Against all odds

Benton Courier ^ | 02/10/2003 | Monica Sattley

[miltonim]

Against all odds (abortion)

By Monica Sattley February 10, 2003

Hunter Hill is battling against a premature birth

"Welcome to Sonic ... (sniff) ... Can I take your order? (sniffle)."

Had the restaurant been walk-in instead of drive-in, a swipe across the eyes of the cashier to remove a tear would have accompanied the sad greeting.

It was July 16, 2002, and the Sonic employees at 1703 Military Road had just heard the nerve-racking news that a son had been born to their assistant manager - four months early. At just 1 pound, 4 ounces, Hunter Brant Hill's condition was, to say the least, questionable.

Mandy Hill, a 12-year employee of Sonic, is Hunter's mother, and David and Cathy Hull of Poyen, the baby's maternal grandparents, are the restaurant's owners of 22 years.

"That day a few of us went up (to the hospital) to check on him," recalled Cindy Rigsby, the restaurant manager. "He was so tiny, it was kind of scary." Hunter's lungs were still six weeks shy of developing, his kidneys were not functioning, his eyes were still fused, his skin transparent.

"You couldn't touch him for fear of tearing (his skin)," said Cathy Hull. With a Nov. 10 due date, he was born at 23 weeks, still well within the range of legal abortion, 32 weeks. He was small enough to fit in an adult's hand.

"His little diaper was not even two inches big," his grandmother said.

To add to the edgy situation, Mandy and Brant Hill, Hunter's parents, had been waiting for him five-and-a-half years, the pregnancy delayed by fertility problems.

"I was very scared that he wasn't going to make it," said Mandy Hill. But her mother kept a positive outlook and told her, "God didn't give you this baby just to take him away."

Hunter lived and grew in an incubator under close medical supervision at UAMS for 94 days. He was taken home to Prattsville in October. He recently weighed in at 9 pounds, 8 ounces, and is developing now the same as any baby born in October would.

"He's getting really good at holding his head up," said Hill, "He tries to stand up; he pulls your fingers; he doesn't cry very much."

The lack of crying is probably because he doesn't have much experience with it. Because Hunter's lungs were not fully developed when he was born, he had to be hooked up to a ventilator and he wasn't able to cry. But that was a sound his parents yearned to hear. His first whimper, Hill said, sounded "like a little lamb crying."

Hunter's successes have come only after a long, arduous time in and out of the hospital, and with all the amazing recoveries Hunter has made thus far, his grandmother considers him a "miracle baby."

His first success was a day after Hunter's birth. Hull describes what happened: "The doctor talked to me out in the hall and said, 'If his kidneys don't start functioning, that's going to be a major problem.' I told him, 'Sometime between 7 and 8:30 p.m., they're going to start working because that's when my church will be praying for him.'"

At 8:20 her prediction came true. Hull said, "His daddy was crying and everyone was asking what was wrong and he said, 'He started peeing!'"

Hunter's parents were not allowed to hold him for quite a while after he was born. Mandy Hill got her first chance when Hunter was one-and-a-half months old. "It was probably for 10 seconds; just long enough for the nurses to change his sheets in the incubator." After several more weeks, mother and baby were allowed to cuddle for about 20 minutes.

The Hills and Cathy Hull spent a lot of time in the hospital those 94 days. Mother and grandmother would drive there in the morning, Cathy Hull would stay until 4 p.m., when Brant Hill could get off work, and then the Hills would stay "until they couldn't stay any longer," Hull said, because they were not allowed to visit after 6 p.m.

"We would just sit there and watch him sleep," remembered Mandy Hill. "I went 93 out of the 94 days he was in the hospital ... The doctors kept telling me I needed to stay home and rest, but the one day I didn't go, I cried all day," she said.

Cathy Hull said even though Hunter was hospitalized so long, "the year really went by; you didn't know where it went because you were just at the hospital every day."

Rigsby said Sonic employees were kept up-to-date on Hunter's condition throughout it all. "Cathy would call us and keep us updated on what was going on. She brought pictures up here periodically."

The trek is not over yet. Hunter has had two surgeries on his left eye, and doctors are not sure what his future will look like. Mandy Hill said she is confident he is growing up healthy. "I'm thinking he's going to be a perfectly formed boy," said his grandmother.

For now, Hunter has to be watched carefully. He has a heart monitor when he sleeps and sometimes needs to be hooked up to oxygen in his slumbers.

Hill has quit her job at Sonic to give Hunter the close attention he needs at home. She says the journey has been, and continues to be, well worth it.

"I think God always does everything for a reason, and it's made me and my family closer," Hill said.

©Benton Courier 2003

[miltonim]

Diary of an Unborn Child

Chronology of the New Life

Click here for pictures!

1. Immediately upon fertilization, cellular development begins. Before implantation the sex of the new life can be determined.
2. At implantation, the new life is composed of hundreds of cells and has developed a protective hormone to prevent the mother's body from rejecting it as a foreign tissue.
3. At 17 days, the new life has developed its own blood cells; the placenta is a part of the new life and not of the mother.
4. At 18 days, occasional pulsations of a muscle - this will be the heart.
5. At 19 days, the eyes start to develop.
6. At 20 days, the foundation of the entire nervous system has been laid down.
7. At 24 days, the heart has regular beats or pulsations.
8. At 28 days, 40 pairs of muscles are developed along the trunk of the new life; arms and legs forming.
9. At 30 days, regular blood flow within the vascular system; the ears and nasal development have begun.
10. At 40 days, the heart energy output is reported to be almost 20% of an adult.
11. At 42 days, skeleton complete and the reflexes are present.
12. At 43 days, electrical brain wave patterns can be recorded. This is usually ample evidence that "thinking" is taking place in the brain. The new life may be thought of as a thinking person.
13. At 49 days, the baby has the appearance of a miniature doll with complete fingers, toes and ears.
14. NAME CHANGED FROM EMBRYO TO FETUS. At 56 days all organs functioning - stomach, liver, kidney, brain - all systems intact. Lines in palms. All future development of new life is simply that of refinement and increase in size until maturity at approximately age 23 years. This is approximately two months before "quickening" yet there is a new life with all of its parts needing only nourishment. The mother will usually not feel the child's movements until four months after conception.
15. 9th & 10th week, squints, swallows, retracts tongue.
16. 11th & 12th week, arms & legs move, sucks thumb, inhales and exhales amniotic fluid, nails appearing.
17. 16 weeks (four months), genital organs clearly differentiated, grasps with hands, swims, kicks and turns somersaults (still not felt by mother).
18. 18 weeks, vocal cords working . . . can cry.
19. 20 weeks, hair appears on head; weight - one pound; height - 12 inches. A fetus (little one, child, baby) is essentially no different at fertilization, ten weeks, twenty weeks or thirty weeks. A person is a person, no matter how small.

This information sheet is available upon request from:

American Life League, Inc.
P.O. Box 1350
Stafford, VA 22555
(540) 659-4171
(540) 659-2586 Fax

 
The Knights of Columbus copyrighted this diary in 1993, and granted American Life League the permission to print it.

Posted with Permission

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[xsmommy]

One of my best friends gave birth to her daughter at 6 months gestation, and at 1 lb. 10 oz. Another miracle baby, she is now a freshman in high school and an honor student. She wears glasses and has a scar at her neck from the ventilator tube that she had as a newborn. Miracles do happen. i pray for a similar outcome for little Hunter. Oh, and my friend is one of the most devout women i know. I am sure that is no coincedence.