When Jaime and Flor Ibañez said “I do” at exactly 12:01 a.m. on Valentine’s Day with 72 other couples last year, their promise to each other was to have a baby.
At the time it felt like a dream, since doctors told Flor Ibañez for several years that it was impossible.
But little Maritza, now almost 3 months old, broke barriers to make her way into her parent’s lives. She was born Nov. 19 weighing only 3 pounds and 13 ounces.
Being united and being strong together was the key to pushing through their first year of marriage, including caring for Maritza, the Ibañezes told the San Antonio Report.
Maritza, whom Flor calls her “miracle baby,” slept peacefully on the couch next to her mother during an interview, wearing a light pink dress with monarch butterflies and a pink headband around her tiny head full of brown hair. While she slept, a pink stuffed pony rested on her chest.
The couple, who first met on TikTok in 2021, were married at the Bexar County Courthouse’s annual mass wedding ceremony for Valentine’s Day in 2023.
They have kept followers updated throughout the months, documenting milestones like their pregnancy announcement and updates about their baby’s health.
Then one morning, Jaime Ibañez rushed his wife to the emergency room with excessive bleeding. She later learned she was experiencing a life-threatening placental abruption.
“She was very active when she was in my tummy. And at that moment, there was no movement at all,” Flor Ibañez said in her living room, crying while holding Maritza.
Doctors rushed the mother in for an emergency C-section.
“If we would’ve waited any second and [the placenta] detached [from the uterus] and she was still in there, the baby would’ve died,” Flor Ibañez said she heard from doctors afterward.
Because she was born eight weeks early, the baby had to overcome lung and heart development problems. For more than a month, she fought in the NICU to build up enough strength to go home.
It was a hard time, the couple said. Maritza was born while they were still unprepared. Jaime Ibañez had been diagnosed with diabetes and struggling with mental health issues, and unexpected medical costs had come up because their health insurance couldn’t cover some appointments.
They worked every morning, then spent the rest of the day at the NICU where they would stay until 10 p.m., often skipping dinner before doing it all over again the next day.
“Emotionally, it was up and down,” Flor Ibañez said. “He got very depressed. I had to be the strong one for him there and pull him up, and he did the same for me in the NICU. He was scared, but he put his feelings aside and made me stronger.”
“I couldn’t be selfish,” Jaime Ibañez said. “Their priorities were first.”
During the NICU days, Maritza and Flor Ibañez got COVID and needed to remain separated. For days, Flor Ibañez saw her baby only through video calls possible through Jaime Ibañez, who would talk his way into the NICU.
Gifts and heartwarming comments from TikTok followers, as well as meeting other parents in the NICU, gave them hope when they needed it most. So did Maritza’s perseverance, they agreed.
The day after Christmas, doctors discharged Maritza from the NICU and she went home to welcome the new year with her parents. She now weighs more than 6 pounds and already tries to hold her own bottle.
“This year really tested us through every way possible,” Flor Ibañez said. That blissful night at the courthouse, they couldn’t have imagined what the first year of their marriage would bring.
“It was a whirlwind, but I don’t see myself with anyone else,” Jaime Ibañez added.
They plan to celebrate their anniversary by celebrating the joy of a whole new set of couples at San Antonio’s midnight Valentine’s Day wedding ceremony.
Their advice: “Stay strong together. Like our story, life is going to pull left and right. There are going to be obstacles, but it’s either going to make you or break you. It’s just supporting each other. Not giving up on each other,” Flor Ibañez said.
“You need to have complete trust and confidence with each other,” Jaime Ibañez added.
As for future plans, the Ibañezes joked that they want to dress as “The Flintstones” and fictional Disney characters “Sully” and “Boo” for Halloween. They want to purchase a home within the next year, and be pregnant again next Valentine’s Day.
