Hazel Rose's Journey

11/12/2025

𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐥!

We’re so excited to share that Hazel has been 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐨𝐱𝐲𝐠𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡.
At her appointment today, 𝐰𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭.

For anyone wondering, Hazel still has her trach (the small breathing tube in her neck), but she’s always needed the ventilator to help her breathe. Now that her lungs are getting stronger, she’ll start spending short stretches, just an hour at first, breathing completely on her own at night while we keep a close eye on her.

Back in the spring, she started daytime vent trials and 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕. Now she only uses the vent at night.
And what makes this milestone even more special is that it’s happening during 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡. Hazel isn’t just a preemie, she’s an 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞, which makes every single step forward that much more 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄
This is such a 𝑯𝑼𝑮𝑬 𝑴𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑵𝑬 and we are so 𝑫𝑨𝑴𝑵 𝑷𝑹𝑶𝑼𝑫 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑯𝑨𝒁𝑬𝑳𝑵𝑼𝑻

#𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐇𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐥𝐧𝐮𝐭 #𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 #𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 #𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐌𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐥𝐞 #𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐌𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 #𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

06/14/2025

So many special moments have taken place over this last month. Two we haven't shared yet were finally being able to go visit some of her NICU team from Stormont Vail, and my OBGYN Dr.Blake and her nurse Hailee with UKHS, St. Francis Campus.

I knew it was going to be very emotional for me to see all these people, because they are the reason Haze is here today. Each of them played a very important and special role in why we were able to successfully transfer Hazel to CMH on day 37. We will always be so grateful for each of them.l

06/13/2025

We are so proud of you, Hazel! 🫶🫶

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CZVdbwxY4/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Two years after weighting just 13 ounces at birth and one year after coming home, Hazel Rose not only is surviving - she’s thriving.

04/20/2025

Hazel's first Easter home and we are so thankful!

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

11/01/2024

Great news! No seizers detected for Hazel and we no longer need to be seen by the specialist, just by our general neurologist. 🫶

10/29/2024

We are underway with our 24hr EEG. Fingers crossed they don't find any seizure activity going on.

I might be a tad biased but I think Hazel makes the cutest patient even with 26 stickers on her head.

She's been in a great mood today. I contribute that to being seeing all of her old
NICU Nurses, RT's, and Child life staff that means so much to us.

Prayer's everything comes back normal 🫶

10/20/2024

Hazel update:

We are really starting to move. I think we are going to be crawling anytime now. She goes for her EEG next week, as long as insurance gets on board.

We had to fire one of our night nurses last week. We are asking everyone who is around Hazel to wear masks to help protect her from getting sick this winter. She has severe lung disease and a tracheostomy making it very scary if she were to catch anything. It would more than likely put us right back in the hospital. We know this time of year is going to be rough and we will do anything we can to help keep Hazel home with us.

I'm not sure why this nurse even picked Hazel up knowing her medical needs, or why she is in home health or healthcare in general. This is a very common practice and should never be made into a political issue. Anyone who comes to see Hazel is masked besides Cory and I. We are very aware this will not be a guarantee to keep her from getting sick but it's an extra barrier between someone else breathing directly on her.

We also wear masks when out and about. We've limited ourselves to even doing things with large gatherings and will be sacrificing being with extended family yet again this holiday season. So for someone else to make suc a big deal about wearing a mask on her one shift a week with Hazel is shocking to me. The silly thing is we even said just to have it on while in with her. She sleeps through the whole night and only gets meds in the morning. She is assessed at the start of the shift, maybe one -two diaper changes and to start and stop her feed. The rest of the night no mask needed. I was stunned to hear she actually went to the nursing company to complain. Obviously the company agreed with us, especially since this is our home and our child. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤷‍♀️

The good news is we have a new nurse starting this Monday and we are so excited to have her. I made sure she was okay with the masking and she literally chuckled that I even had to ask her that.

❤️