Meet Baby Camdyn Faith Hodge and her beautiful story!

One of my most dearest friends for many years Natalie, was so excited to become an auntie for the first time. With so much happiness she called me and asked if I could take some portraits of her newborn niece. Little did I know the story behind the birth of Camdyn and what perseverance her parents went through to have their baby girl. So I was talking to her mommy and asked if she could write how baby Camdyn came into their lives. Here is what she wrote.

Camdyn Faith Hodge was born on June 3rd, 2009 but she had been a dream of ours since 2005 when Travis and I were married. Unfortunately, after a year of trying to conceive and surgery, we were told that we would not conceive naturally and that our only hope was to pursue extensive fertility treatments. We began the long and painful process of In-Vitro Fertilization. After several months of medications, injections and surgical procedures we were hopeful to have a a successful embryo transfer, however, we were crushed to learn that the cycle had not worked and we were not pregnant. We took a year to recover from that experience and decided to try another cycle of IVF. This time, the doctors tried different medications and injections in hopes of growing better quality eggs and embryos. I received the best phone call of my life when we found out on October 24th that the cycle was a success and we were finally pregnant! We praised God for blessing us with this miracle. Travis and I were over the moon with excitement and couldn't believe that our dream of becoming parents had finally come true. Little did we know that our battle was just beginning. Soon after, I started to have bleeding and learned that I had a slight tear in the placenta which meant that I was on bed rest until the end of the first trimester. Upon being released from bed rest I went back to work and was really enjoying the pregnancy until I wound up in the hospital 6 weeks later for 4 days with pre-term contractions and some type of unknown infection that threatened the life of my growing little baby. I was ordered back on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy, which was approximately 4 more months and received fetal monitoring and ultrasounds about 3-4 times a week. Every appointment was nerve racking but week after week we received good reports on our growing little "he-she." Each week marked a milestone and gave us a bit more peace as grew closer to the due date. We finally reached what we considered to be the "safe zone" of 36 weeks and I was released once again off of bed rest. Once again, that time was short lived as I began having unexplained high blood pressure which lead to strict bed rest and a scheduled induction. The happiest day of our life came when I delivered Camdyn at 12:59 pm on June 3rd, 2009. She was a mere pounds ounces and 18 inches long. A tiny little peanut! She's been the biggest blessing and we finally feel like our family is complete!