Wesley's Warriors 2016

When most people talk about the birth of their child it is a very happy and exciting time for them. For Josh and I it was not that way at all. In fact it was the scariest day of my life. What started out as a normal prenatal appointment ended in the birth of our son. When I was only 24 weeks pregnant I developed HELLP syndrome. By the end of the day my blood pressure was through the roof, my platelets were so low they couldn't be counted and my liver and kidneys were beginning to shut down. At the start of my appointment I was told that iIhad protien in my urine and I was being put on bed rest, and hour later the goal was to keep me pregnant for a month. As the hours past the lenght of time they wanted to keep me pregnant decreased more and more. The thing I remember most, after the doctors had told Josh and I that my condition had worsened to the point that the only option was for the baby to be delivered, was that we hadn't picked out a name. We had just a few weeks ago found out he was going to be a boy. We thought we had so much more time to "fight" about what our sons name would be. It turned out we only had about 30 minutes to decide. I kept repeating over and over "please don't let him be born without a name." What I didn't know at the time was that my family had been told to say goodbye to me. The doctors didn't have much faith that myself or the baby would make it through the surgery. What I remember next was that Josh and I had picked a name. My parents had come in and told me they would see me when I woke up and when the platelet trasfusion was over Josh kissed the top of my head and said "I'll see you in a little bit. I love you." Then at 5:44pm Wesley Emerson Moore was born. He was 11 inches long and weighed 470 grams (1.036 pounds). To put it in prospective how small he was a can of green beans is 720 grams. After waking up after surgery I couldn't believe anyone when they told me he had been born. I was in the ICU for two and a half days. Wesley was two days old before I was well enough to see him. The first time I saw him everything became real. I don't remember now what I expected to see but what I saw was this tiny tiny little baby. My baby. I didn't see the wires and cords or the tube helping him breath I just saw him. I remained in the hospital for a week and was able to go home. Wesley however was in the NICU for four months and one day. During his time in the NICU it was very touch and go. For a long time we lived minute to minute because that's all the hope the doctors had for the first month and a half. At one week old Wesley had a PDA ligation. Which is the closure of the PDA valve in the heart. He also had many blood transfusion and Avastin shots in his eyes while in the NICU. Wesley was 10 weeks old before Josh and I got to hold him. At first we could only hold him for an hour at a time and only during a feeding. He was feed through a tube for the first two and a half months. Wesley had many other struggles while in the NICU. On December 27, 2013 Wesley got to come home. Once he was home the struggles didn't end there. Wesley had to have a hernia repaired, along with multiple hearing test because he had failed his newborn hearing test. We soon found out that Wesley was profoundly deaf. After trying hearing aids for an extended period of time on October 16, 2014 Wesley got bilateral cochlear implants. In 2014 Josh and I started Wesley's Warriors to help babies not have such a hard start to life like Wesley did. We created this team to help raise money for research to stop premature births. Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small and often very sick. We're waking in arch for Babes because w want to do something about this. Now after many surgeries, doctor appointments and hard days in general Wesley is 2 and a half years old. He is your typical little boy. Loves cars and thinks he's the best singer in the world. He is such a happy little boy and has a smile that can light up a room.