{"id":237616,"date":"2021-01-09T13:51:57","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T19:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=237616"},"modified":"2021-01-08T17:59:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T23:59:13","slug":"born-23-weeks-micro-preemie-james-thriving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/born-23-weeks-micro-preemie-james-thriving\/","title":{"rendered":"Born at 23 weeks as a micro-preemie, James is now a thriving 5-year-old"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michael and Rachel were expecting their first baby in 2015 when Rachel’s water broke at just 22 weeks. That’s when the couple first learned they were actually expecting twins, but micro-preemies born at 22 weeks only have about a 21% chance<\/a> of surviving. Sadly, baby Ian did not survive, but his twin brother James, born at 23 weeks, is now five years old.<\/p>\n

At 23 weeks and two days, James weighed just one pound and two ounces, and he had a fight ahead of him. It would be six days until his mother would hold him for the first time. And while his parents say the first two weeks after birth were “smooth,” after that he began to face a lot of medical challenges.<\/p>\n

“James went through so much. He was intubated and then he was switched to CPAP and back to intubation and all these different things. And he just went through so much,” said Michael in a YouTube video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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