Hailey B. ~ Super Hero Alias: Radiant Hailey Joy

Age: 2 years
Weight at birth: 1lb 8 ozs
Weeks gestation: 29 weeks, 6 days
Time in the NICU: 114 days

Diagnosis, complications, surgeries?

I had a very sudden onset of severe pre-eclampsia. There was a very big possibility that I was not going to make it. My daughter was breech and I had to have an emergency c-section. We did not know until she was born that she had a Trachea Esophageal Fistula, which is a hole in her trachea and esophagus. The day after she was born she had surgery to insert clips to close the hole. Also she was born with Esophageal atresia, which is her stomach and esophagus were not connected so her body was not getting any nutrition to grow. She had to gain 3 lbs before she could have the surgery. She had a picc line inserted to feed her. It took 8 weeks before she could have the surgery to have them sewn together. Two days after that surgery she was getting air in her chest and had to be opened a 3rd time to fix one of the clips. She had over 10 blood transfusions and has tiny scars on her hands and legs from having so many ivs and needles put in her. She also will suffer from GERD for the rest of her life.

Why Should Your Children Be Recognized as Preemies of the Year?

My little Hailey Joy is such a blessing. She has overcome so much, more than most people experience in a lifetime. So many times I was told that she might not make it through the night but my little Hailey had other plans. She proved everyone wrong. She wanted to live. God put a fire in my little girl’s heart to keep fighting at every cost. She is a very strong-willed little girl, which she had to be to push through having 3 surgeries and so many blood transfusions and being on a ventilator for 3 months. She had so much fight in her that they had to keep her bundled up very tight most of the time because she would pull at all of the tubes trying to get them out. Once she had been pulling at the tubes so hard that she managed to pull the tube for the ventilator out just enough that her heart stopped. I will never forget the image of nurses rushing in and her body going grey and limp. But God gave her back to me and she continued to fight to live. I was told that she would be in and out of the hospital for the first year of her life but my daughter is so strong that she not once had to return to the hospital. She has such a wonderful personality and she loves everyone. She walks up to strangers all the time and wants to give them hugs and kisses. She makes my life so interesting. She will be 3 soon and though she still deals with reflux and not gaining weight as fast as what the doctors want her to; she still thrives in all she does. She does everything in her own time. She is now talking very well and it amazes me to hear her put sentences together like asking me “mommy how are you doing today?” I am always taken back to when she was on the ventilator and she would cry and it would be a silent cry. My miracle baby is truly a wonderful blessing and has persevered through it all. I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for such a strong, tenderhearted, little girl.

Using Three Or More Characteristics of a Super Hero, Please Describe Your Child

Resilient-she has overcome so many obstacles.
Strong willed-When she puts her mind to something she does it.
Tenderhearted-She loves people and is very attuned to how people are feeling. If she sees me crying, she will come sit in my lap and tell me everything is going to be ok and she will wipe away my tears.
Brave-She has endured so much and she also is such a little daredevil. She loves going down slides backwards and being thrown up into the air by her daddy and jumping and climbing.