1-Pound Micro Preemie Who Fought 100 days In NICU Heads Home After Remarkable Recovery

After spending more than 100 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Finn James Hill, a baby boy born weighing just 1 pound and 2 ounces, was finally allowed to go home with his parents.

Finn was born nearly four months early, through emergency cesarean surgery, with doctors giving him only a 50 percent chance of life. He was released into the loving arms and home of his parents, Jessica and Chris Hill, 113 days later.

Jessica explained, “It didn’t hit me until we left and it was just the three of us for the first time.” “I had a feeling we wouldn’t have to return him. Everything we had wanted and prayed for had come true.”

To say the least, the loving couple’s path to become parents has been challenging. They struggled with infertility for nine years, going through numerous cycles of in vitro fertilization using their own egg and sperm. After numerous failed tries, the couple decided to explore into embryo adoption.

Jessica and Chris were able to adopt eight embryos from a couple they met on Facebook. Their first try failed, but the couple became pregnant with twins on their second attempt. The parents lost baby B at ten weeks, but baby A, Finn, survived. Jessica had a blood clot at 24 weeks, which caused her water to rupture and resulted in preterm labor, and Finn was born weighing only 1.2 pounds.

“It was simply astonishment at first,” Jessica explained. “I began to weep and asked my doctor, ‘What are his odds of survival if you pull him out right now?’ He was safer on the outside than he was on the inside, according to the doctor.”

Micro preemies are newborns born weighing less than 1 pound 12 ounces or before the 26th to 28th week of pregnancy. Micro preemies nearly always need to stay in the hospital for longer periods of time.

Finn was moved from Lakeland Regional Medical Center to Nemours’ level 4 NICU less than two weeks after his birth.

Jessica remembered, “I felt a little bit like a failure to be honest because one minute he’s inside of [me] and I’m protecting him, and the next minute he’s out and in a completely different section of the hospital.” “It was terrifying,” says the narrator.

Finn’s battle over the following three months was severe. He had two operations, one to fix a hole in his heart and the other to treat Necrotizing enterocolitis, a severe infection that affects preemies’ intestines. Finn also needed the assistance of a ventilator to breathe.

Finn’s health improved dramatically following surgery, and Jessica was able to hug her son for the first time just one month after he was born.

When Jessica first held her kid, she described it as “unbelievable.” “You just get to hold their hands, and I had to make do with what I had in terms of contact, but it was a tremendous comfort to see his numbers improve as I worked with him skin-to-skin. It made me feel like my motherly duties were taking over, and he recognized me.”

Finn was eventually released from the hospital after nearly four months of rehabilitation and was allowed to return home for the first time. He is now four months old and weighs five pounds and five ounces, and his parents are overjoyed. He is an excellent sleeper, according to Jessica, and he is adored.

“He just has this grin on his face all the time. I can’t tell you how much he’s loved,” she added.

Finn’s recovery is being prayed for across the world, and heartfelt messages of support are being sent to the beautiful infant boy and his parents. Jessica and Chris keep a Facebook page dedicated to their little warrior, Fighting Finn, updated with news on Finn. Everything has been worthwhile to them.

We are grateful for Finn’s miraculous recovery and the fact that he has now returned home to his adoring parents.