Two days before Thanksgiving and only 27 weeks pregnant, my water broke at 4 am. After spending five days at Floyd Medical Center, I developed an infection and Georgia Hope made her debut on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014 weighing 2 lbs 5 ozs and was 15 inches long. She seemed to be doing as well as a 27 week 5 day preemie could do until her fragile little lungs developed holes, allowing air to get between her lungs and her chest wall. The NICU doctors had to put tubes in each side of her chest to relieve the pressure and se was switched to a different type of ventilator. At one point , she had five chest tubes and in the end had a total of 17 tubes over time. At ten days old, she developed an infection, E coli, and was placed on three different antibiotics in addition to pheumonia; she was a very sic baby. On the 15th day of life, Wesley and I help our baby girl for the very first time, after she was switched back to a regular ventilator. This was the greatest day and it seemed that her health started improving. She was able to tolerate feeds, take a pacifier, and was soon taken off the ventilator and placed on CPAP. On day 29, Georgia had her first eye exams and several trips to Egleston, Georgia had eye surgery in January to stop the abnormal growth of the blood vessels in her retina. She will have regular vision exams throughout her childhood to monitor her vision. Georgia finally excepted the NICU on Saturday, February 7, 2015 after ten long weeks. We are forever grateful to the wonderful doctors, nurses and all caregivers of the Floyd Medical Center NICU and for the help from the March of Dimes. Georgia is thriving and strong now! We are blessed! I want other parents of NICU babies to know that although the days in the NICU often seem dark and hopeless, that there is light at the end of the tunnel and there's always hope!