Mrs Morgan, 28, said the baby was due in December, but contractions began on August 31 during a seven-day cruise around the eastern Caribbean that her doctor approved to celebrate her daughter’s third birthday.
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On the second night of the cruise, she began having contractions and gave birth to Haiden, a baby boy weighing just 1 pound, 8 ounces.
Soon after, however, Morgan said she and husband Chase were forced to call medical staff when they saw blood.
Prior to the delivery, a doctor aboard the ship told her she couldn’t give birth because they were still 14 hours from the nearest port and her baby would not survive; but Emily knew there was nothing she could do to delay labor. But holding back wasn’t an option, Morgan said.
Morgan was told to rest as doctors whisked the premature baby away. About 45 minutes later, medical staff said the baby had survived but wasn’t expected to live long.
“She wrapped him up in some towels and she found a sanitation napkin and we put it over his head to keep heat in and then we found some saline pouches we put them in the microwave and I put them under his body. I know!” she said. A tiny oxygen mask was used to help him breathe.
“He was crying, like a little feeble cry”, Morgan said. Along with his healthy pink coloring, it was a positive sign that his lungs were relatively strong. Luckily, with the help of medical staff on board, a makeshift incubator was made for the 1 1/2-pounds baby boy that managed to keep him alive until the ship reached port. The ship’s captain heard he was still alive the next morning and told Emily they were going as fast as they could so they would port in San Juan two hours early. Black spots were appearing on his fingers, per the AP, indicating he was losing circulation. The family is now in Miami after spending three days in Puerto Rico. “He’s extremely small but he’s in a very good place right now”, Chase said at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Friday. But because he has this issue they have to be careful that he doesn’t get to much fluid in his lungs, so he gets about 2 Tbsp. of milk every 3 hours over a 90 min period. The family hopes Haiden will be strong enough to be transported to a Utah hospital at the end of October, where the plan is for him to be hospitalized until his December 19 due date. That’s what doctors wrote on the birth certificate of little Haiden Morgan.
Initially, medical staff believed the baby was born dead.
Thirty minutes after her conversation with the doctor, Emily gave birth.
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According to Dr. Bradley Yoder, medical director of the newborn intensive care unit at the University of Utah, babies like Haiden who are born so early and so far a hospital have a less-than-10 percent chance of survival. A precious baby boy was born four months premature on a Royal Caribbean cruise 100 miles from land.
