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| Getting stabilized |
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| He has red hair! That's a first for a Sloan/Zielke! |
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| Daddy says he looks like Emily, cuddling her body pillow! |
I began calling him Rocky early in his mother's pregnancy. "Rocky" was an underdog who became a world champion boxer in a movie by that name. The character was a tremendous fighter who kept persevering even though no one thought he could do it. This is how our little "Rocky" came to be. He beat all the odds. He wasn't supposed to exist. His mother, Emily, had been given no better than a 2% chance to conceive on her own. Each of Rocky's siblings came to the family through fertility specialists, but Rocky? He came on his own.
Emily's pregnancy wasn't an easy one and it seemed that her body wanted to miscarry. She was assigned to strict bed rest at times and Rocky held on. If he could just hold on for six months, he'd have a "fighting" chance! And fight he did! Until the night of Dec. 6, 2019. The family was at their ward Christmas party and Emily began to have pains. Barton took her home, got the family settled and began watching a movie. For two hours, Emily suffered through contractions that were three minutes apart. When she began to bleed, they knew they had to head for the hospital! A neighbor came to sit with Abigail and Millie until Emily's parents could get there and around 12:19, Bart & Emily left for the hospital in Riverton, UT. Amid a great deal of screaming, commotion and urgency, Emily's water broke, she was finally given permission to push and little Rocky was born "around' 12:41!!! Unable to breathe on his own, they rushed him away and called to have him life flighted to a hospital better equipped to handle his needs. All day, fog had prevented the life flight helicopter from going out, but the fog cleared in time for them to fly to Riverton from Salt Lake to help Rocky. As soon as they landed, the fog rolled back in. Our Heavenly Father had cleared the fog long enough to enable these specialized nurses to get there in time to get Rocky ready to transport. As the fog had come back in, and Rocky was doing better, they opted to take him to Intermountain Health Center NICU by ambulance. Daddy Barton followed in his car and took a short video of the trip there. Bart was told he'd be in the NICU for two months; around the time of his due date, Feb 10. It is less than 16 hours later that I'm writing this memory and at this time, Barton has told us that he's almost breathing on his own, he's eaten and all his "numbers" look good! With God's blessing, maybe his stay in the hospital will be much shorter than two months! Barton and Emily haven't given Rocky his official name yet; there's a slight battle. Emily likes the name Jack. Barton likes Hinckley after the LDS prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. To this very proud, happy and humbled Grandma though, he'll always be Rocky.
