Preemie 'graduates' gather to celebrate

Little Cutter, Culley, Jaiden and Lexi share more than close kinship and October birthdays.

The four babies also were bassinet mates in Yuma Regional Medical Center's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

"It was like a family reunion," said Whitney Stuebs, Lexi's mother, at the memory of her daughter, her brother's son and their cousin's twin boys all being NICU patients at the same time. "We went from bassinet to bassinet."

The babies and their proud parents came together again Saturday for a much happier occasion: the fourth annual NICU celebration of its many tiny graduates over the years.

The event is hosted by the NICU staff to bring families together who have had the challenging, emotional and sometimes difficult experience. It is an opportunity for the families to celebrate life, network with others and learn more about resources available to them as they continue to face challenges, said Natalie McPherson, a NICU nurse.

"The families can come out and say how great their kids are doing. And it's a great day for the kids."

McPherson's seen the unit not only as a nurse but a parent. Three years ago, her own son, Chase, was in NICU for a few days after he was born with seizures.

"That challenge turned out to be a great opportunity. It helped me become a better nurse. It helped me understand the parents' perspective.

"It's an extremely frightening feeling to go home without your baby. For me to be able to relate to that makes a difference for the parents. They know they're not alone."

McPherson said the NICU evolved over the years into the ability to care for babies with more acute problems. The unit is able to keep babies as young as 28 weeks, saving families the anguish of having their babies sent out of town.

A full-term baby is around 38 weeks.

Younger and more critical babies can be stabilized there before they're sent to other units. Today, babies as young as 22 or 23 months are surviving, McPherson said.

She said hundreds of babies are cared for at the NICU each year "and we see more every year," including a number of twins and more triplets.

Among those twins are Cutter and Culley Melton, sons of Scott and Bernadette Melton. They were born Oct. 12, a month early.

In the NICU, they joined cousin Jaiden Williams, who had been born 20 minutes earlier - and two months premature - to Kyle Williams and Tosha Butz.

Already there as well was another cousin, Lexi Stuebs, born a month early on Oct. 4 to Patrick and Whitney Stuebs. Lexi and the twins stayed for two weeks while Jaiden was there for seven weeks.

The experience was "scary," said his mother. "I was overwhelmed."

Today, Jaiden's parents look back with gratitude to Dr. Greg Warda, who specializes in the care of newborns, and the NICU staff who cared for their son. "They comforted us and made us feel good."

And they're ever so grateful their son could be among family at YRMC just down the street and not in a hospital three hours away.

That's why they were at Saturday's NICU celebration, said Tosha. "We wanted to support the cause and show our gratitude to the staff and thank Dr. Warda" for their now healthy 9-month-old who is crawling his way to new adventures.

---

Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853.