Coastal Point | Labor of love

Labor of love

By Kerin Magill
Special to the Coastal Point



	Coastal Point • SUBMITTED Heidi Rayner keeps tabs on Alyssa — born 15 weeks early, and only 1 pound, 10 ounces.

When Alyssa Grace Rayner entered the world 15 weeks early, her parents didn’t know what to think about her chances of survival. She was impossibly tiny — 1 pound, 10 ounces — and first-time parents Jim and Heidi Rayner of Georgetown could only hope and pray she’d have the strength to make it.

Just an hour after Alyssa’s March 30 birth at Kent General Hospital, Dover, a neonatology team from Christiana Hospital in Stanton arrived to transport her to the upstate facility. Heidi Rayner, an emergency-room nurse at Kent General, had to stay in Dover two more days, recovering from the emergency Caesarian section she had undergone after her placenta had ruptured, setting in motion Alyssa’s birth at 25 weeks of gestation.

In those first days, the Rayners learned that Alyssa’s chances were actually better than they expected — babies born at 25 weeks now generally have a 65 percent survival rate, according to Jim Rayner. If she had been born just a week earlier, her chances would only have been 30 percent.

They also found out that if Alyssa hadn’t been born when she was, both she and Heidi might have died, due to a blood clot in the placenta.

Within two weeks after her birth, Alyssa was transferred to Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, where she underwent emergency surgery for a perforated bowel — terrifying for parents of any infant, much less one whose arm was tiny enough for her dad’s wedding ring to fit on it.

Alyssa, who came through that surgery and another one for a prolapsed bowel, is known as “feisty,” in A.I. duPont’s neonatal unit, according to Heidi. Even at birth, Heidi said, Alyssa was “very alert.”

The past two and a half months have been a “rollercoaster ride,” that no amount of medical experience can prepare you for as a parent, Heidi Rayner said. “Sometimes I think ignorance would be bliss,” she said. Although the hospital staff does its best to prepare parents for the ups and downs of life in a neonatal unit, “you hit those dips ... and nothing prepares you for that. Every time, it’s still a shock,” Heidi said.

Friends and family attribute much of Alyssa’s progress to the fact that her parents have been with her daily since her birth. The Rayners’ days have revolved around the three-hour blocks of “care time,” during which they are able to hold Alyssa and help the hospital staff care for her everyday needs.

The days are long, beginning around 8 a.m. and ending when the Rayners finally head back to their temporary home at the Ronald McDonald House around 10 p.m. But the rewards are great. “She’s doing the things that babies do — looking at you, responding to voices, bringing her hands to her mouth,” Heidi said.

And with her parents by her side, baby Alyssa is growing bigger and stronger by the day. Now, at 4 pounds, 8 ounces, “she is huge to us,” Jim Rayner said. And she may be able to come home within a week or two — “if all goes according to plan and there’s no surprises,” meaning Alyssa continues to be able to maintain a constant body temperature and tolerate her feedings well, Heidi said.

While the Rayners are anxious to come home after more than two months living at the hospital’s Ronald McDonald House, they are also nervous.

“We’ve gotten comfortable here,” she said. “We can go home (to the Ronald McDonald House) knowing there’s somebody watching our baby.” Even with her nursing background, Heidi admitted the prospect of caring for Alyssa at home is “a little scary.”

While the Rayners have been at the hospital with Alyssa, friends at home have helped to deal with the mundane issues like basic upkeep of their property and mail pickup. And while Alyssa’s medical expenses are covered by insurance, the Rayners still face continuing expenses — like their mortgage and car payment — while neither of them is earning a paycheck. Jim Rayner was laid off in October from his job as a youth minister, and Heidi has used up her maternity leave.

To help the Rayners with these expenses, a group of friends has stepped in with a fundraising effort.

Family friend Laura Hufford has spearheaded the effort, which is centered around sales of candy bars for $1 each in a number of local businesses, including the Coastal Point office in Ocean View, the Frogg House Restaurant in Bethany Beach, Sandcastle Realty in South Bethany and Al Casapulla’s Restaurant and Deli in Millville.

Hufford said she feels privileged to be able to help the Rayners. “When you watch something like this,” she said, “you know miracles are there.”

Hufford welcomes participation in the Rayner family fundraiser by any individuals or businesses who would like to help. For more information, call Laura Hufford at 236-6889.