah's Journey

Serendipity can be a powerful thing. 

When Sarah Hanaway’s insurance changed and she needed a new OB/GYN, she decided to call Women’s Care of Wisconsin in the hope that they had a provider who was accepting new patients.

Sarah Hanaway, meet Dr. Adriana Schaufelberger.

Hanaway was being introduced to her new provider just as she and her husband were trying to get pregnant for the first time; they were instructed to try for three months.

Which is exactly what they did, but they weren’t getting pregnant.

“At my first visit with Dr. Schaufelberger, I told her I didn't know how moms that try for years handle it, because we were already feeling kind of disappointed,” said Hanaway. “And so that day when I got there, she had everything ready for what kind of fertility things we could do, she had already checked into my insurance and everything. She was prepared for me and knew me as a patient before I even knew her.”

Hanaway acknowledged her fears that a long and difficult road to getting pregnant was just beginning for them, and then made another admission: because she had been let down a couple of times, she hadn’t taken a pregnancy test for a while. She took one then and there and was given the news.

“You are the least pregnant a person can be,” said Schaufelberger.

Hanaway was excited and scared, but she said Schaufelberger countered that by being informative and reassuring. Throughout the first pregnancy Hanaway, like most new moms, had a plethora of questions.

“I could get ahold of her at any time, and asking her questions was so easy,” said Hanaway. “And that first pregnancy went great, and we delivered Rory.”

The second pregnancy was more challenging, as the baby wasn’t moving at 37 weeks. It’s uncertain whether it was related to her preeclampsia or had some connection to her bout with COVID, but Hanaway developed blood clots that fortunately did not get to the baby. Schaufelberger induced labor and delivered baby Rosella early.

“That might have been the world’s fastest delivery ever,” said Hanaway. “Schaufelberger told me she was going to go home and eat dinner, come back, and I was going to have a baby. She didn’t get the chance to eat. Labor was 30 minutes, tops.”

Complications followed after Ella’s birth, as Hanaway dealt with postpartum preeclampsia, which presents briefly at the end of pregnancy and can cause early delivery. The condition lingered, and instead of being able to focus on recovering after childbirth and caring for her newborn, Hanaway spent a considerable time just being very sick. This resulted in the most difficult circumstance of the pregnancy.

“I had to leave Ella at home and go back to the hospital,” Hanaway said. “That caused a lot of hard emotions that Schaufelberger acknowledged and kept in mind when we were pregnant with number three.”

And with their third, the complications continued.

“Anything that can happen when you’re 37 years old and pregnant was happening to me,” Hanaway said.

Preeclampsia affected Hanaway’s pregnancy again, and to complicate matters further she developed cholestasis, a condition that lowers liver function that can cause complications for mother and baby. At her twenty-week appointment, Schaufelberger told her to come in for testing every two to three weeks. 

One day Hanaway called and said she didn’t feel the baby moving. Tests became weekly.

“She saw this was making me anxious,” said Hanaway. “She cares a lot about the patient and the baby, and she just let me know she was going to do everything in her power to make sure we were being taken care of.”

The delivery of her third child, Rynn, was not a speedy affair like the second. Hanaway assumed it was just a really large baby, but it turned out the baby was flipped and “turning all over the place.” Despite the acute sickness she felt during delivery, Hanaway recognized something that was a constant with Schaufelberger.

“She keeps the delivery room lively and treats the entire family, not just the mom. She makes sure she knows everybody,” said Hanaway.

Certainly that includes Hanaway’s husband, an inquisitive person who spent most of Rory’s delivery barraging Schaufelberger—in the midst of all the action—with a seemingly unending set of questions. For Ella’s delivery, Schaufelberger pointed at mom’s head and said to dad, “You stay up there. I’ve got the area down here covered.”

Now with three children four and under as well as a new puppy (“potty trained but not yet behavior trained”), the Hanaway house is an active and joyful place. Asked to pause for a moment and reflect on Dr. Schaufelberger, mom and dad were in alignment.

“We both agreed that we had such an amazing experience with her and she made us feel comfortable every step of the way in all three pregnancies. What sets her apart from other doctors is that she doesn't just get to know you as a patient; she knows you as a person and she knows and cares about you and your entire growing family.”

After three pregnancies with their fair share of complications (by the way, Hanaway had gestational diabetes with each), she ends by highlighting a Schaufelberger quote that resonates with her, deeply.

“Dr. Schaufelberger always says ‘I trust a mother’s instinct.’ That’s so reassuring to hear, to know that she trusts you to know when your body isn’t feeling right.”

So a chance appointment with “any available provider” becomes a bond of strength, a relationship based on confidence and trust.

Serendipity indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam's Journey

When you call a mom with an 11-month-old for an interview, leading with the question “Are you good to go?” is a given, even if you know what the answer will be.

“Got a baby right here but I’m ready,” was Sam Hawkinson’s reply.

Of course she’s ready. She’s a mom.

Hawkinson is the proud mother of 11-month-old Louie.

She’s proud of her five-year-old son Finn, too.

And Archie, age seven.

Jack too, who’s nine.

“My husband is one of three boys, and his dad is one of five boys, and his dad’s dad was one of eight boys,” said Hawkinson. “I prepared myself for boys.”

Following the delivery of boy #1 (aka Jack) by her regular OB/GYN, Hawkinson needed to find another provider—not due to anything negative, simply retirement. While Hawkinson was satisfied with the new obstetrician she started with during her second pregnancy, due to unforeseen circumstances she was unavailable to meet with Hawkinson at several appointments.

Enter midwife Kay Weina, who stepped in and introduced herself at Hawkinson’s 20-week appointment.

“Kay walked in the room that day and I don’t know what it was. Her overall presence, an aura of calm,” said Hawkinson. “Whatever it was, it just made me feel like she was who I needed to have deliver the baby.”

Admittedly, Hawkinson had been curious about midwifery and had pondered how that approach might impact the journey. Their initial conversation proved to be a tipping point.

“Meeting Kay and understanding the midwife’s point of view, which is to be there with you and for you, was an immediate aha moment for me,’” she said. “Kay’s calm and loving presence, and the fact that she began by taking time to get to know me, was a huge difference-maker.” 

Following that appointment at 20-weeks, Hawkinson made the provider switch.

“It wasn’t that my provider wasn’t a good fit,” she said. “It was that Kay was the perfect fit.”

Fast forward to the birth of Archie (boy #2), where Hawkinson went into labor but her contractions ended up stalling. Kay was with her through the entire night in what culminated the next day in a somewhat non-traditional birth.

“Well, I started to birth right there in the shower,” Hawkinson said. “This baby was coming out, and there we all were—Kay, my doula, the birth team, my mom and my husband—all in this small bathroom. Pretty wild.”

With baby boy #3 (Finn), Hawkinson went into labor, got to the hospital, and the labor stalled once again. Kay (“calm and collected as always”) broke her water, and Finn was delivered.

She noted that there was another similarity with those births.

“I was standing up both times when I delivered,” Hawkinson said. “Using gravity seems to work for me.”

And let us not forget boy #4, baby Louie who, at 11 months now, was in mom’s arms during the interview. Hawkinson described the birthing experience with Louie as the toughest yet—“He just really didn’t want to come out”—but he’s doing great and growing well.

Hawkinson ends with a comment about Kay that aptly punctuates the discussion.

“Kay just makes you feel really grounded, basically like you can do anything,” she said. “Like have a baby!”

 

Meet Adriana Schaufelberger, MD, Women's Care of WI

“What do you think your patients appreciate most about you?”

There was a distinct pause following the relatively standard question, at least when you’re interviewing a physician. A conventional answer was certainly the expectation.

Dr. Adriana Schaufelberger’s answer was anything but.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’m funny,” she said. “I try to make things lighter and take any embarrassment out of it. And there’s no shyness here. Tell me what you’re thinking. Out with it. Go for it. And that’s where we’ll both laugh. I think that’s a big thing.”

Thus begins a discussion with the board-certified OB/GYN, someone who truly loves every part of part of her interactions with patients at Women’s Care of Wisconsin.

The ability to connect is clearly a strength of Schaufelberger’s. Her patients feel this in their first visit and understand in short order one of her essential mantras.

“I’m not about rushing. I don’t like to be rushed. I don’t like to rush my patients,” said Schaufelberger. “My routine is to come into the room, sit down, and then . . . we talk. And if you cry, there’s a good chance I’m going to cry with you." 

Schaufelberger loves to talk and is laser focused on chatting about patient care, yet she does sprinkle in the personal: she’s an identical twin, first generation Hispanic, who worked 40 hours a week while taking full credit loads to earn her two degrees.

“I started out in nursing school, getting into Purdue’s nursing program by accident. I didn't apply for it, but I was in. So I took it as an omen,” said Schaufelberger.

She loved everything about nursing (“I was good at it too!”) but a nudge from her mentor put her on a different path. She was told quite simply that she should go to medical school. Her response was perhaps typical of a different era.

“I’m a girl. I can’t be a doctor,” was her reply.

After a sideways glance accompanied by a “Seriously!” and then a more benevolent “Of course you can!”, Schaufelberger set her sights on a new career.

“And when I graduated from med school, my mentor walked me across the stage,” she said.

Schaufelberger veers once more into the personal, acknowledging that she’s obsessed with her children and loves her dog way, way too much. And she talks about her father, a pipe fitter, who when he got injured looked to his daughter to take care of things.

She shifts gears, returning to the topic of her patients, the conversation accompanied by the clatter of pots and pans. The interviewer notes this.

“Oh, I’m multi-tasking. I need to be busy or I don’t do well,” said Schaufelberger. “But as I was saying, I’m old, I’m relatable, I’m not intimidating, I don’t scare people, and maybe that’s why people I don’t know connect with me. Because I can talk to them.”

This segues into a nice little discussion about a shoulder injury that took Schaufelberger out of action for five months.

“All I could think about was seeing my patients,” she said. “I love them all.”

One of the patients who acutely felt the pain of Schaufelberger’s shoulder injury was Morgan Bonnell, who became a patient following a recommendation.

“It was very important to me when I switched that I click with my new provider and feel an immediate sense of trust. Within, oh, about 20 seconds of meeting her, I knew she was incredible,” said Bonnell. “She literally pulled out a piece of paper, we went through every one of my concerns, wrote them down and said, ‘This is our plan for this' and ‘This is our plan for that.’ She was listening. I knew I was in good hands.”

In the eighth month of Bonnell’s pregnancy, Schaufelberger admitted she would not be able to deliver the baby because she needed a procedure to repair her shoulder.

“It was instant tears for me, and she was tearing up too,” said Bonnell. “But she said she was still going to be there for me. And she was true to her word—any time I needed her or her reassurance, she was just a phone call or text away.”

Schaufelberger ends with the importance of a welcoming atmosphere, one with the power to create an immediate connection that can lead to a lifelong bond.

“Okay, I admit that I really want you to like me when you come in. But more significant is that you feel safe and secure, so you can be honest and ask whatever needs asking, and we can be friends.”

She’s also the kind of person who delivers lasagna when someone’s sick.

That speaks volumes, and perhaps explains the ambient kitchen din.

Dr. Adriana Schaufelberger sees patients at Women's Care of Wisconsin locations in Neenah and Waupaca. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Schaufelberger, please call or text 920.729.7105.

Ashley's Journey

The Cotten Family: Zayden, Kyleigh, Ashley & Casey

It’s good to have a plan. Might not work out exactly as envisioned, but that’s life.

Ashley mentioned “the plan” right away.   

“I have a 12-year-old daughter,” Ashley began. “When my husband and I got married, we knew were going to try to have a child together. That was the plan. And since I got pregnant the first time, I just assumed that it was going to be easy the second time.”

But it was not. Frustration with a previous provider (“I didn’t feel welcomed or heard”) led her to Dr. Allison Brubaker.

A fertility specialist at Women’s Care of Wisconsin, Brubaker made an instant connection with Ashley.

“She took the time to understand me and hear my worries, frustrations, and concerns,” said Ashley. “When you're trying to get pregnant, you need your doctor to take that extra time to really listen to what you're saying.”

Ashley would spend the next two years trying to get pregnant, but to no avail. She blamed herself, felt she had somehow done something wrong, could not understand why her body was not doing what it was supposed to do.

“This is a really vulnerable time in your life. And you really need somebody who truly cares and is genuine, who can listen to your story, your thoughts, your concerns and really follow through with a plan to make sure that you’re getting what you need,” said Ashley. “Dr. Brubaker hits all those points.”

Despite the efforts, one day Ashley felt it was time to take a break from the tests, the treatments, and the procedures.

“I just needed some time to figure out what we were going to do,” said Ashley.

Of course, that’s when Ashley got pregnant.

The celebration of the joyous news, coming as it did after so much time and doubt, wouldn’t go according to plan either.

“When I found out I was pregnant, my husband found out the same day that he was positive for COVID,” Ashley said. “I yelled for him to come check the test to see if it was real, but he was in no condition to understand what was actually happening at that moment. We celebrated together a week or so later. We were over-the-moon excited.”

About seven weeks into the pregnancy, Ashley started bleeding.

“I just had this feeling after we worked so hard it was going to be over,” said Ashley. “I called Dr. Brubaker and she just said not to freak out, that I should get to the ER and we’d figure it out.”

And it turned out to be fine. Following the ER visit, Brubaker saw Ashley in clinic the same day to reassure her that things were okay.  

“She paid extra attention to my pregnancy because I was high risk, and she knew that I was overly-paranoid because of the journey that led up to this point.”

Because Ashley couldn’t get her gestational diabetes under control, she ended up on insulin. That resulted in lots of check-ins with Brubaker. At 37 weeks, she couldn’t get her fasting blood sugar under control. Brubaker, said Ashley, looked at her face and could sense that it was time.

“Are you ready to be done?” said Brubaker. 

“Yes!” came the reply.

Ashley went home, packed a bag, and returned. Brubaker delivered a healthy baby boy, Zayden, and their family was complete.

Which was the plan all along.

 

 

Whatever Makes Your Heart Happy: A Mother’s Story

The conversation began playfully, as the response to how things were going now with three children was decidedly mathematical.

“My husband and I are officially outnumbered,” said Melodie.

But then, a quick caveat.

“I will try not to get emotional about my doctor and the relief she brought to a . . . well, just a very stressful experience.”

Melodie took a deep breath, paused, and told her story.

“I started at Women's Care when I was pregnant with my son Camden, who’s four and a half now, and I actually was seeing an OB that left the practice, right around the time that I delivered. It wasn't very long after that I was already looking for another provider at Women’s Care for my second delivery. And so I found Dr. Gass, who delivered my daughter Hannah, my two year old.”

That was March of 2020, the beginning of the pandemic. Hannah’s delivery was fast and the experience positive.

The following year, Melodie was pregnant again. At her ten-week appointment, she had no indication that there wouldn’t be a heartbeat.

“I had two previous pregnancies where I never had an issue. I've never had a miscarriage. I wasn't expecting that being pregnant the third time,” said Melodie. “But in that moment of finding out, Dr. Gass was just so wonderful. She validated in that moment that my family had a loss. And there was going to be this part of me, this future that I saw, that was gone. And that it was okay if I didn't feel okay.”

Melodie said Gass provided options following the loss and let her know that the decision didn’t have to be made right away, that Melodie could think about what she wanted to do.

“She was just so supportive, and she saw me as a person with a whole life, not just an appointment in a time window where she needed to do a task,” said Melodie. “She validated the heartbreak I felt. I wasn’t dismissed with a ‘this is common and you’ll be fine.’ That meant a lot to me.”

That loss, in December 2021, weighed heavily on Melodie, who wasn’t sure when or if she would be ready to try again. But she and her husband felt their family wasn’t quite complete. Soon after, and perhaps even a bit sooner than she had prepared herself for, Melodie got pregnant.

Emotionally, this was a difficult time for Melodie, who said Gass offered something she offers all her patients who have just experienced a loss, to simply come in more frequently in the first trimester for peace of mind.

By week 14, Melodie had taken advantage of enough extra appointments to envision the happy ending, their rainbow baby. A week later Melodie awoke in the middle of the night and assumed she had wet the bed. She was covered in blood.

And her first thought was the realization that this might not be a happy ending at all.

By the time they got to the ER, Melodie was still bleeding. After treatment and testing, she was wheeled back to a room where she and her husband agonizingly waited for the ultrasound tech. Fearing the worst, they received the news: though there was no determination about the bleeding, there was a heartbeat. The baby looked perfect.

Melodie went home, they got the kids to daycare, and then the phone rang.

“It was Dr. Gass’ office, calling me before I could even call them,” Melodie said. “She had been contacted when I was in the ER, she made the recommendation for the medication I received there, and she wanted me in her clinic ASAP.”

Melodie saw her that very morning and made subsequent visits until she could start feeling fetal movement.

“Dr. Gass made room for me on her schedule every single day so that I could come in and see that the baby's heartbeat was still there,” said Melodie. “I trusted her completely, that she was going to do whatever it took. When she delivered our daughter Hannah, it was a positive experience, without problems. The true test of how good your provider is . . . is when it feels like everything's going wrong.”

As the pregnancy continued the bleeding tapered, but there was a significant blood clot at the front of her uterus. And entirely separate from this, there was an anomaly of the baby’s abdomen.

“Every time we cleared a hurdle, something else seemed to snap us back to reality,” said Melodie. 

Adding to this was the fact that Melodie was high risk in multiple categories, which brought additional concerns about delivering early and the health of the baby. Little by little, the anxiety grew.

“But each day and week that ticked by was like a little celebration every time I saw Dr. Gass,” said Melodie. 

On December 6, 2022, Dr. Gass delivered Sophie to the world and placed her on her mother’s chest. Mom, in response, said just three words.

“We did it.”

Specialists in Milwaukee have confirmed that Sophie has a rare congenital malformation of the digestive tract known as an enteric duplication cyst; she’ll need surgery, most likely around her first birthday. 

Following her recent six-week appointment, Melodie said she was still processing it all.

“Dr. Gass always says, ‘Whatever makes your heart happy.’ And she really means it. I don’t know if going in to see her every day was really medically necessary, but doing that was going to make my heart happy, every day knowing that Sophie’s heart was still beating and that we’re one day closer . . . one day closer.”

Melodie closes her story with a profound statement that is both uniquely personal and unconditionally universal.

“I just look at Sophie and can’t even believe she’s here. She’s ours. She’s perfect.”