‘A little miracle’: KY family hopes to bring baby home after 14 months in NICU
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It’s been a long 14 months for the Jones family.
Chris and Savannah Jones’ first child, Colsen, was born March 5, 2025, at 24 weeks gestation — four months early. He weighed just 1 pound, 8 ounces.
Next week, they hope to bring him home from the hospital for the first time, where he’ll meet the couple’s second child, his newborn brother Everen.
“I honestly did not expect it to be 400 days,” Savannah Jones said of Colsen’s stay in the neonatal intensive care unit at Golisano Children’s at the University of Kentucky.
Now, as Mother’s Day approaches, she can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“We’re looking forward to the day” when Colsen comes home, Jones said. “It’s going to be so sweet.”
‘A little miracle’
For the Joneses, having not one baby, but two, is an amazing gift.
Savannah Jones said she’s been told her entire life that she would experience infertility.
“We tried for years and had miscarriages,” she said. “We never expected. We always hoped and prayed.”
And then came Colsen.
“He’s a little miracle,” she said.
While she worried that spending so much time in the hospital might affect his personality, Jones said he’s smiley and always laughing.
“Colsen is probably the happiest baby I’ve ever been around,” she said. “He’s got the best little personality.”
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Baby Colsen’s medical journey
Jones said she was 23 weeks pregnant with Colsen when she began having complications. She said he had been “a really active baby” during the pregnancy, but then, “I started feeling him less and less.”
She ultimately ended up being transferred to University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital and was diagnosed with incompetent cervix and an infection called chorioamnionitis, which affects the amniotic fluid.
Because Colsen was born so early, he’s experienced a number of complications faced by premature infants and has had multiple surgical procedures.
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“His overall medical journey has been long and complex,” Jones wrote in a message.
Jones said Colsen needed breathing support immediately after he was born, and his lungs are still maturing. He also experienced brain bleeds, had a procedure for a hole in his heart, has had three bowel surgeries and has had laser surgery to address retinopathy.
“A lot of this past year has been focused on weaning his respiratory support, reducing medications, and helping him recover from multiple surgeries, which has contributed to some developmental delays,” Jones wrote.
She said “he’s almost 14 months old, but since he was born 16 weeks early, we go by his adjusted age for milestones. His adjusted age is closer to 11 months. He’s a little behind even for that, but he’s making great progress and continuing to improve.”
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“Colsen is a miracle and fought to get where he is today, we’re so proud of him,” she said.
Making it through a challenging year
The family, who lives in Waynesburg, spent the first year of Colsen’s life at the Ronald McDonald House and didn’t return home to Lincoln County until they were discharged from the hospital after Everen’s birth April 9, Jones said.
“We were incredibly blessed,” she said of the Ronald McDonald House. “That’s probably the number one thing that helped us through it.”
She said she and her husband spent just one night in the NICU after Colsen’s birth, and then a room for them became available at the nonprofit the next day.
She said they’ve also received lots of support from the team at UK, their family and friends and even people they’ve never met.
“I know strangers pray for Colsen every day,” Jones said in a telephone interview.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help pay for some of their living and medical expenses and to allow Chris, who works in security and has used FMLA leave, to continue spending time off work at home with his family.
That will be especially needed once Colsen is home, since he has a tracheostomy and a gastrojejunostomy, or GJ tube, in his abdomen through which he receives his food and medicine. He also has physical and occupational therapy to support his development.
Jones said Colsen will have frequent medical appointments in Lexington after his release from the hospital, and two trained caregivers will be needed at all times.
“Life at home will be busy with his medical needs,” she wrote. “Our biggest goal in between all of that is to treat him like any other baby! Loving him, including him, and giving him as normal of a life as possible.”
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A trip to the zoo
Over the past year, Jones said the family has had lots of false starts on getting Colsen out of the hospital.
“Colsen has been close to discharge probably ten times during our NICU stay,” Jones said. “Every time you say ‘Colsen’s coming home,’ it’s like he hears us,” and something happens that stops him from leaving.
Finally, his family and caregivers decided they had to stop jinxing themselves.
“We’ve got to stop saying ‘home,’” Jones laughed.
They needed a code word.
So the couple thought back to all the bad days he’d had. Each time, they’d gone down to the hospital gift shop and bought him a stuffed animal. The toys piled up in a bin at home that they began referring to as Colsen’s zoo.
And there it was. Rather than telling Colsen he was going to get to go home, they started telling him he was going to the zoo.
“He does have a zoo,” Jones said with a smile in her voice. “We’re not lying to him. He gets excited now when we say ‘zoo.’”
Jones said her two boys haven’t gotten to meet each other yet because Colsen isn’t allowed to leave the NICU, and Everen isn’t allowed to enter it.
She said the high-risk obstetricians at UK cared for her during her second pregnancy, and Everen was born at 37 weeks with few complications.
“It was really bittersweet having him come home,” she said of Everen. “Colsen was supposed to be here.”
Now, he almost is.
“He’s so strong and so brave, and we’re just so incredibly proud of him,” Jones said.
This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 12:06 PM.
