courtesy photo: Today TaeLynn has grown to nearly five pounds, is able to feed on her own and may be able to return home in the coming weeks.

by Theodore Wiesehan

    Gavin Hobson, 8, has never met his baby sister, TaeLynn.
     Because of the risk of respiratory virus, St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center, Lincoln, does not allow children under 14 into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) - not even if they're family.
     "That was difficult for him to understand," their mother, Teri Hobson, said. "When she comes home he is the first one that gets to hold her. So he's really excited about her coming home."
     Gavin's brother, Treyton (18 months) is waiting to meet his sister, too.
     "I don't think (Treyton) necessarily knows what's going on. We can show him pictures of TaeLynn and he will say, 'Sissy.' And you ask, 'Where is Sissy?' and he'll say, 'Doctor.'"
     Arriving via emergency Cesarean section Nov. 17, 2006, (more than three months prematurely), TaeLynn weighed just one pound, 12.8 ounces at birth.
     "It was a touch-and-go situation," Teri said. "When I first went into the hospital we were told that we probably were not going to go home with her. They had to resuscitate her, and she was a little hard to get going."
     At 24 weeks into Teri's pregnancy, her placenta erupted. TaeLynn's heart rate dropped and she began swallowing blood.
     "She could have drowned in the blood," Teri said. "My blood pressure was dropping, too. It's...truly a miracle that we are both here today."
     While Teri soon recovered, TaeLynn's struggles were just beginning.
     She received lung damage from blood swallowed in the womb and had to be placed on a respirator until Christmas.
     Blood pooled in her brain as the result of a hemorrhage.
     She had to be fed via a tube inserted through her nose.
     Surgeons had to repair a valve on her tiny heart.
     No one knew how far TaeLynn would come and what the long-term effects of her premature birth would be.
     "The doctors were very blunt and they let you know what the situations are," Teri said. "They don't tell you what you want to hear."
     As TaeLynn continues to grow, however, the Hobsons have been hearing more and more of what they wanted to hear.
     "The story today we get with her head ultrasound is awesome news," she said. "The blood that was sitting there is almost gone - it's dissolving."
     Though she is still considered to have chronic lung disease, her lungs continue to improve. She is able to nurse from a bottle (though she is still tube-fed twice daily) and has grown to four pounds, 12 ounces.
     Teri has been at her side every step of the way. While Gavin attends second grade at Centennial School, a family friend watches Treyton so Teri can make her daily trip to Lincoln to be with TaeLynn.
     "Our love for her helps her grow. We always said that," Teri said. "So it was important for me to be with her, but I have two other kids I need to be here for, too. That was very tough for me at first."
     Her husband, Tim, can't see his daughter as often, as he runs Hobson's Automotive and Tire in Seward.
     "He only gets to see TaeLynn on the weekends," Teri said. "He was sick a couple weeks ago and that was really tough on him, because he couldn't go down there. So he was really excited to see her last weekend."
     Best of all, after spending the first three months of her life in NICU, TaeLynn may finally get to come home to her family within the coming weeks.
     This week, Utica will welcome TaeLynn with a Friday, Feb. 9, benefit dinner for the Hobsons.
     "We've watched Teri grow up," Christie Tomes said. "We're just one big family here and we wanted to throw a shower for Tim and Teri."
     Tomes and the Utica Women's Community Club organized the dinner and lined up volunteers to serve.
     The event will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the Centennial High School cafeteria and coincides with the CHS girls' and boys' basketball games against Aquinas, at 6:15 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively. The 1957 Class D Champion Utica basketball team will be honored between the games, as well.
     "We're hoping we can get a variety of crowd of all kinds," Tomes said, "and they'll just have a fun night."
     While Teri was surprised about the benefit, she said it's typical of the support the community has shown her family.
     "We thank God for our small town community, because we have had a lot of support."
     TaeLynn's release from the hospital will not mark the end of the family's struggle. She will come home with monitors and will still need supplementary oxygen.
     Doctors are unable to know if her ordeal will carry any long-term effects or developmental difficulties. For Teri, however, TaeLynn coming home will be enough for now.
     "That's just something we have to prepare for the future," she said. "We don't really care what comes next - we're just glad that she's here. What God gives us we will take.
     "It's tough on a family when you think everything's going to go the way it should and then everything's here and it's just...wow. We just thank God above and he truly answered our questions and answered our prayers. He was there with us the whole time. He knew it was not my time and he knew it was not TaeLynn's time."