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| Login Mershon will celebrate his first birthday on Tuesday. Born last year on Easter Sunday, he is currently in therapy to help with his speech and motor skill development. JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter |
Mershon family faces challenges a year after risky birth
By JOHNNA PINHOLSTER
jpinholster@lakecityreporter.com
Login Mershon will celebrate his first birth Tuesday, a milestone he almost missed.
The blond-headed, blue-eyed baby was born at 25 weeks on Easter Sunday in 2007. His mother, Heather Mershon, deemed the birth miraculous, an Easter gift. The tiny infant had to be resuscitated after his birth.
Mershon’s water broke two weeks prior to Login’s birth, and while confined to the hospital and bed ridden, doctors gave her steroids to speed up the development of Login’s lungs.
But before the fight for Login’s life began, doctors at Shands at the University of Florida asked Mershon to take into consideration the fact that the baby might not be born alive and could cost Mershon her life.
Mershon said she was warned there was less than a 10 percent chance Login would be born alive.
“I was asked several times during those two weeks if I wanted to get an abortion,” Mershon said.
She refused to deny her child life.
Now Mershon is teaming up with the Pregnancy Crisis Center to get the word out about saying no to abortions.
She said she has been going to the Pregnancy Crisis Center since she was pregnant with her second son, Walker.
The not-for-profit, Christian-based organization helps expecting parents and mothers during pregnancy and afterwards.
Mershon said she plans to not only tell Login’s story to women that come to the Pregnancy Crisis Center but let them interact with him as well and see a true miracle of life.
In the five and half months following Login’s birth, he had two surgeries, five blood transfusions and had to be resuscitated several times. All this happened in Gainesville as Mershon and her husband, Robbie, juggled two other kids, a household, work and the commute back and forth from Lake City.
Login spent the first three months of his life in an incubator, with Mershon and her husband only being allowed to touch him periodically. Mershon could not hold Login but just touch him with a finger, and only on certain spots of his body that weren’t covered with tubes keeping him alive.
Though it saddened Mershon to see Login in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, she said the care given to him and other babies in the ward was wonderful. The facility also made sure that the health of the babies comes before everything, she said.
“The first thing you do when you go in is wash your hands,” Mershon said. “You can’t go nowhere near your kid without being clean.”
The stress of giving birth, especially for first time mothers can be overwhelming, sending some into post-partum depression.
Mershon said dealing with the stress of a premature birth can be even worse.
“I didn’t hear his first cry until he was three months old,” Mershon said. “It is hard to see them in the NICU, usually they hand them to you 30 minutes after the birth.”
The months spent in the hospital also slowed down and altered Login’s development; only within the last month has he begun to eat food other than formula. The tube that helped him learn to breathe also left a hole in the roof of his mouth, something that could alter his speech patterns once he begins to talk.
Login remains tiny and just a couple days shy of turning 1 year old, and weighs 11 pounds, six pounds under the average weight for a child that age.
“I’m still buying him the smallest pair of shoes you can buy for a baby,” Mershon said.
Login came as a surprise for Mershon and her husband, she said. A housewife, Mershon said her eldest child, Darion, was five when they decided to have another. A little more than a year after her second son was born, Mershon found out she was pregnant for the third time.
“I found out I was pregnant with him just when I was completely convinced that I didn’t want more kids,” Mershon said. “But when they mentioned abortion, I just couldn’t deal with that.”
Even though each day is another triumph for Login, there are minor setbacks, and when he falls ill Mershon has to load him up and take him to Gainesville. Login is seen by a local pediatrician, Mershon said, but neither of the hospitals in Lake City has the facilities to care for a premature infant.
Babies born prematurely are given an adjusted age to help determine their rate of development. Login’s adjusted age is considered to be 8 months old.
Login attends therapy every day at a Prescribed Pediatric Extended Care (PPEC) facility to help develop his motor and vocal skills. PPEC facilities allow Medicaid eligible children from birth to 20 years old with medical conditions to receive continual medical care outside their homes.
PPEC in Gainesville is a nurse-staffed facility, which Mershon said resembles a daycare in the sense that Login interacts with other children. There the similarities end. PPEC helps kids that need some extra help in development. From speech to physical therapy, the facility is helping Login catch up to his peers.
Though not yet walking, therapy has helped Login to begin scooting around, and Mershon hopes he will soon begin to sit up on his on. “Da-da” is for now the only word he says with any regularity, but even that is a blessing for Mershon.
“The other two scream for Mom all the time, it’s nice to have one call for Daddy,” Mershon said.
They also monitor Login’s health and give him his breathing treatments. Each morning a Medi-Van, staffed with a nurse, drives into Columbia County to pick up Login and two other children to go to the center, Mershon said.
To attend the facility, children have to have a referral from a doctor, Mershon said.
Login attends PPEC five days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mershon said the first three years of life for a baby born premature are the hardest and the time when he needs the most attention to stimulate development. Which can be difficult, Mershon said, when a 2-year-old is demanding attention and a 7-year-old is asking for help on homework.
Through the stress of having Login to the everyday trials and tribulations of raising three boys, the look of adoration of Mershon’s face when she talks about her kids and plays with Login is pure. She knows in her heart she made the right choice.
For others facing the challenge of raising a child that is premature or has a disability, the best advice Mershon can give is simple.
“Ask for help,” Mershon said. “The stress gets so bad, you can’t do it by yourself, unless you have no job, no other kids and don’t have to worry about money.”
Login’s eldest brother, Darion, currently attends Summers Elementary, a school Login might attend sooner than he knows. The school offers a speech therapy program for children as young as three, and Mershon said she plans to enroll Login to help him get even more help with his speech development.
“They drive me crazy but you can’t help but love them,” Mershon said. “There are ups and downs, but the ups help you get over the downs, you think it wasn’t that bad when you get all their kisses.”
The blond-headed, blue-eyed baby was born at 25 weeks on Easter Sunday in 2007. His mother, Heather Mershon, deemed the birth miraculous, an Easter gift. The tiny infant had to be resuscitated after his birth.
Mershon’s water broke two weeks prior to Login’s birth, and while confined to the hospital and bed ridden, doctors gave her steroids to speed up the development of Login’s lungs.
But before the fight for Login’s life began, doctors at Shands at the University of Florida asked Mershon to take into consideration the fact that the baby might not be born alive and could cost Mershon her life.
Mershon said she was warned there was less than a 10 percent chance Login would be born alive.
“I was asked several times during those two weeks if I wanted to get an abortion,” Mershon said.
She refused to deny her child life.
Now Mershon is teaming up with the Pregnancy Crisis Center to get the word out about saying no to abortions.
She said she has been going to the Pregnancy Crisis Center since she was pregnant with her second son, Walker.
The not-for-profit, Christian-based organization helps expecting parents and mothers during pregnancy and afterwards.
Mershon said she plans to not only tell Login’s story to women that come to the Pregnancy Crisis Center but let them interact with him as well and see a true miracle of life.
In the five and half months following Login’s birth, he had two surgeries, five blood transfusions and had to be resuscitated several times. All this happened in Gainesville as Mershon and her husband, Robbie, juggled two other kids, a household, work and the commute back and forth from Lake City.
Login spent the first three months of his life in an incubator, with Mershon and her husband only being allowed to touch him periodically. Mershon could not hold Login but just touch him with a finger, and only on certain spots of his body that weren’t covered with tubes keeping him alive.
Though it saddened Mershon to see Login in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, she said the care given to him and other babies in the ward was wonderful. The facility also made sure that the health of the babies comes before everything, she said.
“The first thing you do when you go in is wash your hands,” Mershon said. “You can’t go nowhere near your kid without being clean.”
The stress of giving birth, especially for first time mothers can be overwhelming, sending some into post-partum depression.
Mershon said dealing with the stress of a premature birth can be even worse.
“I didn’t hear his first cry until he was three months old,” Mershon said. “It is hard to see them in the NICU, usually they hand them to you 30 minutes after the birth.”
The months spent in the hospital also slowed down and altered Login’s development; only within the last month has he begun to eat food other than formula. The tube that helped him learn to breathe also left a hole in the roof of his mouth, something that could alter his speech patterns once he begins to talk.
Login remains tiny and just a couple days shy of turning 1 year old, and weighs 11 pounds, six pounds under the average weight for a child that age.
“I’m still buying him the smallest pair of shoes you can buy for a baby,” Mershon said.
Login came as a surprise for Mershon and her husband, she said. A housewife, Mershon said her eldest child, Darion, was five when they decided to have another. A little more than a year after her second son was born, Mershon found out she was pregnant for the third time.
“I found out I was pregnant with him just when I was completely convinced that I didn’t want more kids,” Mershon said. “But when they mentioned abortion, I just couldn’t deal with that.”
Even though each day is another triumph for Login, there are minor setbacks, and when he falls ill Mershon has to load him up and take him to Gainesville. Login is seen by a local pediatrician, Mershon said, but neither of the hospitals in Lake City has the facilities to care for a premature infant.
Babies born prematurely are given an adjusted age to help determine their rate of development. Login’s adjusted age is considered to be 8 months old.
Login attends therapy every day at a Prescribed Pediatric Extended Care (PPEC) facility to help develop his motor and vocal skills. PPEC facilities allow Medicaid eligible children from birth to 20 years old with medical conditions to receive continual medical care outside their homes.
PPEC in Gainesville is a nurse-staffed facility, which Mershon said resembles a daycare in the sense that Login interacts with other children. There the similarities end. PPEC helps kids that need some extra help in development. From speech to physical therapy, the facility is helping Login catch up to his peers.
Though not yet walking, therapy has helped Login to begin scooting around, and Mershon hopes he will soon begin to sit up on his on. “Da-da” is for now the only word he says with any regularity, but even that is a blessing for Mershon.
“The other two scream for Mom all the time, it’s nice to have one call for Daddy,” Mershon said.
They also monitor Login’s health and give him his breathing treatments. Each morning a Medi-Van, staffed with a nurse, drives into Columbia County to pick up Login and two other children to go to the center, Mershon said.
To attend the facility, children have to have a referral from a doctor, Mershon said.
Login attends PPEC five days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mershon said the first three years of life for a baby born premature are the hardest and the time when he needs the most attention to stimulate development. Which can be difficult, Mershon said, when a 2-year-old is demanding attention and a 7-year-old is asking for help on homework.
Through the stress of having Login to the everyday trials and tribulations of raising three boys, the look of adoration of Mershon’s face when she talks about her kids and plays with Login is pure. She knows in her heart she made the right choice.
For others facing the challenge of raising a child that is premature or has a disability, the best advice Mershon can give is simple.
“Ask for help,” Mershon said. “The stress gets so bad, you can’t do it by yourself, unless you have no job, no other kids and don’t have to worry about money.”
Login’s eldest brother, Darion, currently attends Summers Elementary, a school Login might attend sooner than he knows. The school offers a speech therapy program for children as young as three, and Mershon said she plans to enroll Login to help him get even more help with his speech development.
“They drive me crazy but you can’t help but love them,” Mershon said. “There are ups and downs, but the ups help you get over the downs, you think it wasn’t that bad when you get all their kisses.”
