06/16/2026
Four years ago, we welcomed Jayla Jane Dorothy Nichols to the SRHC Baby Brag Board. ❤️
Before Jayla, her parents endured unimaginable loss, extensive testing, and years of searching for answers.
Today, I’m resharing Juliana’s testimony exactly as she wrote it because the power of this story is in her words.
It’s a reminder that even after heartbreak, uncertainty, and setbacks, hope remains.
Thank you, Juliana, for trusting me to be a small part of your journey and for allowing us to share your story. ❤️
This is her testimony:
“My husband, Dakota, and I have been together for about 12 years and married for almost 3 years. As high school sweethearts we have always imagined growing together and building a life that included babies - we've had names picked out since high school. 🙂 We got married in July of 2019 and wanted to start building our family right away. We were so lucky as we got pregnant on the first try! When we went to our first appointment at 8 weeks we found out we were expecting TWINS! Imagine how surprised and simultaneously terrified we were as first time parents!
At our 18 week full anatomy appointment our world was turned upside down. Our doctor found numerous life-threatening anomalies and referred us to the Milwaukee Children's Hospital where we had an appointment at 20 weeks. This included an MRI of the babies, a genetic counselor consult, a maternal fetal medicine doctor, an anatomy ultrasound of each baby, and a neuro-specialist doctor. After our ultrasound, all of the anomalies were confirmed and not improving. The anomalies consisted of: fluid on the brain, small cerebellum, fluid on the brain, heart, and lungs, incomplete spines, clenched fists, cleft foot, and no midline or general brain structures. Our baby girls were not viable for life and were a risk to my health because of the fluid on their brains. We delivered our baby girls, Josclynn and Jasmynn, at 21 weeks gestation on December 29, 2019. My husband and I grieved and were so heartbroken. Through an amniocentesis, genetic testing and it all came back normal. We were told "It was just a course of bad luck." So we grieved our babies and felt hope in thinking it was just a fluke. We were hopeful and ready to try again to build our family with our two angels watching over us.
We got pregnant again in April of 2020 on the first try. We were immensely terrified but hopeful that this pregnancy would be different. As luck would have it we found out at our 17 week anatomy appointment that our baby girl developed identical anomalies to our twins. We delivered our third baby girl, Dawsynn, on August 10th, 2021. Again, we did an amniocentesis and all results came back normal. We decided to go further into genetic testing and agreed to "Whole Exome Sequencing'' - apparently the most intense genetic testing available. We waited seven long months for those results...and again we were left with no conclusive reason for what kept happening to our babies. I was seen as a healthy, young woman. I ate generally healthy and exercised daily as I have always been an athlete. I didn't drink, smoke, or even go near sandwich meat or anything that could be remotely harmful during either of my pregnancies...yet I innately blamed myself for the unknown causes.
After getting nowhere with genetic testing, my husband and I decided that it was time to try something new. I felt like I needed to take control and focus on my physical and mental health even more before even considering trying again for another baby. I needed to feel as if I was doing something productive. So I contacted Taryn in the Spring of 2021 for help. I was at the lowest point I've ever been in my life. She helped me identify areas that could use improvement in my health and areas of deficiencies. I changed my diet (looking at ingredients of the foods I was eating), took supplements, and completed cleanses with the support of Taryn the entire step of the way. In the same Spring, I started going to therapy and started seeing a chiropractor as well because of a recommendation from Taryn. I worked really, really hard to improve my overall mental and physical health throughout that summer. After a lot of counseling sessions, chiropractor appointments, and consults with Taryn I was feeling the best I had ever felt by Fall of 2021. We were ready to try again naturally to build our family. After two tries, we were blessed to get pregnant again. My husband and I have held our breath at every appointment and continued with supplements recommended by Taryn throughout the pregnancy.
I am so happy to say that after all of the heartbreak, hard work on improving my health, and outside support we are currently 22 weeks pregnant with another baby girl! At our 20 week anatomy appointment we got to take a huge sigh of relief as we learned that our baby girl is as healthy and strong as can be! Words we had never heard before were said to us, "We consider you a low-risk pregnancy." I cannot even explain the emotion that flooded out of us as we sobbed with so much relief and joy. We are so excited to meet our baby girl in June! :)”
