Wilsons especially thankful this year

Christians often quote the scripture, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever.”

For one Andalusia young family, they feel they have more for which to be thankful this holiday season.

In early December 2013, Erin Wilson, who works in the district attorney’s office, went to the doctor for a cough. At the time, she was 27

weeks pregnant.

Wilson said when she got to the doctor, her blood pressure was elevated and her doctor sent her to the hospital to be monitored.

“After two hours of observation, Dr. Wells said I had pre-eclampsia,” she said. “I was shipped by ambulance to USA.”

Husband Matthew, who at the time was an Andalusia firefighter but now works for the Andalusia Police Department, followed the ambulance to Mobile.

From Monday until Friday, Erin was in a constant state of high blood pressure.

Doctors worked to no avail to get her blood pressure down.

“They did an ultrasound and estimated Emma was about 2 pounds,” Erin said. “They gave her rounds of steroids to help develop her lungs.”

On Dec. 13, baby Emma was born via C-section. She weighed 1 pound, 14 ounces and was 13.5 inches long.

“They called her a micro-preemie,” Erin said.

Thanks to the steroids, Emma’s lungs were functioning, but she had some intestinal issues, and Retinopathy of prematurity in her eyes.

Additionally, she has scars from PICC lines.

Erin said with every milliliter of feeds Emma was able to take, there came a small triumph for her.

Emma stayed at USA until March 20, 2014.

Meanwhile, Erin developed HELLP syndrome, and the most severe level of it.

HELLP syndrome is a group of symptoms that occur in pregnant women who have:

• hemoloysis, or the breakdown of red blood cells;

• elevated liver enzymes; and

• low platelet count.

The syndrome occurs in about 1 to 2 out of 1,000 pregnancies.

Matthew said HELLP syndrome is a lot more dangerous when the woman is carrying the baby.

“It was pretty scary,” he said. “Erin was pretty much out of it. They were just giving her fluids and hoping she could ride it out.”

The Wilsons didn’t get to hold baby Emma until Christmas Eve.

“She could fit in one hand,” Erin said. “She had tubes everywhere.”

During the months Emma was at USA, Erin said they traveled back and forth every other day to see her.

“We have fantastic employers,” she said. “The timing all worked out, and God provided. We realized how much everyone cared about us. Anyone helped who could.”

Emma weighed a little more than 5 pounds when she was able to come home in March.

She came home with a heart monitor and normal medications for her.

“We’ve had to go back and forth to the ROP clinic and the cardiologist,” Erin said. “Today, she’s crawling, pulling up and trying to walk. She’s closer to 20 pounds.”

In comparison to her corrected age, she’s ahead of it all developmentally, the Wilsons said.

“She’s the most social child,” Erin said. “She loves people. She has no health problems.”

This Thanksgiving, Matthew is really thankful to have his wife of 10 years by his side and their little girl.

“It was pretty rough having Emma on one floor and Erin on the other,” he said. “It’s hard to come up with words. So much bad could have come of this. I could have lost one of them or both of them, but we have our beautiful little girl and Erin is still here.”