Silver Cross NICU baby finally home for the holidays

No Christmas gift is sweeter for a Coal City family than baby Waylon Cash Acred, named for his father’s two favorite country singers: Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.

Waylon was born shortly before Memorial Day at 25 weeks gestation – 15 weeks ahead of his Aug. 30 due date – weighing 1 pound 12 ounces. He spent 186 days at Silver Cross Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit in New Lenox and is now doing really well.

“We got him right before Thanksgiving, so it was awesome to spend the holidays with him,” Waylon’s mother Krystal Acred, 27, said.

Dr. Brett Galley, Waylon’s neonatologist at Silver Cross, said severe lung disease, a complication of Waylon’s prematurity, was the main reason for Waylon’s extended stay.

“His progress was really remarkable,” Galley said. “We anticipated he’d be needing a lot more support right now and he really did just phenomenally well. We expect big things from him.”

As long as he’s provided with good nutrition, he should have a lot of healthy lung growth over a period of time.”

—  Dr. Brett Galley, Waylon Acred's neonatologist at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox

Krystal Acred said she and her husband Colin, 28, have three other children – Maverick, 6; Jaxson, 5; and Penelope, 2 – and those pregnancies were normal. Acred said all three babies were large – between 8.8 and 10 pounds – so the last two were delivered by C-section.

Acred expected all would go well with Waylon, too.

“We weren’t expecting anything abnormal,” Acred said. “All my other pregnancies were super normal – no issues, full-term.”

With Waylon, Acred started bleeding “fairly early on” in her pregnancy. The bleeding was light, intermittent and without amniotic fluid, she said. Because no cause was found and her pregnancy was progressing normally, “no one was super concerned,” Acred said.

But at 23 weeks, Acred began bleeding heavily and her water had broken. She was hospitalized at Silver Cross, where she received steroids and was treated for infection.

“Everyone was just waiting for me to go into labor at that point,” Acred said.

When Acred did, labor was fast and Waylon was born in just a few hours.

“He was just so small. I was in shock,” Acred. “For a person used to 10-pound babies, it was definitely a shock for me.”

Waylon had a “honeymoon phase” of two weeks, in which he did really well, Acred said.

“And then he got sick really, really fast,” Acred said.

Acred said Waylon developed a pneumatocele, an air pocket between Waylon’s lung and chest wall, which grew large enough to press against his esophagus and heart.

Waylon was transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and had a chest tube surgically inserted, she said. Waylon stayed at Lurie’s for three weeks and then returned to Silver Cross.

Galley said the drain remained in place for approximately two months. Because Waylon had bronchopulmonary dysplasia, which causes chronic, long-term breathing problems in preemies, he remained on the ventilator “for a prolonged period of time,” Galley said.

Waylon was gradually weaned to CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) and then to moderate amounts of oxygen, Galley said.

“He still breathes a little fast,” Galley said. “He still needs a small amount of oxygen. We anticipate that will get better. He may come off the oxygen in a couple of months to a year, depending on how things go.”

The good news is that children grow new lung tissue until they are “4 or 5 years old,” Galley said.

“As long as he’s provided with good nutrition, he should have a lot of healthy lung growth over a period of time,” Galley said. “He is at increased risk for viral infections that another baby would get over pretty easily. That puts Waylon at risk to potentially need to go back into the hospital.”

During his hospitalization, Waylon battled a staph infection and a urinary tract infection. Waylon also received eye exams every one to two weeks to check for retinal detachment. To underscore Waylon’s fighting spirit, Waylon’s parents dressed him as a boxer for Halloween.

“Through it all, he made it,” Krystal Acred said. “He looks really good; he’s almost 15 pounds.”

Acred said she spent part of every day at the NICU during Waylon’s months of hospitalization. When she couldn’t be there, the NICU team jumped in to help, said Peggy Farrell, the NICU’s director.

“The team took a total family approach to his care, which they do with the other babies as well, but she had to take care of the other kids who were little. It was really special,” Farrell said.

She said one staff member would rock Waylon after she clocked out at the end of her shift.

“He got playtime and interaction, which was important,” Farrell said.

Farrell said Waylon is meeting all his developmental milestones and recently saw him at an outpatient lab.

“I saw his mom and got to say, ‘Hi’ to him. He gave me a big smile when I saw him this week, which was really nice.”