Baby Kimber’s Beautiful Life

Chase, Mckenzi, & family have been through a lot in the last seven and a half weeks. Between medical bills, traveling expenses, and funeral arrangements we have started a gofundme to help lighten the burden that may be weighing on their shoulders. Kimber was sent to us for a short time before her Heavenly Father needed her back in Heaven. We are grateful for the sweet and profound spirit she had about her.

(These excerpts are taken from different updates received by Mckenzi or Chase throughout the last couple months).

Tiny & Mighty Kimber Mae Wray was born March 12, 2019 weighing in at 4 lbs 13 oz.  Sweet baby girl decided to surprise everyone and come a little early via emergency c-section. We knew she would be in the NICU for a while even if just for the reason of being born over a month early!

After Kimber was born, later that day she was transported to EIRMC from Madison Memorial for the NICU. Mckenzi was still recovering at Madison’s and was aching to see her sweet baby girl.

“To say being a NICU parent is difficult is an understatement. Leaving her every day is heart breaking. But we are so grateful for the care she is receiving and know she is in the best hands! Our support system has been amazing and we are so grateful for all those who have helped us, sent text messages/phone calls, brought us food, given us rides, and-most importantly-praying for us! It is all felt and appreciated!! We are so incredibly blessed!!”

Little Kimber went through a lot in her first few weeks of life! She underwent a lot of testing to find how to best help her. She was diagnosed with severe reflux and they put in a trans-pyloric feeding tube (goes past her stomach into her intestines). She still wasn’t swallowing very well and when she would spit up from the reflux, it would get stuck in her throat and block her airway. When it would get bad she would desats (low oxygen, sometimes low heart rate) so that is why she was on oxygen. At this time she was still making improvements with her joints, limbs, and controlling her own body temperature. After a series of bad events, they did some blood work and found an underlying infection. They started antibiotics to treat it and she was improving after that. (It is not atypical for something like this to happen in the NICU).

“Kimber has good days and bad days, and good and bad moments throughout the day-just like we all do! There are times we are heart broken and confused and there are times we are celebrating. We still have a long road ahead of us, but Kimber Mae is a fighter-just like the grandmother she was named after. We have faith in our Heavenly Father and know he is watching over Kimber and our family. We have seen so many miracles and tender mercies along the way! “

“April 15th, 2019: Happy due date to our little sweet pea! Although it has been challenging, we are grateful she came when she did. Kimber has had a big week this last week. She got moved to a big girl bed and she got a different type of feeding tube!! Kimber has been through so much in her 5 short weeks. She is a fighter and inspires us every day. We are so proud of our sweet girl!"

April 23rd, 2019: It was decided that Kimber probably wouldn’t make much more progression at EIRMC so it was time to head to Primary Children’s-something Chase & Mckenzi knew they would be doing from the beginning. Mckenzi and Kimber took an ambulance to the airport, got on their own private medical plane, flew to Salt Lake airport, and took another ambulance up to Primary’s. 

“She’s a sassy little thing and she likes to tease her nurses!! My heart will always be grateful to EIRMC NICU. They fought for and saved my daughter more times than I can count. They loved her almost as much as I do and it was very emotional (on both sides) saying goodbye to them today. They will never know how much they mean to me!”

Sunday April 28th, 2019: “The boys got to meet Kimber for the first time today. It was the most beautiful, precious moment of my life! They adored her! Her oxygen cannula and her brothers kisses were kinda squishing her face. I absolutely love my perfect, forever family of 5!”

Since being at Primary Children’s, Kimber’s situation has gotten worse. She has had more frequent and deeper desats that are harder to recover from. They re-evaluated some of the tests that were done and the MRI that was originally read as normal was reread by pediatric specialists and they found that there are some major abnormalities. We had a second neurologist come in to give their evaluation as well. The majority of her brain did not develop in utero. This explains Kimber was having all the struggles she was having. They told us most of the parts of her brain that did not develop control movements, thinking, muscle tone, eating/swallowing, etc. Since we have been here she has only gotten worse. Our hearts are broken as we work through this process. We ask for continued prayers through this trial.

“Our precious Kimber Mae passed away at 12:42 on Friday, May 3rd, 2019. She has changed and blessed our lives in more ways than we could have ever imagined. She lived a beautiful life in her short 7 and a half weeks and taught us so much. We will forever cherish our memories with her. Kimber was not big enough for organ donation but she was a candidate to donate her heart valves. She will be able to save other babies because of the beautiful life she lived. We are so proud to be her parents! We are grateful for the Atonement and that we believe in eternal families. We will see her again and it will be a beautiful reunion. We love our Kimber Mae.”