On the night of November 28th, 2013, I had found out that I was pregnant. My fiance and I were really excited that we were going to have a baby and finally have our own little family. At 18 weeks we had found out that our baby had a very low heart rate and we had no idea why. The doctor had sent us to Halifax to see the doctors up thereto find out what the problem may be. Come to find out, her heart was on the wrong side of her chest and something was not right with it. We had gone up that Friday to see a heart specialist, and he had given us the news that it was Heterotaxy Syndrome. The term "Heterotaxy" means different arrangements of the organs. Heterotaxy Syndrome is a complex disease. It involves the heart, kidneys, stomach and lungs. We were told that there was a good chance that we were going to lose our baby girl. My fiance and I were devastated and didn't know what to think. So we had gone home to think about what we were going to do. We decided that we were going to continue the pregnancy and give our little girl a chance. So, as time had gone on, we educated ourselves on the condition and procedures that our little girl would have gone through.

With multiple visits to Halifax, we came to learn that our little girl was in the stages of heart failure. On May 15th we were told that her heart had enlarged and was takeing up 90% of her chest cavity and was squishing her lungs, not allowing them to grow. At that moment, we knew that she was not going to make it any longer. She fought as long as she could.

We met with a doctor and we had planned a date for me to come back to the hospital to deliver her. Fraser and I decided that May 31st would be the day we would come back and start the procedures. May 31st rolled around and we had gone up to Halifax. I had an ultrasound done, and they told me that our little girl had passed. They told me that they couldn't get to me that day because the birthing unity was very busy. So I was sent home on a 48 hour pass. We went back up on June 2nd...they never got to me until 2pm. It was a long day and night. The contractions never kicked in until 10am on June 3rd. At something after 2 I wa sent down to the birthing unit because I was 3cm dilated. At 3:06pm, I gave birth to a beautiful 4lb 8oz baby girl. It was the best feeling in the world, knowing I had the man of mu life with me, my father and my step-mother there by my side through the whole emotional roller coaster. Shortly after she was born, there was a big clap of thunder, I knew she was at rest and that she was okay.

Fraser and I had named her Reagan Lexie Marie MacGee. We had her for 5 1/2 hours together. We got some pictures taken with everyone. We had given her to the nurses and one of them took pictures of her feet and did a neat thing with her footprints. They then got a little bit of her hair for us. When we finally let her go, it never really sank in until a couple of days later. Reagan was born on our 17 month anniversary.

Having this happen to us, it had really changed our outlook on life. It made Fraser and I stronger as individuals and as a couple. If we could make it through something like that, then we can make it through anything together. We may bump heads sometimes, but what happened with our baby girl, it still goes back to us being stronger together as one.

                                                                   -Tabby Anderson