Of course Abbie Pyle and her husband, Spencer, wish they were not spending their baby's first Christmas inside Riley Hospital for Children, yet they are also grateful.
"We have a Christmas tree that was donated to us which was so nice," Pyle said. "We're just planning to come in. We're going to do a little Christmas photo shoot this weekend. We're just going to rock it because I'm just happy she's here, we're just happy she's here."
Paige was born at a hospital in Newburgh at 24 weeks and 2 days. Abbie and Spencer's journey to get their baby was not easy and lasted around four years.
"We got married November of [2020]," Pyle said. "I have PCOS so we knew it was going to be a little bit of a battle. We ended up doing six rounds of pills, three rounds of just shots, that didn't work so then we decided to do IVF. We did another transfer. I actually go pregnant and miscarried, then we got pregnant with Paige. We made it to twelve weeks and we're like, 'Okay, we got through the big miscarriage thing, like we're safe.' We made it to 20-21 weeks, we found out Paige was a girl, we were so excited."
On March 27, a blood pressure check revealed a reading of 178/116. Pyle rushed to the emergency room in Jasper before transferring to Newburgh.
"So we get down to Deaconess and they're like we're taking her at 24 weeks regardless," Pyle explained. "The only reason why she was born at 24 and 2 was because I had pre-eclampsia. The only way to cure it is to give birth. I had HELPP syndrome, I was going into organ failure, my liver and my kidneys were shutting down, my kidneys almost completely shut down. They were just testing how far they could push my body to give her the best shot and mine tapped out at 24 and 2."
Paige was born on April 9 weighing 1 pound and 1.3 ounces.
"It was 26 days before I got to hold her for the first time because she was sick, she had an arterial line, so we couldn't get her up," Pyle said. "That was hard."
Paige battles BPD or Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia.
"It's just a chronic lung disease in premature babies caused by lung injuries caused by ventilators and high oxygen," Pyles said. "Everything you do to save her, especially early on, is causing harm."
Paige was 36 days old when she and her family were transferred to Riley.
"I cannot thank Riley enough for this," Pyle said. "We had gotten second opinions from other hospitals and they're like, she's not in good shape. She's got crappy lungs, but Riley's just fought for her. It has not been sunshine and roses at all. It has been hard. And there have been a lot of why us? Why here? She doesn't deserve any of this. It's been a lot of emotional acceptance."
For Pyle, she lives by several mottos. First, what's best for Paige, not what's more convenient for [them]. Second, comparison is the thief of joy. She often stays away from social media in order to prevent comparison of parents without medically complex kids.
"The longer we went along the less I started thinking about that and I focused more on the fact that she's still here, because she could be a lot worse than she is and there's families that don't get to make it home," Pyle said. "The biggest way I get through is to remind myself that she's still here."
Along with their families, Pyle said she and her husband are a solid support system for each other. Currently, Pyle's husband works from the Ronald McDonald House and she is able to stay with Paige throughout the day.
"My husband, thankfully works remote so we're very fortunate," Pyle explained. "He comes in the evenings and on the weekends. It's hard! Medical dads do not get enough credit, period. He's here, he's learning, he's got more checked off on his list than I do and I'm here every day."
While Paige has a long road ahead, her parents are completely committed to walking alongside her.
"We will do whatever we need to do for however long it takes because at the end of the day, I'm just so thankful she's here," Abbie said.
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