Catching Up with Kat Lanier

This year has been a fun and wild ride! We found out last December that we were expecting! Shortly after, I began suffering from EXTREME morning sickness and by March was formally diagnosed with Hyperemisis. I thankfully was able to continue teaching, thanks to my sweet, patient and understanding students and coworkers. The Army kept my husband away for most of the pregnancy but we were able to have 10 days of uninterrupted leave together right before baby.

Baby Wyatt was born on 9/6/19. My labor was wild, I started with contractions about 2 minutes apart. It was like the movies!!! As soon as we got to the hospital, the baby was not doing well at all. I labored a few hours then Wyatt was born via Emergency C-section. Right away, we realized the baby wasn't healthy. A few hours later he was flown to a more equipt hospital and I stayed behind to recover. Baby fought for his life and was on life support for 12 days and in the hospital itself for forty.  He suffered from a condition called PPHN in addition to pneumonia and septicemia. We are so thankful to have him home and healthy now!

With this massive change and rough start, I have had to pull back to more of a support role in my art form. I am now doing lots of behind the scenes things like costuming and remote choreography as opposed to leading and teaching constantly. I am hoping once baby is a little older to be able to hop right back in; I miss it immensely! My appreciation for the military family has grown as well; Jon's commander told him he wasn't to leave my side until the baby was home, so I was so fully supported in that way. I think this entire process has made me treasure the gift of dance and appreciate all the simple joys of life.

I am so excited to bring Wyatt to rehearsals and performances soon; he loved to dance along with my students when I was pregnant!