'Micropreemie' baby who weighed just over 1 pound at birth goes home
NEW LENOX, Ill. (AP) — A baby girl who weighed just over one pound when she was born prematurely in November has beaten the odds and gone home with her parents after spending her first six months at a suburban Chicago hospital.
Nyla Brooke Haywood was treated to a send-off party Monday at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, Illinois, attended by family, friends and hospital staffers before the 6-month-old was taken home by her first-time parents, NaKeya and Cory Haywood of Joliet.
Nyla was delivered on Nov. 17 at just 22 weeks after her mother, NaKeya, was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a dangerous high-blood pressure condition. She weighed 1 pound and 1 ounce (482 grams) and was 11 inches (28 centimeters) long, making her what’s known as a “micropreemie.”
But she left the hospital Monday weighing a healthy 10 pounds (4.536 grams) and at 21 inches (53 centimeters) long after months of treatment and nurturing in its neonatal intensive care unit.