Hey Everyone!

Thank you for checking out Grady's Gofundme page. Grady is the son of my co worker Brittani. He entered this world too early at 27 weeks and has been a fighter since Day 1! Even though Grady is now out of the NICU, he has spent more of his small life in the hospital then he has out and at home. He is a sweet, happy, beautiful baby boy who is making everyone that knows him proud of how far he has come!

I wanted to create this Gofundme page to help Grady's parents, Brittani and Eric, out with any medical expenses they currently have and any they may have in the future. Even though Grady is home, he is constantly going to follow up appointments and needing additional treatments.

I asked Grady's mom Brittani to write a summary of Grady's young but difficult life so far, so that anyone that does not know Grady can understand his struggles and why I wanted to create this page for him.

Thank you to everyone that took the time to visit this page, to everyone who is sends prayers Grady's way, and to anyone that is able to donate. Every little bit will truly help this amazing boy and his family.

Grady's journey in the words of his Mom Brittani:

At 26 weeks pregnant I went to the hospital because I just wasn’t feeling right, I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia and transferred to University of Maryland almost immediately. We spent the next 8 days living in the hospital getting blood work, ultrasounds, magnesium drips and all sorts of medicine combinations trying to get my blood pressure under control. We finally got everything under control when some of Grady’s ultrasounds started to look concerning and his heart rate started dipping.

On October 4th, 2024 and at 27 weeks 1 day pregnant our doctors came in and said “You’re meeting your baby today. We’re taking you to the OR right now” and in less than an hour my sweet little 2lb baby boy was earth side. He was taken down to the NICU very shortly after and we would spend the next 221 days in that same NICU!

He was intubated for the first 24 days of life. We attempted to extubate 3 times in those 24 days and finally on October 28th he came off of the ventilator and I was able to hold my baby for the very FIRST time! We spent the next 19 weeks on a rollercoaster ride trying to figure out his breathing and his little lungs while on the CPAP machine.

We kept on pushing forward and against all odds on March 12th we ditched the CPAP machine for good and were one step closer to going home. (Although we didn’t end up going home for another 2 months.) The next two months consisted of their own struggles and victories, tears and laughter, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel that could not be dimmed this time!

Grady spent countless hours with physical therapists working out and getting strong. With occupational therapists learning to love his binky and finding his voice. He spent immeasurable time with the absolute ANGELS he had for nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and the rest of his medical team smiling, snuggling, chatting and making everyone who met him fall absolutely in love with him!

We continued to work on weaning Grady’s oxygen support and attempted feeds by mouth before ultimately getting Grady’s G-Tube button so we could finally take him home where we could work on feeding by mouth. Now that Grady is home, I am currently not working but I worked the whole time while Grady was in the NICU and during my entire pregnancy. My baby was always at the front of my mind and the only thing that kept me going throughout that crazy ride! I knew every day I would get to go see him and in those moments in that little room with him nothing else mattered to me.

Room 2 in the NICU took so much from me and saw every raw emotion no matter how hard I tried to hide them. But Room 2 in the NICU gave me so much more than it took. It gave me strength and grit I never knew I had. It gave my baby that same strength and grit. Room 2 gave me a voice that would NEVER stop advocating for my baby and NEVER give up on him. It also gave my baby the opportunity time and time again to prove science and the doctors wrong! It gave me the honor of witnessing my baby continue to grow on the outside (even when he was supposed to still be in my belly for 13 more weeks). Room 2 gave me friendships and a village of Grady’s girlfriends and besties I will forever cherish! But most importantly the four walls of NICU Room 2 gave me the title of MOM. That room and the people working in that room with us gave me my baby to take home and love on for the rest of my life!

It will never be lost on me what a privilege that is and one that some NICU moms don’t get to experience! Sometimes God’s reasoning isn’t for us to know but trusting that he had a plan for us the entire time got us through the good, the bad and everything in between!

We were finally discharged home on May 13th! Shortly after we had a few hiccups and 3 hospital re-admits for a virus and pneumonia that turned into pulmonary edema but, just like everything else thrown his way, Grady overcame it!

Now that Grady is home for good he is continuing to make progress weaning down on his oxygen, working on his feeding skills and working with PT and OT and all of his other specialists. In this moment I am unsure what going back to work looks like quite yet, how that’s going to happen and when but the one thing I am sure of is that we are so in love with this absolute TANK of a baby and I can’t wait to see what the rest of our crazy beautiful life has in store.