One couple from Florida is elated that they get to bring home their infant son who spent almost four months in the hospital after he was born weighing just 1 pound.
Jessica and Christopher Hill’s son Finn James was born at 24 weeks on May 21, with doctors informing the new parents he had a 50 percent chance of survival.
The newborn spent the first few months of his life on a ventilator and under the eye of doctors who then put him under the knife to repair a hole in his heart and to correct an illness in his intestines.
According to GMA, he was then transferred from Lakeland Regional Medical Center to NICU at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando on June 6th where he then remained until doctors finally gave Jessica and Christopher the okay to send him home on September 10th.
“It didn’t hit me until we left and it was the three of us for the first time,” Jessica said. “I knew we wouldn’t have to take him back. It was everything we hoped and prayed for.”
Their son being born was the ultimate gift for the couple who had struggled with both infertility and IVF cycles for nine years.
Eventually, they decided to adopt eight embryos from a couple Jessica met on Facebook and after one unsuccessful pregnancy, she then became pregnant with twins.
“They have given us the gift of life,” Christopher shared about the couple, who they now consider close friends. “That’s the biggest thing you can give someone, is the gift of life.”
At the 10 week mark, one of the twins died and just 14 weeks later, Finn was born after a blood clot made Jessica’s water break.
“Initially, it was just shock. I started crying and asking my doctor, ‘What are his chances of survival if you take him out now?'” she recalled, “The doctor said he was safer on the outside than he was inside.”
Eventually, Finn was born via emergency cesarean section, almost four months before his September 6th due date.
Jessica said she was able to hold her son for the first time on June 30, a time she said was “unbelievable” after having had to watch him from a distance for over a month.
“When his entire hand fits around your fingernail, it makes you realize just how precious life is,” she revealed.
His parents describe Finn as a happy baby who always wears a smile and is now 4 months old and weighs 5 lbs., 5 oz.
Both Jessica and Christopher have been keeping track of their son’s progress on the Facebook page, ighting Finn..
“We are working hard to make sure his glucose levels don’t drop and he eats enough to gain weight…. It’s a bit of a battle, but we are hopefully getting there. We would hate for this peanut to be re-admitted,” the most recent update reads.
In the meantime, the couple shared that they hope to give Finn a sibling using the remaining embryos from the couple Jessica met on Facebook.