Child's Birth Year
2023

State/Province/Territory
Maryland

NICU Hospital for my journey
Mercy Medical Center

My NICU Graduate's Journey
Xavien our little Warrior was born at 24 weeks on June 11th he is almost a year old! He was 1 lb 6 ounces. He was a micro preemie and had so many challenges and continued to defy the odds and surprise people that he can and will get past any an every challenge. He came home on October 19th of 2023 . He is now crawling and sitting up and is 18 lbs. Xavien started off on the conventional ventilator with the blue light and his little goggles we called them his “shades” and would eat thru his 1-2 mls of breast milk thru his feeding tube. He then moved to a CPAP a month later and a bubble CPAP Machine, he trialed on the CPAP machine 3 times before being officially moved to the CPAP machine. He always suprised the doctors and nurses by staying on the machine longer and longer showing he was such a strong boy but just wasn’t ready yet until he was! He was in the NICU for over 100 days, he had his first party ever in the NICU, Nurse Kyle and others had set Xavien’s room up football style for his 100 day party. When Zay was discharged he came home on a pulse oximeter and a half a liter of oxygen for 3 weeks. Our big boy has pushed so hard and continues to surprise us all!

What makes you proud of you NICU graduate?
He is such a big boy now! All the work he puts in to meet with his PT and now crawling it makes me so proud. What makes me the most proud is is him showing those doctors he was ready to come home getting out of that Nicu after days of pushing his date back because of his Brady’s he pushed thru and finally made it home!

Weight at Birth (lbs. or Grams)
1lb 6 ounces

Weeks Gestation
24

Time spent in the NICU (Specify Day, Month, or Year)
June 11th - October 19th 2023