The Cooper Family’s NICU Journey

Greg and Sara-Beth Cooper have a beautiful story of trusting in God in spite of the odds put up against them and their sweet boys. Early Bird Foundation is thankful to have had the opportunity to know them and to have been able to watch their journey unfold and provide support where we can! We ask you to pray for this sweet family as they continue on their NICU journey and, ultimately, take their boys home and get to experience life after the NICU!

Below is their story, written in their own words:

July 25, 2017 we found out we were expecting. On August 28, 2017 we found out we were expecting TWO sweet babies. We were over the moon when we found out it was twins. We had struggled with infertility for over a year and felt like this was an answer to our prayers. All of our hopes and dreams came crashing down on October 4, 2017. While I was at work Grant’s (Baby B) water broke. I was 13 weeks and 5 days. The doctor immediately placed me on strict bed rest and told me that the chances of survival was essentially zero for Grant and slim for Leo (Baby A). We were devastated. I started going to weekly fluid checks on the babies and was referred to a high risk doctor at Central Baptist. Our first high risk appointment did not go very well. Grant still had nearly no fluid. The doctor told us that without this fluid his lungs would not develop and he would die while in the womb or immediately after birth. Because of this he told us we had the option to terminate the pregnancy completely because under medical terms it was considered an incomplete miscarriage. We went home feeling defeated. We knew the only way we could get through all this was to leave it in God’s hands. With our next fluid check things started to turn around. His fluid was normal without any medical explanation. Every subsequent fluid check went well for the next 4 weeks. At 19 weeks his water re-broke. Once again we were devastated because we had been told that this re-rupture would cause early labor and a poor outcome for not only Grant, but Leo also. At my 24 week appointment with Central Baptist Dr. Barton decided I needed to be admitted to UK for the remainder of the pregnancy. Once I got to the hospital, doctors began to tell us that if Grant survived birth he would have many problems and would probably require a trach and he would be on a ventilator. Our goal was for me to make it to 34 weeks and then they were going to induce. On January 24, 2018, the boys decided they were ready to make their appearance. I was 29 weeks and 5 days. The doctors had prepared us for the outcome at this stage in the pregnancy. They told us Grant would fair poorly due to low fluid the majority of the pregnancy and Leo would fair much better. Grant got off to a rough start his first couple days of life; however, God has worked many miracles with our boys and we are overjoyed at the progress both boys have made. There is no question that these boys have proven that God answers prayers. Both are completely healthy, normal babies for their gestational age. We can not thank God enough for answering our prayers.

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Our boys have been in the NICU a little over a month now. For the majority of the pregnancy we knew we would spend some time in the NICU but we didn’t know how much. And we can definitely say that nothing prepares you to be a NICU parent. It takes a special person to be a NICU parent and God felt like we could handle that responsibility. Leaving your babies every night in the care of someone else has been the hardest thing about this journey. But we have been blessed with wonderful nurses, doctors, friends, and family to help us through. The journey has been hard but it’s has been worth every trial so far. We have truly been blessed throughout this entire journey!

Thank you Cooper Family for sharing your story with us! May God continue to bless your family each day and we look forward to seeing your “coming home” picture!