Our Tough Little Fighter: Antman

“21 weeks into my wife's pregnancy she had to have a cervical cerclage and be put on full bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy. At 26 weeks her water broke at 11PM one random night and we rushed to the hospital. We thought that this was going to be it, the baby is going to come and worrying that it's so early. Little did we know that just because your water breaks it doesn't mean the baby has to be born as long as there's no contractions and there's enough fluid around the baby. She was in the hospital for about 3 weeks and just after 29 weeks she began having contractions on a random Friday night at 3am. This was it the baby was definitely coming now. Then Anthony Richard was born on 8/13 weighing 3lbs 8oz at 12pm on a Sunday. 

We were told that there's going to a bunch of people in the room to be ready to get him to the NICU and if he's looking okay we can see him for a quick second before they take him. When he first came out and we heard the cry it was the biggest rush of relief I ever felt in my life. He was okay, we got to see him and they took him out. 

About an hour later I got to go see him first while my wife rested. It was a sight I’ll never forget. He was laying there with tubes coming out of all over, and looked so helpless. I couldn't help but to get emotional at seeing that, as I imagined this moment to be much different but also happy he’s okay. 

He was in the NICU for 6 weeks, and it was the longest 6 weeks of our lives. There were a lot of ups and downs, good days and bad days. He had a large PDA, that they were able to shrink after a few rounds of different medicine, he had difficulty breathing, he had tachycardia when we first started feeding him with a bottle, but all in all we were lucky that he ended up being okay and now you'd have no idea he was a preemie. It was definitely a humbling experience but were so grateful to have our little Antman. 

He was at NYU Langone in Mineola and the staff was amazing”