Support the Sheppard Family's NICU Journey

UPDATE 9/24:

Colton had been doing better recently, he has tolerated increasing his feeds and has been able to manage with slightly less respiratory support to help decrease the amount of air in his belly. He has been gaining weight and as of today weighs 4 pounds 6 ounces.

However, this morning when his labs got drawn his hematocrit was too low and he needed his third blood transfusion today.

Please continue to pray for our little guy!

UPDATE 9/15:

Colton has been in the NICU for 4 weeks and 2 days now. He has had two blood transfusions so far, 7-10 X-rays of his belly/abdomen, two echos of his heart, and 1 cranial ultrasound.

Colton has struggled with gas stuck in his belly, intestines, and bowels. He has had his feedings stopped twice now for 48 hours each time.

Colton was restarted on feeds today at 4ml every 3 hours and will be reassessed tomorrow morning.

Please continue to pray for our little man! Any donations are greatly appreciated!

UPDATE:

Colton is stable in the NICU. He has been extubated and is now on a CPAP. He has a PICC line in his foot. Colton is still on phototherapy but his billy is coming down. We are still working with the NICU social worker to figure out lodging/housing for us to be closer to the hospital. It is very challenging being 2 hours away from our little boy. Colton has gained weight and is now 2 pounds 10 ounces. Thank you all for your support on our journey. We know we have a long way to go to get our boy home.

Hello All,

We are the Sheppard family. My husband, myself (Janette), and our two beautiful daughters. We were expecting to have our third child, a son, in early November.

On 8/16/24, however, I started bleeding and experiencing uterine pain at work. So, I went to the hospital with my husband. At that time, I was 27 weeks and 6 days pregnant, and it turned out I was 5 cm dilated with placenta previa that was pushing out of the cervix. Our son was born via emergency c-section within an hour and a half of being checked in. It was a very hard c-section, both our baby boy and I are very bruised. Our baby boy was not breathing or crying when he came out. The doctors had to intubate him and do chest compressions. He was also given a medication to increase his heart rate. Our baby boy was transferred to a Level 4 NICU via air transport once he was stabilized. He is so small and has so many tubes and lines he is hooked up to. My husband is at the NICU now with our baby boy while I recover from the surgery at the local community hospital. We both have a long healing journey ahead of us medically and our family has a long journey ahead of us to get our baby boy home.

Our oldest daughter was also born premature due to a placental abruption. She was born at 29 weeks and 5 days. The NICU life is hard, scary, and a parent's worst nightmare.

I am making this GoFundMe to spread awareness of premature birth, ask for prayers for our family, and if anyone would like to donate that would be greatly appreciated. Gas cards and meals/food gift cards were the most helpful things we received from the experience with our oldest daughter.

We are grateful for all donations and can accept them on here, Amazon gift cards, Venmo, or Zelle.

Thank you all for reading and sharing our story!