Magnolia survives high-risk delivery
By Erik Buchinger
Titus and Stephanie Buelow celebrated the holidays with a healthy family thanks to their “miracle baby” born in November.
Stephanie and Titus, pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Clintonville, underwent a several-month long scare with the birth of their first daughter, Magnolia.
The Buelows had three boys, Landon, 10, Jackson, 6, and Titus Jr., 1. In April, the two learned a fourth child was on the way with a due date of Christmas Day.
“When we found out about Magnolia, it wasn’t expected, we’ll say that,” Stephanie said. “It was a surprise.”
Everything had been going smoothly with the pregnancy until Stephanie experienced unexpected bleeding while her and Titus were counselors at a youth summer camp.
The two went to the emergency room and left the office not knowing exactly what was wrong.
“My doctor called me and said they looked at the file and noticed an ultrasound picture that looks pretty serious,” Stephanie said. “We were set up with a high-risk doctor right away.”
Stephanie was diagnosed with a twin molar pregnancy. Doctors told her they had never seen a patient with a twin molar pregnancy before and probably will never see one again.
Stephanie started a blog called MiracleBabiesExist chronicling her experiences throughout the process and posted her first update on July 18.
“I am sporting a 17 week Twin molar pregnancy with a coexisting fetus. Meaning two eggs were fertilized in one sack, but one of them fertilized incorrectly/not completely and turned into a mass of cells attached to the wall of my uterus, inside with the living twin,” Stephanie wrote. “This molar will continue to grow, causing complications that threatens both myself as well as baby.”
At one time, the doctor recommended to terminate the pregnancy because it could have life-threatening risks for Stephanie as well as the baby and be born with birth defects.
Stephanie said she started MiracleBabiesExist to show abortion is not always the answer.
“I wanted to make the case that there’s cases like Magnolia where you don’t have to listen to a doctor to terminate,” Stephanie said. “You can go on with the pregnancy and be safe. I consider Magnolia a miracle baby, and they do exist.”
Titus and Stephanie agreed they did not want an abortion and moved on with the pregnancy.
“We knew that regardless of the difficulties ahead of us, there was a little baby growing already,” Titus said. “We wanted to meet her no matter what the challenges were. We knew that whether that baby was born with birth defects or not, we would love her as a gift from god.”
Stephanie said her confidence in the doctors kept her optimistic throughout her pregnancy.
“That kept me positive throughout the entire stay,” Stephanie said. “If I was at home, I would have been scared the whole time I think.”
Stephanie went to the doctor almost every week. The doctor said the baby would probably not make it to 20 weeks in the womb.
“We made it to 20 weeks, so we beat those odds,” Stephanie said. “At 24 weeks, I experienced a lot of abnormal bleeding, and the doctor said I needed to be hospitalized until the baby comes.”
Stephanie went in a day earlier than expected. She was sent to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee where she stayed for 10 weeks.
Titus visited his wife once or twice a week, and the kids came twice during the 10 weeks she was in Milwaukee.
“It was depressing and just very hard,” Stephanie said. “I think it was most hard on Titus. He had the whole household and with his job, I think it was even harder on him.”
Titus said being away from Stephanie was very difficult and would have been even tougher if “I didn’t have different people in the community keeping me up with the support and prayers, not just in our congregation but throughout Clintonville and around the world, people encouraging me and those locally bringing food for me and the boys. We were fed the entire time.
“Stephanie said, ‘You’re not going to want me to come home with the way you’re being fed by everybody else,’” Titus said with a laugh. “There’s no way I would have been able to handle that on my own.”
Stephanie said it was difficult to be away from the family as long as she was.
“Being in the hospital day after day and having those scary moments, it’s a long time to wait,” Stephanie said. “Just being in the room all alone was my lowest point.”
Things were going well initially at the hospital until another set of complications.
“It was pretty smooth in the beginning until a lot of complications happened two weeks into it,” Stephanie said. “There was so much bleeding that they thought at any point they would have to do a blood transfusion.”
Stephanie became stable and held off until she was 34 weeks pregnant for a planned C-section.
“Because of the type of pregnancy it was, we had journalists there and a ton of people in the delivery room since it was such a high-risk delivery,” Stephanie said.
The molar passed and the birth was successful, but not without a major scare.
“I had two amniotic embolisms, and those are very fatal,” Stephanie said. “You can pretty much count on it being fatal. I had two after the delivery, and my body corrected itself both times. In the moment, I definitely felt like I was dying.”
Stephanie said she felt like her face and teeth had a pulse and could not talk.
“I couldn’t get words out and couldn’t move,” Stephanie said. “I couldn’t tell doctors something was wrong. My breathing was slowing down, and I felt like it was going to stop. It felt like an elephant was on my chest.”
Stephanie returned to normal, and Magnolia was born on Nov. 14. Magnolia was 4 pounds, 12 ounces and 17 inches long and without birth defects. Stephanie said she is now “thriving” and doing great.
“We felt pure joy,” Titus said. “I think we were speechless for days. When I told Stephanie it was a girl, she didn’t believe me. We had no idea what the gender would be, so it was an additional surprise for the day. Not only was she healthy and doing well, it was a girl and is our new, beautiful flower.”
Magnolia spent six days in the hospital as a precaution but has been released. Stephanie said she is feeling well, but there remains a possibility of developing choriocarcinoma, a type of fast-growing cancer.
She goes in for weekly tests and if HCG levels do not go down, she would have to begin chemotherapy.
This will be monitored for a full year before being officially cleared, and so far, so good, Stephanie said.
Titus said his anxiety remains high and he experiences night terrors thinking about the health of Stephanie and Magnolia. But he is thankful for the community’s support.
“Both of us feel humble and thankful for everyone who helped us get through this,” Titus said. “We’re especially thankful for god to give us this beautiful girl, and we have our family together for Christmas.”
Stephanie said she and the family were excited to spend their Christmas with the miracle baby.
“She completed our family,” Stephanie said.