For most parents, pictures of newborns, posted to Facebook, are now the norm.
But for the parents of Reggie Hansom, these photos were especially heart wrenching.
Danielle Stoakes and Matt Hansom took a picture of their newborn every day for 150 days after their son Reggie was born.
Every day feels like a miracle to the parents, because Reggie was born at just 23 weeks old.
He weighed only 2 pounds, 7 ounces when he was born, and was given only a 20 percent chance of survival by doctors.
But now, he’s finally home. It’s been a struggle every step of the way.
His parents stayed in the hospital, which is 120 miles from their home, for his entire hospital stay.
“We were miles from home but there was no way we were leaving Reggie. All we could do was stay by his side and hope that he would get better.”
Danielle started keeping the photo diary to document Reggie’s jouney to get stronger, as well as to document the difficulties parents of preemies face.
There’s a picture of him in an incubator, and of the first time he opened his eyes.
He was so fragile when he was born that he had to be cradled in their T-shirts for warmth when they held him.
“My photos are not the type of baby pictures people normally post online, and some people may find them shocking. But the reality is not every baby is born healthy,” says Danielle.
“If Reggie’s journey gives hope to one family who’s going through what Matt and I went through then I’ll be happy,” she says.
Now, at four months old and 9 pounds, he’s home.
“His journey hasn’t stopped because he’s come home—he still has a long way to go to be fully healthy. But we were so happy—we couldn’t be the hands-on parents we wanted to be for the first months of our son’s life, but now we feel like a real family.”
