Campaign Story

My name is Marissa and I am Caleb’s mommy. Our family story started in 2017 when I met my husband, Logan. We got married in 2019 and started for a family right away. We unfortunately were unable to conceive naturally, so in 2020 we met with fertility specialists. It was discovered that one of my fallopian tubes was blocked and it happened to be on the side with the ovary that consistently produced/dropped eggs. In early 2021 we started fertility treatment and got pregnant (yay!), but that unfortunately ended in a miscarriage. We then started the IVF process and in February of 2022 we implanted our first “embaby”. In early March we found out that the blastocyst implanted itself and we were pregnant! I was super nervous throughout the whole pregnancy, but everything looked great!
We started to share the news in the Spring with our close family and friends. On July 3rd, we found out that we were expecting a baby boy! We were so ecstatic! Then unfortunately, on July 15, 2022 I developed severe preeclampsia (high blood pressures) pretty much overnight. I was hospitalized that day and was told I would not leave until after the baby was born. I was 23 weeks pregnant at the time and was told 24 weeks was the “sweet spot” for the baby to have a fighting chance. It was all super scary but that is when the support system really started to form.
On July 23rd, around 10pm, my blood pressure was high for a long time and we could not get it down. Around midnight, it was decided that I needed to go for an emergency C-section. At 2:00 am on July 24, 2022, we welcomed our beautiful baby boy, Caleb, into the world. Logan got to meet him first as he was rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and I was brought to a room where I had to have some one-on-one nursing support. Once I finally came out of my anesthesia, all I kept asking was how the baby was. Logan and I were back and forth on a name, I wanted Caleb and he wanted Gavin. I had him go out to the waiting room where our immediate family was waiting and had him ask their opinion too. Everyone sided with me and that’s when our support group finally had its name, Caleb’s Crew.

It was a long almost 30 hours before I was able to see Caleb in person due to my health post-delivery. Fortunately, our hospital had something called “Angel Eye” and I was able to watch him on my phone with a camera set up above his incubator. I also sent Logan up a few times and had him FaceTime me so I could talk to Caleb. Thank goodness for technology!

I was discharged a week after delivery but still spent the majority of my day at the hospital. However, this time it was in the NICU at Caleb’s bedside instead of my own room. Caleb endured a lot during his stay in the NICU. He tried all but one ventilator the NICU had to offer and would have probably tried the last one if he was big enough for it. He had many chest x-rays and Echo’s, had his first surgery, and was baptized. Caleb was also enrolled in a study early on in his life to hopefully help the medical field find a way to better help future babies that have very sick lungs like he did. But most importantly, he had a lot of cuddles from mommy and daddy.

During his stay there, he developed what they call a “leak” on his ventilator. This made him sound like a little duck or bird squawking which landed him the nicknames “mighty duck” and “little ducky”. Caleb’s Crew now received its mascot.

On 8/23/22, Caleb started to become too tired to fight. His little body was only about 2 pounds and had endured so much already. On 8/24/22 at 10:00 am, Caleb took his last breaths is my arms with Logan wrapped around both of us. Our family was surrounded by so many people that loved him, which was mainly family but also included his nursing staff, doctors, and respiratory therapists.

The minutes, hours, days, weeks, months after were some of the hardest we ever experienced. We never imagined having to lay our little boy to rest, but we promised him that we would make sure we live our lives to the fullest for him as long as he promised to watch over us. And that is just what we did and are still doing.

In November of 2022, I met with my doctors who advised me to not to get pregnant again as it would raise a great risk to me and the baby of losing one or both of us. That news was so devastating as all Logan and I ever wanted was to be parents to a child on earth. After grieving that news, we focused on turning it into something else. We started talking about the 4 embryos we still have left and surrogacy. It has taken us some time to start the process and fundraising as we still grieve the loss of our beloved ducky. But we are finally ready to fundraise and bring home Caleb’s future brother or sister! And in the process of growing our family, we hope to also grow Caleb’s Crew!

The meaning behind the name Caleb is “faithful, whole-hearted, bold, brave” which all represent our little angel so well! Caleb was on this earth for 31 days 8 hours, which was entirely too short, but Caleb’s Crew will forever live on, making sure the Caleb lives on forever too!

Thank you for taking the time to read our story and we hope that if you ever hear a bird squawk or a duck quack, that you remember our story and Caleb.

We appreciate all the love and support we have received through this process and continue to receive. No amount is too small in helping us reach our goal and we really appreciate every dollar we receive. Thank YOU for helping our dream come true