Last Tuesday, Stephanie Jaegers began to experience concerning abdominal pain. She called her husband then, telling him that she was going to the hospital because she suspected the pain was caused by kidney stones.
When the two arrived at the hospital, the doctors made plans to run X-rays on Stephanie, pausing only to ask if she could be pregnant. She said no, prompting the doctors to continue their prep work – until they suddenly decided to shift gears.
Husband Michael recalled hearing one of the doctors say, “She’s not getting a CAT scan, she’s getting an ultrasound.”
The Jaegers couldn’t understand why – until doctors told them that Stephanie was actually 38 weeks pregnant and about to give birth.
“There are no words to describe the range of feelings associated with being told that you're having a baby — in 30 minutes,” Michael later said.
On early Wednesday morning, Shaun Jade Jaegers was born, weighing seven pounds and three ounces. He measured 19 inches long and was perfectly healthy, despite his mother not having gone through prenatal care during her pregnancy.
While Stephanie was recovering in the hospital, Michael took to his Facebook page to explain to all their family, friends, and curious fans on the Internet how neither of them never realized that Stephanie was pregnant.
Stephanie had been diagnosed with pre-menopause quite some time ago; she’d continued to have her period each month; Shaun was in breech for the entire pregnancy, making his presence hard to notice; and in the last few months of her pregnancy, she was bed-ridden because of a broken ankle. Though in hindsight, the symptoms of pregnancy were all there, “all of [the other factors] together ruled out in our minds even the remote possibility of a pregnancy.”
Michael very happily posted that Stephanie and Shaun were discharged from the hospital a few days ago, and now the entire Jaegers family – including three older children ages 16, 11, and three – has reunited at home.
A family friend has set up a GoFundMe page for them, hoping to help the family raise more money to cover for baby supplies. Please consider donating if you can.
