ELBURN – When Luellen Seals found out she was pregnant again at age 40, she already was raising two young girls, a 3-month-old and a 3-year-old. But the Elburn resident accepted the bounty of having a fourth child, as she also has a 25-year-old son by a previous relationship.

“I thought I had the flu,” she said. “I was weak and tired and had headaches all the time. I went to the doctor and said, ‘I just don’t feel good.’ I did not know I was pregnant. I had a toddler, a newborn, and now I was going to have another newborn on the way.”

Then, an ultrasound at 12 weeks revealed a trifecta of bad news: encephalocele, when a baby's skull does not close completely and brain material protrudes; anencephaly, when the brain is completely or partially missing; and microcephaly, when an infant's skull is abnormally small because of incomplete brain development.

“The doctor recommended an abortion ... [because] there is a really good chance the baby would not survive the pregnancy,” she said. “He was telling me, ‘Why do want to do this to yourself?’ ”

She was stunned, and she struggled to understand. These birth defects occur in 1 in 10,000 births, and the babies are stillborn or die at birth or shortly after. She had another ultrasound at 14 weeks with a specialist, but the news still was bad.

Seals said Meagan's birth defects are most likely the result of a deficiency in folic acid – an essential B-vitamin – not because she was malnourished, but because she got pregnant again so soon. She said her age possibly could have been a factor.

“I was in such shock,” Seals said. “Finding out I was pregnant right away was a shock, and then to turn around and find out I’m having a baby with these problems.”

She said she emailed everyone she knew and started asking for prayers and guidance.

She Googled the names of Meagan’s conditions and said she saw that there was no chance of life. Yet, an abortion was out of the question.

“There was no ‘decision,’ “ said her husband, Scott Seals. “We were just going to move forward regardless of what we were being told by the doctors. We are really strong in faith.”

His wife agreed.

“We knew right away we would not terminate,” Luellen Seals said. “We were putting faith first. Whatever the outcome was, we would make it through ... having that faith.”

• • •

Luellen and Scott Seals picked out an outfit their baby could be buried in. And they relied on their family, friends and church, Lord of Life Lutheran Church in La Fox, for support.

But when Meagan was born at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, she was crying and did not need assistance breathing. The next day, doctors did surgery to close the ping pong ball-sized opening in her head where part of her brain protruded, Seals said.

“They wanted me to let her pass that way and leave her organs,” Luellen Seals said. “They wanted me to donate her organs.”

She and her husband declined and took their daughter home. Meagan, dubbed the "Miracle Baby" on her Facebook page, will be 5 on Nov. 10. She cannot walk and will not grow beyond her current 20 pounds. She has a feeding tube.

But she can see and hear and has the mental capacity of a 3- to 4-month-old. Until some recent medical setbacks, she was able to drink out of a sippy cup, pick up dry cereal with her left hand and say “mama,” “hi” and “good girl.”

She is on a “boatload” of medications, has suffered seizures – sometimes 100 in a 24-hour period – and requires 24/7 care, her mother said.

In July, Meagan spiked a fever from an E. coli infection in her brain, as well as a mass that had to be surgically removed, Luellen Seals said. Two weeks later, she spiked another fever, and another scan showed the mass was growing again. During the second surgery, she developed a brain bleed and suffered a stroke that paralyzed her left side – her good side.

Meagan is now having physical and feeding therapy in the hope that she again will be able to pick up her sippy cup.

“The last thing she told me before she went to surgery was, ‘Big girl.’ I told her I loved her and gave her a kiss,” Luellen Seals said. “It gave me such hope. Here was my little girl, so brave, smiling and telling me, ‘Big girl.’ “

• • •

Meagan is home again, and now the family is faced with a $40,000 cost for Meagan's brain surgeries because they used a doctor who was not in their insurance network. A friend started a Go Fund Me page online to help the family.

Luellen and Scott Seals say they do not regret having Meagan.

“She has brought us a lot of joy,” Luellen Seals said. “Her disability is a rare brain disorder. Any one of our kids could fall on playground or fall riding a bike and have a brain injury. It’s the same thing. You are going to do what you have to do for your kids.”

They have reached out to other parents of children with similar conditions to Meagan’s. It’s a private Facebook page accessible through invitation because the parents share private information as they support each other, she said. Parents can request to join the private page through Meagan’s Facebook page, Meagan Seals Miracle Baby.

“She’s touched a lot of lives. ... We bless her everyday, and we are blessed to have her,” Scott Seals said.

Know more

Information about neural tube birth defects:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - www.cdc.gov.

• March of Dimes - www.marchofdimes.org.

Information about Meagan Seals:

• Meagan Seals Miracle Baby - www.facebook.com/pages/Meagan-Seals-Miracle-Baby/125397180858697.

• Go Fund Me - www.gofundme.com/meaganseals.