An unbreakable bond. In her new memoir, Unqualified, Anna Faris detailed the terrifying experience of giving birth to her son two months early and the rough times that followed.
The 40-year-old actress may have split from Chris Pratt, but there is a big part of their life, and heart, that will always keep them connected — their 5-year-old son, Jack.
When she was 35, Faris got pregnant after trying for a year, and ultimately had no problems throughout the first 30 weeks of her pregnancy, until one very scary morning.
The Scary Movie star recalls the moment that changed everything: “For those of you who haven’t had babies, let me assure you: you can’t really mistake your water breaking for peeing. They are entirely different sensations. But when you aren’t due for two more months and you’re taken by surprise by a sudden burst of fluid, you will pray that it’s urine, and you’ll go as far as sticking your nose in it if necessary.”
At the hospital, she was wheeled away by nurses and pumped with magnesium in an attempt to stop the labor. But even though it worked, she was told she couldn’t leave until the baby was born, and was put on hospital bed rest.
After a brutal seven days on bed rest, she went into labor. A labor that was so painful she “could barely speak.”
As if the pain wasn’t bad enough, the doctors informed Faris that she may not be able to hold her newborn right after birth. “That’s where the unexpected nature of this whole fiasco really hit home,” she writes. “When you have a healthy pregnancy, you never wonder if you’ll get to hold your son right after he’s born. It’s a given. I was terrified, but I also knew I had to be a soldier.”
And things didn’t get easier after she gave birth. Faris endured more pain – both physically and emotionally recalling, “For the next four weeks, I spent all day there, pumping milk for my baby until my nipples were bleeding and blistered, because it felt like the only thing I could do to help him. He was fed the milk through a tube up his nose.”
As if things weren’t rough enough, four days after welcoming Jack, a pediatric neurosurgeon sat the new parents down and told them that their son had severe brain bleeding. With that, they were informed that there was a possibility he would be developmentally disabled, but they wouldn’t know until he was 18 months old.
That’s when Faris said that she and Pratt went into “soldier mode.”
“Chris and I did what we could, which was hold hands and hope and face it together,” she writes.
When they were finally able to take Jack home, he still only weighed four pounds, three ounces, and had daily doctor appointments with brain, heart and eye specialists, as well as physical therapists.
Today, the couple — who announced they were splitting on August 6 — is in absolute amazement of their little one, who despite all his struggles at birth, now only suffers from minor leg muscle and vision issues.
“We know how fortunate we are to have a happy ending,” Anna writes. “So the fact that we have a charming and outgoing and athletic kid who loves dinosaurs and introducing himself to people, Chris and I are both grateful every day.”
“We count ourselves extremely lucky.”
For more stories from Faris, purchase Unqualified, on shelves now!
