“Thank you to every single person who told me to reach out to my doctor.”
Baby Addisyn was smaller than a can of Coca-Cola when she was born earlier this year.
Weighing less than one pound — 15 ounces, to be specific — Addisyn was the smallest baby ever born at UT Health East Texas and her six-month stay in the NICU was the longest of any baby at the hospital.
But after six months of growing and developing, baby Addisyn was finally able to go home with her parents.
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“She started out on a ventilator, and we had to feed her through a feeding tube,” NICU Clinical Manager Bonnie Bearden said of the little girl in an interview with KYTX.
“She had special IV lines that we gave her nutrients through. But as she grew, we just continued to change her feedings, give her different types of feedings to help her continue to grow,” she added.
Addisyn’s mom, Labreshia Howard, described her pregnancy as smooth — until her 24-week checkup.
At that point, just a few days removed from Addisyn’s gender reveal, doctors were hoping to keep the little girl growing in the womb for as long as possible.
However several days later, it was decided it was time to deliver the baby.
“It was just really scary, a very scary experience,” Howard said of the delivery.
Howard recalled the UT hospital doctors not being able to hear a heartbeat after Addisyn was born and struggling to get the right measurements.
UT hospital throws parade for its smallest baby ever born
After six months of around-the-clock, high-level care in the NICU, Addisyn was finally sent home in mid-November. She weighed eight pounds at the time.
Howard was surprised to see all the doctors lined up from the NICU to the exit as she walked her baby out of the hospital.
“I did not know that all the workers in the hospital, almost, would be out in the hallway. It was so sweet,” Howard told KYTX.
Addisyn’s team of doctors describe the baby as a “little fighter.”
“Seeing her everyday was one of those amazing things where you got to see her milestones, almost like your own child,” added Marcie Tunstall, director of nursing for women’s and children’s services.
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“Moms and dads that have babies in the NICU, you’re also world champions in this battle,” Bearden added, per KYTX.
