Child's Birth Year
2011

State/Province/Territory
Utah

NICU Hospital for my journey
Intermountain Medical Center

My NICU Graduate's Journey
Julian has always been lucky! He decided to join us in the middle of the night with about 15 minutes notice and 6 weeks early. He wasn’t too early and had a healthy birthweight but the NICU decided to keep him for monitoring. Luckily they did because the day we were supposed to go home his foot probe kept beeping. Our nurse told us it was fine but another nurse walking by had a bad feeling about it and called an echocardiogram. I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to take him home and was waiting for it to end so I could. He didn’t end up going home that night because they found several problems with his heart and he was life flighted to our children’s hospital for emergency surgery. The surgery went well and his heart problems haven’t stopped him from his biggest passion. Soccer! If he didn’t come early, he wouldn’t have gone to the NICU and no one would have found his aortic coarctation which would have killed him within 2 weeks. I am so grateful that he was sent to the NICU. See what I mean? Lucky!!

What makes you proud of you NICU graduate?
When I first saw him after surgery, my heart sank. So many cords, tubes, wires. I worried that if he survived, he would never be healthy. I was so wrong! Julian is a fighter! He is so strong and talented. He is my star soccer player and nothing slows him down!

Weight at Birth (lbs. or Grams)
5 lb 13 oz

Weeks Gestation
34 Weeks

Time spent in the NICU (Specify Day, Month, or Year)
2 Months