February 2012 Sweet Pea Spotlight: AnquanJaden

AnquanJaden was born at exactly 25 weeks so he was 15 weeks early. The doctors are still unsure why he came so early. This is our story.

On 10/14/2010 my water broke. At the time I didnt even know it was my water. I continued my evening as any other evening with my husband and our other 3 kids. On 10/15/2010 I was in Wal-mart and my then 3 year old said "mommy I really have to go to the bathroom." I went with him. As we were in there I felt what I thought was a hand but it was my son's foot. I ran out the bathroom crying and screaming with my pants down lol but I was so worried and scared.

The EMTs arrived and rushed me to the hospital. I called my husband and he thought I was joking with him because he was out of town with his job and he knew how I couldn't wait to meet our baby. I got to the 3rd floor which is our Labor and Delivery floor. The doctor comes in the room a long with an ultrasound tech. and he checks me and says yes I'm in full blown labor and the ultrasound showed AnquanJaden was breeched. I was screaming and all I can remember is the EMT holding my hand telling me God doesn't make mistakes and he will see me through. I called my husband again and told him I was being rushed to have a c-section. He reasurred me how much he loved me and the baby and he was on his way (which was a 3 hour drive). I went into the OR and when the doctor pulled AnquanJaden out he was crying. I started crying which resulted in me being put to sleep.

When I woke up the nurse went and took a picture of my baby laying on a table naked but tubed and alive. I called my husband he was a little over an hour away. I went to a room where I was told that a crew was on their way to get my baby and to take him to a NICU in Birmingham where if he lived would be there to my due date. My husband got there just as we were saying see you later to our now a few hours old baby and I think that was the worst thing that actually happened was my baby leaving me.

The next evening a doctor called me and told me that if I could leave and come to Trinity (the NICU) that I needed to come say goodbye because our baby wasn't going to make it. We drove the hour to Birmingham and when we got there they said AnquanJaden had hemorrhaging in his lungs and they couldn't stop it and didn't know what else to do. He had a 10% chance of living and that would increase to 50% if he survived a week. On his left side of his brain he had a grade 2 IVH and on the right side he had a grade 3 IVH. He had a hole in his heart but medicines fixed that and he came off the ventilator after 3 weeks and was on a cpap for a week. I got to hold him when he was 6 weeks old and I know that was the best day ever for me. He had staph while he was in there and 4 blood transfussions.

He was doing great gaining weight good and in an open crib by 12/24/10. That morning we got a call saying they had to retube him because he had a bad brady spell but was back to normal after a few hours of support. On 01/17/11 we got the call saying it was time for us to come stay our night and get our training and then we could go home.

After 93 long days he came home on 01/18/11 and our due date was 01/23/11. He started his home life and it has been great we have only been hospitalized once and that was in April he stayed in the PICU for a week due to asthma. As of right now his only problem is asthma and his ears. He began crawling right before his 1st birthday and began walking a day before his 2nd Christmas. He is a happy one year old though he is a little clumsy. He weighed 1lb 15ozs at birth he dropped down to 1lb 7ozs his length was 13 in. he is now 19lbs 28in.

My advice for any parent going through something with your child even when you don't know the outcome hold your faith just pray about it whether you believe in a higher power or not because believing in your child will help you cope. Its okay to cry even if you have to cry in the shower or in the NICU by your baby you are human and this experience is life changing. Remember this God brought you to this and he will bring you through this just believe.

We would like to thank all of the families that submitted their children's stories. Please know that each of your children are so inspiring and are the reason for what we do. We are honored that you chose to share them with us. If your story was not highlighted this month we encourage you to resubmit next month