Kristen Dawn McDonald was born 2-6-04. 4 days after mom's b-day & 7 days before dad's b-day. It was an unexpected pregnancy, because our youngest will be 5 in a few months. So we weren't sure if we wanted to go further, but we did. In the beginning of the pregnancy I had a lot of pain & discomfort. At every doctors appointment I told her that my experience was totally different than my first 2 children. She would say to me every pregnancy is different. After of about 2 months of this, I stopped complaining about it being different. Things were ok for the next 7 months except for the pain & discomfort. The pain & discomfort in my doctors opinion became "part of being pregnant." I decided to have the baby by c-section because our 2 older daughters were emergency c-section. The day came to have her & everything seemed to be fine. The doctors were doing the procedure & out of the blue one doctor looked at me & said, "there may be something wrong with your baby would you like me to proceed with the tubiligation." Of course I said yes because we didn't want any more children. One nurse brought my daughter over to me & I kissed her on the cheek. Then she was gone. This was @ 10 a.m. @ 1 p.m. a social worker came from the NICU & said that my daughter was there. There were complications & a doctor would come & talk to me about it. @ 3 p.m. the doctor came & said that our daughter had H.P.E. He said that she had an enlarged tongue, no bridge on her nose, puffy eyes. She was never going to breathe or drink a bottle on her own. That wasn't the worst part---- we could have 1-2 weeks or 1-2 years but she was not going to make it. She spent the first 2 weeks of her life with an air-way in her mouth, but it has been out since. When she turned 3 weeks old they decided to try a bottle. She has been doing ok with it. Now it is 5 weeks later & she may be coming home real soon. She has proved the doctors wrong. She may have H.P.E. but it is not as severe as they originally told us. Like my mother-in-law said "they weren't preparing you for the worst, they were preparing you for the end." There is a reason my "little angel" made it into this world, & I think she is here to stay.....