Editor’s Note: This guest post is from the Huntington Ronald McDonald House Facebook page last week.
266 days. Almost the entire first year of Carter’s life spent in the hospital, with mama and dada back and forth between our Huntington RMHC and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio so they could be by his side every second. They finally made their journey home yesterday! Carter was born weighing under a pound, just 15 ounces. He has had a long journey, but he’s a fighter, and so are his parents! His mama wrote:
“In February, we hurried into the operating room to bring you into this world. We didn’t even get a glimpse of you before you were rushed into a separate room to be revived and intubated. You were just 26 weeks gestation and given less than 50% chance of survival. It was 10 hours later before I was able to see you for the first time. You were so incredibly tiny, not even weighing a pound. A month before ever holding you. On a ventilator for 5 months. Being life flighted to another state. Emergency eye injections and eye surgery. Celebrating holidays & birthdays in the hospital. So many ultrasounds, x-rays, and echos. Every step of breathing support. Feeding tube after feeding tube. Countless blood transfusions. And so many scares you gave us.
BUT we’ve made it! After 266 incredibly hard days, we are finally bringing our baby boy home from the NICU for the first time!”