Ashley

Ashley graduated high school when she was 17 years old and found herself pregnant when she was 18. She was very nervous upon finding out about her pregnancy in March 2011 but her boyfriend was really supportive. Her parents were also supportive, though not happy. Unfortunately her boyfriend’s family was not supportive. They were not involved in the pregnancy whatsoever. But Ashley didn’t mind. She had all that she needed.

At 24 weeks she found out that she was having a girl. Together she and her boyfriend decided on the name Aubree Jordana. Her boyfriend wanted to join the air force and they decided they wanted to get married. So, they did. They got married before he left for boot camp in September 2011. Shortly after he left Ashley started getting really bad headaches. When she went to her doctor they discovered that her blood pressure was really high. She had to be hospitalized and ended up not being able to attend her sister’s wedding.

Ashley was diagnosed with preeclampsia and given betamethasone shots to speed up the development of Aubree’s lungs. She was put on bed rest. She remained on bed rest for seven weeks before she woke up one morning feeling ill and suffering from a bad headache. Ashley called her doctor and she was told to go to the hospital. Upon arrival Ashley was induced and her daughter was born at 8:39 am on October 30, 2011. Luckily this was a Sunday and subsequently the only day that Aubree’s dad was allowed to call home from boot camp so Ashley was able to tell him that their daughter was born. Aubree Jordana was born at just 35 weeks and had to have an IV to receive fluids as she had trouble sucking. She also had trouble breathing and thus had to be kept in the “level 2” nursery for a couple of days.

It was so hard for Ashley to see her newborn baby hooked up to so many machines and monitors, but she knew that this was only helping. After they went home Aubree did really well. The only thing Ashley struggled with was finding the right formula for baby Aubree. Then, two weeks after the birth, Ashley started to have a lot of bleeding that never stopped or slowed down. She became concerned and called her doctor. She had to return to the hospital and get surgery done. It turns out part of the placenta was left in her uterus after the birth, and this is what was causing the bleeding. The piece of remaining placenta was removed and Ashley had to remain at the hospital for a few days. It was so hard for her to be away from baby Aubree even for that short period of time, but she got through it.

Aubree, Ashley, and Ashley’s husband are all currently doing well. Ashley is taking college classes and her husband is still in the air force. It was especially hard for her to be apart from him when he was away at training because he wasn’t able to meet his daughter for the first time until she was two months old, but they make it work. Ashley loves being an army wife and she loves her family so very much.