DIAL M FOR MIRACLE
Baby born the size of an iPhone is home for Xmas
A MIRACLE premature baby born the size of an iPhone spent Christmas at home after a “rollercoaster” year where his parents feared he may not survive.
Little Myles weighed just 1lb 8oz when he was born 14 weeks premature on June 19. Mum Rebecca Grainger, 24, was rushed into hospital for an emergency C-section after being diagnosed with preeclampsia at 26 weeks.
Myles was immediately placed on a ventilator as he was unable to breathe for himself and endured a 15-week battle for life.
Rebecca was not able to see or hold her boy but dad Warren McKenna, 25, was given a quick cuddle before Myles was taken to neonatal intensive care.
For 15 weeks, the couple’s lives revolved around the hospital, leaving early in the morning to be there for their son, often staying until 2am.
The couple were terrified of catching Covid and having to isolate. Rebecca, from Yoker, Glasgow, said: “That would have been my worst nightmare, knowing I couldn’t get up there for 10 days.” Myles was on a ventilator for the first three weeks of his life.
Rebecca said: “The consultant basically said, ‘If he stays on the ventilator, he could die, but if he is given steroids, he could die’, and I remember just thinking, ‘Why is this happening to us?’
“We were always told it was going to be like a rollercoaster and at this point I thought, ‘The rollercoaster has crashed’.
“He was like the size of an iPhone, he could really sit on my hand. By the time we got to take him home, he was 5lb 5oz. He’s still tiny but we thought he was humongous, a baby giant.”
Rebecca said the tot is settling in well at home now – despite having chronic lung disease.
She added: “The first time I held him was amazing because I got to see his wee face. Skin to skin contact came later and was just a whole different feeling.
“That’s when I really felt, ‘I’m his mum’.”