MARCH FOR BABIES: A MOTHER OF A MOVEMENT™
Ann Arbor/Hudson Mills
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Hudson Mills MetroPark
8801 N Territorial Rd , Dexter, MI 48130
Date: Sunday, May 20, 2018 11:00 AM
8801 N Territorial Rd , Dexter, MI 48130
Date: Sunday, May 20, 2018 11:00 AM
Our ambassador
Talen Wardell
Talen Wardell
One night I was awoken to some unusual abdominal pressure and some spotting. We decided it was time to go to the ER to make sure the baby was ok. After being seen by a nurse, we were told the baby was coming and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. We were in shock because I was in full labor with hardly any indication. Sixteen weeks earlier than we had planned, that was the night we met our son Talen, twenty four weeks and six days into the pregnancy.
My doctor was paged, and within a few hours Talen was born via emergency C-section. Just beforehand, we were told he likely wouldn’t be able to breathe on his own. Steroids were given, but there wasn’t enough time for them to work. There would be no umbilical cord cutting moment, no getting to hold the baby, he would be whisked away by a team of NICU nurses. Our hospital has no NICU, so he was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Toledo. Everything happened just as they described to us, and we couldn’t have asked for a better team of people to get us through something no parents ever expect to go through.
Our baby was born weighing 1lb 10.2 oz. and was 12.5” long. Talen was a fighter from the moment he was born; he came out kicking and even let out a small cry. They say the NICU is like a rollercoaster, and there is no better way to describe it. He could not breathe on his own so he was on a ventilator, and was given surfactant to help his lungs. We were lucky that he had no infections, as most babies his size do. Less than a month after being born we were told that Talen needed to have a PDA ligation, which meant our teeny tiny baby had to have heart surgery. During Talen’s journey we had good days and we had downright horrible days, but the days that followed his surgery were the worst. His little body had a hard time recovering from surgery and his kidneys began to fail. At that point we were told the doctors were doing everything they could for him. There wasn’t a day since he was born that we weren’t by his side, and every ounce of our being was praying for our little boy to get better.
Day by day, hour by hour, Talen began to improve. He conquered the first hurdle of his NICU story. Talen finally began to breathe without the ventilator, with just a little oxygen support. He overcame DSATS (DSATS were when his oxygen levels would drop too low) and the moments where he simply quit breathing. Another NICU saying is “two steps forward and one step back”; we had a lot of those. Over the next few months Talen completed all of the requirements to go home. We were told to bring in his car seat so he could take the “car seat test.” We couldn’t believe it, it was finally our turn to take our baby home. 121 days after he was born, on June 5 2013 we walked out of the NICU for the last time, finally together. Talen beat the odds!
Today Talen is a healthy and happy 4 year old who loves cars, tractors, 4 wheelers, and superheroes, which is fitting because he is our superhero. Other than needing glasses, he has no issues stemming from his prematurity and is thriving. His premature birth was later found to be caused by a disorder of the cervix called incompetent cervix. With this diagnosis his brother Abram was able to be carried full term.
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