A mum saved her unborn baby after not feeling him move for two days before making an 'agonising' choice to give birth three months prematurely. Jordyn Smith, 30, couldn't feel her unborn baby Jay move inside her over a weekend, so rushed to hospital to get checked out.
Doctors discovered he was in distress because his heartbeat was faint, and asked Jordyn and husband Eric, 32, to make a decision about his future. They said they could perform and emergency c-section - but at 26 weeks he was so small he'd only have an eight per cent chance of survival.
Or they could leave him inside to grow bigger - but his chances of survival were even smaller. The couple opted to give birth immediately - and Jay, now 13 months, was born less than 24 hours later, weighing just 14.8 ounces - less than 1lb.
He defied the odds and spent 173 days in hospital before going home. But after just six days at home, Jay stopped breathing and was blue-lighted to hospital where the doctors discovered he had liver cancer.
He spent a further three weeks in hospital and endured chemotherapy and an operation. He's now finally cancer-free and home for good. Jordyn, a communications marketing specialist, said: "We were given an impossible decision. We were told that if we left him in he would be stillborn but got told if we take him out he might not make it.
"I was in survival mode, I didn't know babies that old could survive. I didn't know how dire the situation was until later on when he was given a eight per cent chance.
"Bringing him home was magical, all I ever wanted was to have my kids together and healthy. For him to be released on such a magical day, Christmas Eve, it was a huge blessing."
Jordyn fell pregnant with Jay in November 2021, just one month after she married Eric, a mechanic. At the 20-week scan, Jay was measuring small but was told it wasn't anything to worry about because her daughter Tessa, now three, was also small as a baby.
One weekend at 26 weeks pregnant, Jordyn couldn't feel Jay moving and went to the hospital where doctors found a very faint heartbeat. Jordyn said: "It was over a weekend, I didn't feel him move very much - he just wasn't moving.
"I took him to hospital and was told that if we didn't take him out he would be stillborn but if we did take him out he might not make it."
Jay was born on March 29, 2022, at 4am. He was born not breathing and was revived and put on an incubator. "It was a wait-and-see moment to see if he would live or not," she said.
Jay was on a ventilator for 28 days, during which he had a bleed on the brain and couldn't be held. After 173 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) Jordyn was able to take Jay home to the family.
After being at home for six days, Jay stopped breathing and was blue-lighted to hospital. Jordyn said: "He was in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for three weeks.
"He was being monitored by doctors when they found a mass in his liver. I was thinking 'why him' - he had been through so much already and he has had to fight so many battles his entire life.
"He has just got out of the hospital and is now fighting another battle - it doesn't seem fair." Jay had four rounds of chemotherapy starting in October 2022 to shrink the liver tumour before surgery in December 2022.
Doctors removed 50% of his liver, his gall bladder and were able to remove the tumour during a four-hour operation. Jay was in recovery for four days and discharged on Christmas Eve. Jordyn said: "It was a magical day. All I ever wanted was to have my kids together.
"So much has happened it was a huge blessing for us. He had one final round of chemotherapy in January 2023 and now he is recovering.
"Unfortunately because of the chemo he now has permanent hearing damage. He is monitored very closely, we are praying that a relapse doesn't happen."
Jordyn described Jay as a "social butterfly" who is "curious about everything". She said: "He is the happiest silliest baby, it is amazing after everything he has been through.
"He is happy and giggles, a social butterfly and is very curious and alert about things. We had a superhero birthday theme for his first birthday, it was so blissful to celebrate that day when we didn't know we would get it.
"His nurse team was there to celebrate it was a very emotional day."
