Noah, Our Angel

"I wanted to share a quick story of our little boy Noah. Before we get to the day Noah was born, let's talk about my wife, Jessica who is as tough as nails. At around 20 weeks at our normal ultrasound appointment, we found out that my wife's cervix was short. Doctors explained that this shouldn't be happening so early in the pregnancy. As sad as the day was, this was the same day we found out that we were having a little boy. In comparison, my wife's pregnancy with our daughter, Kennedy went full term with no issues. It was a surprise to us and her doctors regarding what was going on. We scheduled an appointment for the following week where we found out that her cervix was even smaller. We were sent to Hartford Hospital labor and delivery for monitoring and after about 4 hours we were sent home.

The following week we went back to our next appointment and Jessy's cervix had started to dilate. Again, we were sent to labor & delivery for monitoring and then sent home.

The following week, Jessy now at 23 weeks, we found out she was 4cm dilated. Again, we were sent to the hospital only this time they did not want us to leave and planned for a longer stay in preparation for giving birth. Our emotions were all over the place. Jessy ended up being admitted and I spent the next 4 weeks traveling back and forth from home and Hartford Hospital Women's Unit.

Jessy was determined to do her best to keep our little guy in the womb for as long as she could, she would take the steroid shots as scheduled in hopes to develop and improve our son's growth. In knowing our son would make his entrance sooner then we want or expected we had to come up with a name quickly. We agreed on the name Noah and our daughter gave him the nickname 'Hercules'.

On June 30th, 2020 Jessy was 27 weeks and 3 days. The night prior she started to bleed and doctors could not stop the bleeding. By noon time we were told that Noah would be born today. We both were happy and scared at what was about to happen in the next few hours. We cried, held hands and said a prayer for both Noah and my wife. In the next few hours Noah was born. Noah was a beautiful baby boy. He had some cute big round eyes. This is when our NICU journey begins!

Noah was rushed down to the NICU and was placed into an isolette. A week into our NICU journey, Noah became very ill and his bloodwork from the lab came back showing he had a staph infection and sepsis. Jessy and I's hearts started to break. Our dream of walking out of NICU started to become a nightmare. The following week they were about to get Noah stabled enough to transport him to Children's Hospital to get an MRI done. The results were not good. Noah had abscesses all over the inside of his body. He also had a bone infection (if I recall correctly, it was called Osteomyelitis). At this point, on July 12th, 2020, we had a meeting with NICU doctors and hospice as we were told that Noah was not going to make it. After the meeting Jessy and I cried and hugged it out. Jessy looked at me and said "I'm not ready to give up on, Noah." Our minds were set, as long as Noah was still with us fighting, we would have his back and give him nothing but love and support. And I will tell you, Noah put up a fight! He was someone special.

Noah had a few procedures done by the ortho team to drain some of the abscesses. The next few weeks we watched Noah kick sepsis' butt (lol). He was living up to the nickname Hercules. He started to get negative blood cultures; things started to look good again. Let's fast forward to August.

I remember at one point Noah was constipated and he hadn't pooped in quite some time. In the middle of the night we received a picture from his night nurse Sarah and it was a picture of Noah's poop. I started jumping for joy. I've never been excited to see poop before! Not long after that Noah began to have watery stools and his nurses began to worry something else might be going on.

Fast forward to late August, Noah was a week away from being taken off of the major antibiotics he was on for the infection. NICU staff started talking about Noah going home in the future. During the last week of August, Noah started to show signs of something going on. His eyes started to twitch and red patches on his head began to form, doctor's ordered an ultra sound to be done. The returning results came back and were to our surprise not good at all. Noah had a severe brain bleed. One thing I will always remember is Doctor Adam Matson telling my wife that he is not ready to give up on Noah. That meant so much to my wife and I. Thank you Dr. Matson! They did everything they could for Noah but his health kept deteriorating. My wife and I knew Noah was tired. We felt like he could not fight anymore. We met with the NICU doctors and decided it was time to say our goodbye to our baby boy.

The most toughest decision my wife and I ever had to make. On August 28, 2020, we said our goodbyes. Just two days before this the wonderful NICU nurses had helped me make my wife's birthday a special one in the hospital, August 26th bed 10, provided Jessy with precious keepsakes and footprints. The love she felt, we forever will cherish, as on August 28th, we said our goodbyes and Noah took his last breath in our arms.

Although Noah passed on, he lives on in our hearts and of the hearts of his NICU family. From the bottom of my heart thank you for all that each and everyone of you for what you do for families like mine. To everyone single person involved in Noah's care, Thank you." -NICU dad, Clifford

We know that sharing each story is important, especially those of our bereaved community. Clifford- our thoughts are with you and your beautiful family.