The miracle premature baby that was born the size of iPhone spent Christmas at home after his parents feared he may not survive.
Little baby Myles weighed a mere 1lb 8oz when he was born into the world 14 weeks premature.
Mom, 24-year-old Rebecca Granger was rushed into the hospital for an emergency Caesarian section after she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia 26 weeks into her pregnancy.
Myles was placed on a ventilator immediately as he wasn’t able to breathe for himself and battled for 15-weeks to survive.
Rebecca wasn’t able to hold or even see her little boy but dad Warren McKenna was able to give him a quick cuddle before he was rushed off to neonatal intensive care.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, only parents were allowed inside the neonatal intensive care unit meaning only Warren was the only person able to visit Rebecca.
As you can imagine the couple were terrified of catching COVID and having to self-isolate as missing 10 days with their little baby was their ‘worst nightmare’.
For 15 weeks their lives revolved around the hospital not leaving until the early morning around 2am to be there for Myles.
Rebecca said: “That would have been my worst nightmare, knowing I couldn’t get up there for 10 days.”
She said her pregnacy was going smooth for 26 weeks until she realised she hadn’t felt much movement from the baby and brought it up with her midwife.
She was monitored constantly and when the baby’s heart rate suddenly dropped, doctors had to act.
Rebecca shared: “I thought, ‘I’m just being a drama queen but I’ll just phone and see.’
“We went up to the hospital and I thought it was going to be 10 minutes in and out.
“But they took me into a wee room and basically said I wouldn’t be leaving pregnant again.
“At this point, I was just traumatized because my pregnancy was going so smoothly and I didn’t feel ill in myself so it was hard to take in.”
For the first three weeks of his life, Myles was on a ventilator and managed to fight off a blood infection but doctors said his lungs weren’t getting any better.
“Our daily routine involved getting up first thing and checking the vCreate where nurses would have sent a picture or video during the night.
“They were so personal and it really helped us.
“The consultant sat us down and said Myles had been on the ventilator for too long so they would give him steroids to wean him off – but there were side effects from both.
“I remember asking what the side effects would be.
“The consultant basically said, ‘If he stays on the ventilator he could die, but if he is given steroids he could die’, and I remember just thinking, ‘Why is this happening to us?
“We were always told it was going to be like a rollercoaster and at this point I thought, ‘The rollercoaster has crashed.’
“He was like the size of an iPhone, he could really sit on my hand.
“The consultants explained that anything could happen with him, it could go 50/50.
“It was really tough to hear on my own, especially with the fear of the unknown.
“By the time we got to take him home he was 5lb 5oz.
“He’s still tiny but we thought he was absolutely humongous, a baby giant.”
It wasn’t until a whole week after Myles was born that Rebecca was able to hold him.
“Skin to skin contact came later and was just a whole different feeling.
“That’s when I really felt ‘I’m his mom’.
“When he finally was allowed to meet his extended family there were tears galore. We’ve been blessed with a miracle.”
Want to keep up with the latest news? Check out the rest of our articles here and for all things sports click here.
