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| Juniper (left) with her dad Tom and mom Kelley |
Five years on, she has just started class as a healthy kindergartner.
“To call her a miracle is too simplistic,” says her proud mother,
Kelley French, 42. “It was a miracle with a lot of moving pieces.”
Now, inspired by her daughter’s story, the journalism professor at Indiana University in Bloomington has co-written a memoir, “Juniper,”
out now, with her Pulitzer Prize-winning husband, Tom French, 58. It
chronicles the incredible fight of their micro-preemie, who arrived in
the world one day shy of the viability threshold of 24 weeks.
In April 2011, Kelley went into premature labor — she thinks it might
have been caused by being hit in the belly by the rambunctious family
dog — and Juniper was delivered by emergency C-section. The tiny baby,
who is the Frenches’ first and only child, was placed on a mobile
incubator with a ventilator and transferred to the neonatal intensive
care unit (NICU). She would remain there for more than six months.
Kelley didn’t get to hold Juniper until she was 2 weeks old, at which
point she was only a few ounces heavier than her birth weight and just
11.4 inches long, the length of a Barbie doll.
“She was no larger than a little baby squirrel,” Kelley recalls.
“When they put her on [my chest], it just felt like I was whole again.”
Months later, Kelley learned that the nursing staff only allowed her to hold the baby when she was still so small because they didn’t think Juniper would make it.
“It wasn’t until much later . . . that they said it was because
Juniper was having a rare good day and every mom should get to hold her
baby once while she is alive,” she says.
Despite the grim odds, Juniper pulled through, surviving multiple surgeries on her scrap of a body.
At 3 weeks old, her abdomen had to be opened up in an attempt to fix
her collapsed intestines. But they were so inflamed, doctors were unable
to complete the procedure and had to close her up.
Kelley and Tom prepared themselves for the worst, while doing their best to remain hopeful.
The Frenches took leaves from their jobs so they could spend 16 hours
a day at the NICU. They read Dickens and Harry Potter books and sang
Bruce Springsteen songs to the minuscule infant as she lay, fragile as a
baby bird, in her incubator.
“We dedicated ourselves to building a world for her that was bigger
than that plastic box,” says Kelley. “We tried to give her a sense that
there was something out there worth fighting for.”
After six-and-a-half months in the NICU, Juniper weighed a robust 8
pounds, 6 ounces, and was ready to be taken off all medical monitors.
“Bringing her home was scary, but I’d learned so much in the NICU, I
felt like the staff were with me,” says Kelley, adding that Juniper
didn’t need any special care and went on to have a typical toddler-hood.
When Juniper French was born at 23 weeks and 6 days, weighing just 1
pound, 4 ounces, there was an 80 percent chance she would either die or
be severely disabled.Modal Trigger
Now 5, despite some minor issues with her fine-motor skills — she has
problems with handwriting and cutting with scissors — Juniper is
thriving. She has a passion for animals and gymnastics.
Last month, Kelley penned an open letter published on The Huffington
Post to Simone Biles, thanking the petite four-time gold medal winner
for inspiring her daughter. It went viral.
“Simone is Juniper’s idol because, at just 4 feet 8 inches tall, she has so much grace, ability and strength,” she says.
Juniper is 38.5 inches tall and weighs 32 pounds, putting her in the
third percentile for her age. She typically wears clothes meant for a
3-year-old, and will likely be on the smaller side for her whole life.
But her large personality makes up for her small stature.
“She is very social, adores carrying on conversations with adults and
is a wicked problem-solver and negotiator,” says Kelley. “She loves to
hear all about her birth and the uphill path she faced.”
http://nypost.com/2016/09/18/meet-the-little-girl-who-was-born-the-size-of-a-barbie/
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