Her doctor made the incisions required to perform the Caesarian section that would remove the baby from her womb. As she anxiously waited to see her child for the first time, Wanda Baylis heard the doctor call out in an incredulous voice, "Where’s the baby?"

"What do you mean, ‘Where’s the baby?’" Baylis recalls asking.

"Don’t worry," she was assured, "it’ll be all right."

Baylis knew she was pregnant. Her doctors had confirmed that, and she’d heard her baby’s heartbeat on the fetal monitor. Now she was being told the baby was missing?

Her pregnancy had not been routine. That she knew. But, neither Baylis nor her doctors understood precisely how out of the ordinary it was. The Glendale resident, who was living in Hartford, Conn., when pregnant in 1986, had felt no movement from her child. But that fact was explained away as being a side effect of the serious auto accident in which she was involved in November 1986. She was admitted to the hospital for observation in December and that’s when she heard the baby’s heartbeat.

However, the scan was unable to visually locate the baby. It was suspected that uterine fibroids were blocking the view. While it was not a common situation, the medical staff didn’t seem to be overly concerned.

Numerous other tests were conducted, including more than 50 ultrasounds. Baylis says that only one technician was continually successful in finding the heartbeat, which was always located very low in her body.

Baylis’ current health care provider, registered nurse Julie Parve, a family nurse practitioner with the Medical College of Wisconsin, has compiled two massive binders of medical records for both Baylis and her baby daughter. She has helped Baylis sort through and understand what happened all those years ago.

Parve says that it must be remembered that this extraordinary pregnancy occurred 20 years ago and medical technology was nowhere near as advanced as it is today. Three-dimensional images were virtually nonexistent. Doctors were basing Baylis’ care protocol on the information that was available to them.

Baylis was told to be prepared to deliver a small baby, perhaps only 1 or 2 pounds, since it appeared that the fibroids were taking up so much space in her womb.

Parve says medical records indicate the placenta attached near the uterus. "The baby actually was behind and to the side of her uterus, so that is why they thought they could see it ‘in’ her uterus."

As the pregnancy progressed, Baylis never experienced any sort of labor pains or other "normal" things she’d heard about. She was continually monitored and hospitalized for stretches to keep tabs on her and the baby. During the observation, it was noted that the fluid in her amniotic sac was decreasing. There was concern that the baby could be in jeopardy.

"They felt like they needed to deliver the baby soon," she says. "So a date of the 25th of March was set."

Medical personnel suspected the baby was breech, so they postponed the delivery until the next day hoping they could get the baby to turn.

It was on March 26, 1987 that Baylis heard those words from her doctor that caused chills … "Where’s the baby?"

Parve, who has digested all the records and commentary, says she cannot even imagine the shock that must have reverberated through the operating room that day. "If you were prepared for it, that would be one thing. But they were not ready for this.

"I worked in the operating room for 16 years and assisted in many C-sections, so I really can relate to how shocked they must have been when they couldn’t find the baby," she says.

The situation became a medical crisis. Baylis was losing massive amounts of blood. Her abdominal cavity had to be packed with surgical sponges in an effort to staunch the bleeding.

Parve notes, "Wanda’s story is definitely a miracle. She lost so much blood during that C-section, I don’t know how she survived."

A specialist was rushed from New York City to Hartford to attend to Baylis and the baby that was in her abdominal cavity. Alexis Lynn Nicole Baylis, lovingly called Nikki by her mother, though 17 inches long weighed just 3 pounds, 17 ounces.

The situation was precarious. Family members were called since it was not known how long — or if — the two would survive.

The baby was whisked off to the intensive care unit. She had spent the entire seven-month gestational period laying on her right side. Parve says Nikki was in a sac of amniotic fluid, but the placenta was not of the quality to support a healthy infant.

Somehow, Nikki had ended up in Baylis’ rib cage.

"Everything on the right side of her body was deformed and crushed," her mother says.

Parve explains that Nikki had no protection from her mother’s uterus and as her bones developed they were molded into place.

The baby is one of very few on record to survive an abdominal pregnancy and be born alive. Thus the prognosis for her survival was uncertain.

As for Baylis’ care, doctors were also learning as they went along, trying to figure out the best possible scenarios to keep her alive. The mortality rate for mothers experiencing undetected abdominal or ectopic (a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, usually in the fallopian tubes) pregnancies is high. One of the primary obstacles is the adhesion of the gestational sac to the abdominal wall.

If the afterbirth is attached to the body, removing it means severing multiple arteries and there is risk of the mother bleeding to death. Mortality of mothers is often as high as 20 percent since physicians are not prepared for the excessive blood loss that frequently occurs.

Parve says the medical records indicate that Baylis’ placenta was attached to her organs and, if removed, the woman would have bled to death.

"Usually, when the pregnancy is in the uterus, the placenta peels off nicely," she says. "But it has little feet, sort of like vines that climb houses, that attach it to organs when outside the uterus and then it pulls everything to which it is connected with it when it is removed."

It was determined that the placenta should remain in Baylis’ body, with the thought that it would be reabsorbed. However, there was little on record about this protocol and what might happen to the woman was yet another unknown. There was a possibility that the substance could poison Baylis’ body.

Parve says Baylis’ placenta was either reabsorbed or her body developed a "wall" around it, which might have prevented it from being toxic to her body.

"Wanda’s whole story is a miracle," Parve says. "There’s just no other explanation."

While both mother and child were in the hospital, Baylis wanted to do everything in her power to bond with her infant, despite both having serious health constraints.

"It was a big project for me to get to the nursery since I was very sick myself," she explains, "but I wanted to try to be there to take care of my child … I went and helped with her physical therapy every day."

The two did bond. In fact, at one point, Baylis was asked to stay away because her presence excited little Nikki too much and put a strain on her under-developed heart.

The tiny baby had three major surgeries and battled the odds every day. Her right lung had collapsed and her left lung was damaged.

"She was a fighter," her mom says with a smile. "She should never have been born, but here she was. She even had all of her parts, including six fingers on her left hand just like her dad."

At first, Baylis was angry, but she came to believe that her little girl was a gift from God and she has no regrets. "I had always wanted to have a child," she explains, "and he gave me one … He gave me her and he doesn’t make mistakes."

Nikki gave it her best fight, but after 7 1/2 weeks, the physical ailments were just too numerous to overcome. On her last day, Nikki was smiling and laughing with her nurses.

After losing her daughter, Baylis cried all the tears that she’d been holding in for all that time. "I had never cried because I felt that if I cried God would take her from me."

Baylis’ recuperation was lengthy. In fact, her health is still compromised from her pregnancy with Nikki.

Baylis had been encouraged to tell her daughter’s story. But, she personally wasn’t ready, and she had another consideration — her adopted son, James. Now that the young man is 18 years old and an adult, his mother feels that she can share Nikki’s story with the world and not compromise James’ privacy.

So she is in the process of finding a publisher for her memoir that has the working title of "Once Upon a Miracle Little Girl."

Parve says while writing her book Baylis has basically relived that intense period of her life in its entirety. "Wanda’s been through a lot. Reliving all of this was very emotional for her."

But Baylis is glad that she will have the opportunity to tell the story of her little miracle girl and share the lesson she learned: "Never think something is not possible." She also hopes that the story will perhaps give other parents hope.

"Nikki’s story will give you goose bumps and make you cry," Baylis says. "You might think her life was over 20 years ago, but this is really just the beginning."