We have been following Ventura County mom Genessee Semler since she was expecting her pandemic baby, Fin, at the same time as Joe Biden’s inauguration - and shared thehappy surprise news that she was expecting again, due this June.
At 7-months pregnant, Genessee got another surprise when during lunch with her husband and daughter, her waters broke.
Semler went to hospital and was laid up on hospital bedrest for two weeks.
"They did a test and it was amniotic fluid so they admitted me," she told KCLU.
At 30 weeks pregnant, Semler went into labor naturally and welcomed a baby daughter - ten weeks before her due date.
"They don't know why it happened - why my water broke," she said.
"They were worried on the day because they couldn't see the baby's chest moving up a down in a breathing motion, so they were considering inducing me."
"That happened at 4 in the morning and she was out at 9.58am. It happened really fast, she just popped out. She's so little." said Semler.
She was just 3lbs 7oz when she was born.
"She had a sunken rib cage because her lungs hadn't developed," explained Semler. "She was less developed than she should have been for her gestational age and was hooked up to machines for a while. It's just this week that she's been taken off all the oxygen."
Their daughter - who is named Tea - is now in the NICU, with her parents visiting her regularly.
"She's lying in there now with a feeding tube down her nose so she can practice feeding by mouth.
"It's hard because they won't let you do skin to skin unless it's for an minimum of an hour as it's too much trouble to unhook everything and hook it back up," said Semler.
"Also since I'm pumping, to help keep my milk supply up so I spend 30 minutes when I'm there pumping and then cleaning the machine.
"So typically I only get to hold her for exactly an hour. It's kind of sad. The nurses are all wearing gloves so she doesn't get skin to skin, so when we are not then, she's all alone."
While many parents would find it stressful enough to see their premature baby hooked up on wires, Semler is one of many parents in this situation who are then faced with extra medical expenses.
"We are already getting calls about billing from the insurance company and whether she's already been put on our plan.
"Our deductible is very high and we are definitely going to hit it again this year between my two and half week stay and her four week stay in the NICU.
"And the hospital ride, we got the bill for that, that was a few thousand dollars. The insurance covers some of it but not all of it," she said.
"It's overwhelming," she added.
Hopefully, baby Tea will be home to Thousand Oaks soon and can meet her big sister.
We will continue to follow Genessee’s journey.
