Marla Sokoloff is opening up about the secret she kept while pregnant with her now 5-month-old daughter Elliotte.
In a celebrity baby blog for People, the 31-year-old Full House alum revealed that during her second trimester she and her husband Alec Puro discovered their child had a serious lung condition, and would need to have surgery within the first six months of her life to correct her lung.
"Elliotte was born with a rare abnormality of lung development called congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CCAM)," Sokoloff wrote. "CCAM is a cystic area within the lung that stems from an abnormal embryogenesis. No one seems to know why this malformation occurs, and only about 1 in 30,000 babies are afflicted with this condition. If not treated, CCAM can develop into a serious infection and it can even turn into lung cancer later in life."
Around the 25th week of Sokoloff's pregnancy, the couple discovered the mass inside their baby's lung had "doubled in size, causing much concern for her other developing organs."
Sokoloff was worried the mass would push Elliotte's heart to the side, or that it would develop in her lungs, causing prenatal heart failure.
"As a soon-to-be first time mom, this news was beyond devastating," the Practice thesp continued. "I wanted nothing more (and I truly mean nothing more) than for my baby girl to be safe in my belly. My maternal instincts were already intact and I just prayed and prayed and prayed."
And just months later Sokoloff's prayers were answered.
The tiny tyke underwent lung surgery and her entire upper left lobe was removed successfully.
"Babies truly are resilient," Sokoloff wrote two weeks after Elliotte's surgery in July. "If you saw Elliotte just days after her operation, you would have been amazed. It was absolutely remarkable. I swear it was way harder for my husband and me to recover from the whole experience!"
Sokoloff, who said she generally "holds nothing back" on her celebrity baby blog for the mag, said she kept her daughter's health condition under wraps because "I needed to protect my family and my daughter."
"I just couldn't stomach discussing something so serious while I was still in the midst of it—it felt way too private and delicate."
As for how baby Elliotte is doing now, Sokoloff said she is "out of the woods," and that her daughter's health scare has changed "every part of [her] being."
"I'm not sure I will ever be the same again," Sokoloff wrote. "I will forever look at my daughter and my husband differently. We went through the trenches together and our little family unit is now stronger than ever. I feel as if we can get through anything as long as we have each other."