Thankful People: Baby boy healthy after premature birth

Nixon Wehmeyer entered this world at 8:34 a.m. Aug. 25 -- four weeks before his mother's due date in late September.

He had no eyelashes or eyebrows because they had not developed yet, but he sported a small amount of blonde hair.

After having her water break and going to the hospital only to discover that the baby was in a breach position, his mother, Nikki Wells-Wehmeyer, had to undergo an emergency C-section. Nikki had adamantly opposed that method of childbirth. She wanted a natural birth, but there was no time to debate. It had to be done.

"Everything happened so quickly and at the time was a lot to process. Being four weeks early I was shocked it was happening at all," Nikki said. "This was not the way I planned things to go, but God had a totally different plan."

She saw her baby for a brief moment after the delivery and just remembers him looking purple. She knew something wasn't right and she and her husband, Marc, were scared.

She remembers hearing her baby cry once and then silence. She remembers asking, "Why isn't he crying?" She was told they took him to clean him up. Only later did she learn Nixon had stopped breathing and medical staff had removed him from the room to resuscitate him. Because he was premature, Nixon's lungs were not fully developed, which caused difficulty breathing.

He was taken away from his mother immediately and spent his first 12 days in the neonatal intensive care unit at Southeast Hospital.

"I was sad," Nikki said. "I thought you had a baby and the next day you go home with them. That didn't happen. It took a long time to feel like Nixon was even mine because everybody told me what I could and couldn't do with him."

At first Nixon was placed on a ventilator, which breathed for him. After the ventilator, he spent some time on a CPAP machine, which allowed him to breath on his own with some help from the machine.

When he was stable on the CPAP, Nikki was allowed to hold him. It was Sunday night, almost four days after his birth.

"I felt complete," she said.

The young mother was able to stay in a room at the hospital the whole time Nixon had to be there as well. She tried going home but couldn't do it.

"It was hard enough just leaving him down the hallway at the hospital," she said.

When his lungs had developed enough, he was put on a nasal cannula, which just gave him oxygen to keep his oxygen level up. He was released when he was able to breath on his own and keep his oxygen level up. The couple brought their baby boy home in September.

Nikki said she is thankful for the nurses in the NICU. She said they were sweet and helped her and Marc understand what was going on the whole time with their child.

"You could just tell how much they loved the babies," Nikki said.

Now at almost 3 months old, Nixon is doing well. He has doubled his birth weight and is healthy.

"He is a happy, healthy little boy," Nikki said. "This could have gone a lot of different directions, and we are very blessed the way it turned out."