My husband and I had been married for two and a half years, together for seven when we decided to have a baby. It took us a little over a year to get pregnant.

When I finally did get pregnant, I bled at least three to four times before my third trimester and had the blood test for spina bifida come back positive twice, which resulted in a level 2 ultrasound done at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to be sure my son did not have spina bifida. (Thankfully he did not).

At 31 weeks, I went into the hospital for what I assumed to be a kidney stone, since I had just had one a few days before. I was there for most of the day, straining and keeping my pee into a plastic container when I was told they were going to keep me in the local hospital overnight for observation. They woke me every two hours to check my blood pressure.

At about either 4 or 6 a.m., my resting blood pressure was 175/106. The doctor came in the room and informed me she was calling Dartmouth and was going to transfer me there and while we were waiting, she was going to put me on magnesium to prevent seizures.

After the two-hour ambulance ride, I arrived and was settled in, still not aware of just what the problem was. The doctor came in, took some blood and did an ultrasound to check the baby and the fluid. Both were good. My son was breech.

Finally, a man came in and announced himself as the head of high-risk pregnancy and informed me that I had severepreeclampsia, PIH and HELLP syndrome. My liver was failing and so were my kidneys. So since we had started me on steroids for the baby's lungs (the last dose would be at around midnight) we would wait until the morning, but then we would have to deliver.

I was horrified. I never imagined that I would be giving birth to a preemie baby.

The next morning at 11:20 a.m. I was rushed to the operating room and had an emergency Cesarean section. My son Clint Joseph was born at 11:44 a.m. at 3 pounds, 1ounce. I did not get to hear his first cry because he was not breathing. They took him away – my husband went with them – and finished up with me. He was intubated for about four hours and then extubated. Everything was great.

Within a few days he was out of the critical side of the ICN and on the "feed and grow" side. At 10 days old, the doctors felt it would be OK to transfer him to our local hospital so off we went!

That night, I was sitting with him in the local hospital nursery and I looked at the nurse and said, "He doesn't feel good," to which she replied it was probably that he was just really tired from the transfer since it was such a long trip. I took that at face value, but decided I would be back early the next morning just in case.

The next day he had his 9 a.m. feeding and I really felt he wasn't feeling well at all. I changed his diaper and discovered that his diaper was full of blood. I called the nurse over and told her to call the doctor now. When she finally got there and examined him, she told me this was "not normal" and immediately called Dartmouth. He was rushed back not even 24 hours after leaving.

In the two-hour trip, he deteriorated quickly. When he arrived, he was no longer responsive, a bluish gray tone and having respiratory distress. The doctors diagnosed him with necrotizing enter colitis (NEC) and informed my husband and me that he may not make it and if he does he may need surgery.

We were devastated. I stayed my his bedside the entire night. He had multiple apnea episodes where he stopped breathing and was given oxygen. They wanted to intubate him, but decided to try giving him a shot of caffeine first to see if that worked. It did.

He was on triple antibiotics and NPO for two weeks. He thankfully never required surgery.

He is now about 12 weeks corrected (actually 21 weeks) and at home doing beautifully at about 13 pounds and 23 inches long. He is a beautiful, smart little man and we couldn't ask for more. He's our little miracle.

For all other mommies with babies in the ICN with NEC, have faith. Encourage that little one to fight and tell them how much you love them. They'll pull through.