Weighing in at 11 ounces and arriving at just 25 weeks, Watson Jean Breeden was the smallest preemie ever born at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, but the tiny “miracle” child who doctors weren’t sure would make it has defied the odds.
In fact, mom and dad Lacey and Wynne Breeden were able to bring Watson home on Tuesday — a major feat, considering that the baby girl’s case was quite severe. She spent six months stuck in a hospital after her October birth, hooked to oxygen tubes and in an incubator — and faced countless surgeries, according to Today.com.
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Problems began for the family when Watson was born four months early amid’s Lacey’s struggle with HELLP syndrome, a severe form of preeclampsia that can become life-threatening for both a mother and an unborn child, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Hospital staff said that Watson, who now weighs 8 pounds, has had a miraculous recovery.
“Short of saying this is a miracle, it’s really hard to put that into words, the fact that the baby is still doing good,” Dr. Enrique Rios, a neonatologist at Baylor Dallas, told KXAS-TV back in December. “It is by far the smallest baby I’ve ever seen.”
And despite the odds being stacked against the child, her progress has continued.
Lacey spoke with Today.com this week, discussing how the family coped with the harrowing ordeal, especially the crushing uncertainty that surrounded their time in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“When you’re in a NICU situation, they tell you in the beginning it’s going to be a roller coaster situation. But you really don’t process that … for me, I hit a wall halfway through,” she said. “How much more can I take? How much more can a mother take?”
That said, Lacey added that she believes it was the family’s faith that guided them through the unthinkable, with KXAS-TV reporting that they received prayers and well-wishes from across the globe.
“I think our faith got us through those dark days of not knowing whether she was going to survive,” she continued. “Just trying to get through an hour at a time.”
Lacey and Wynne Breeden were overjoyed to bring Watson home with them on Tuesday, with Wynne calling the situation “a whole book of miracles” — one that has forced him to sit back and be grateful.
KXAS-TV footage captured the couple tearfully taking the baby out of the hospital for the first time this week, with Lacey saying that it was “the moment’ that kept them going.
The family is hoping to share their own ordeal to help inspire other families who experience premature births.
(H/T: Today.com)
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