Thankful people: Couple grateful their premature-birth son survived

When it comes to appreciation and gratitude, the list of Jim and Anna Phillips is legion, as they recount the April 19 birth of their son, Jack, a lively little guy with bright blue eyes who has his own way of chuckling when he smiles.

Born at 29 weeks, Jack weighed only 2 1/2 pounds; a pregnancy commonly ranges from 37 to 42 weeks.

Anna had been hospitalized for about a month while doctors monitored Jack's progress and her health.

She was experiencing pre-eclampsia, a complication characterized by high blood pressure and signs of potential damage to another organ system, often the kidneys.

In April, after visiting his wife at St. Mary's Hospital in St. Louis, Jim headed back to Cape Girardeau.

Jim and Anna Phillips with their son, Jack, on Wednesday inside their Cape Girardeau home. Jack was born April 19 at 29 just weeks and weighed only 2 pounds. (Laura Simon)

Then a call came.

"You have to come back up," Anna recalled telling Jim.

"When the baby's condition and my condition deteriorated, we had to make the decision to go ahead," Anna said, explaining the baby's umbilical cord wasn't functioning to provide him the necessary oxygen exchange.

"The delivery was really very frightening," Jim said.

He watched the staff with his tiny son.

Jim and Anna Phillips with their son, Jack, on Wednesday inside their Cape Girardeau home. Jack was born April 19 at 29 just weeks and weighed only 2 pounds. (Laura Simon)

"He didn't move. He didn't cry. I was looking at him, waiting. It was weird because there wasn't that certain sound," Jim said. "Then, suddenly, his arm moved."

Jim and Anna caught only a glimpse of tiny Jack as he was whisked to the neonatal intensive care unit, his body strapped with monitors and his breathing provided by a manual resuscitator.

Anna said at Jack's early stage of development, he had no body fat, and his lungs weren't near ready to breathe on their own.

"We weren't sure he was going to make it," Jim said.

"We were concerned his lungs would fail. He didn't have full blood volume and had a complete blood transfusion," Anna added. "There was always a nurse next to him."

Hospitalized at St. Mary's for about a month, Jack was transferred to the NICU at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau, where he remained for another month.

"It was great to be closer to home," Anna said.

Married a year and a half, Jim and Anna are parents of Conrad, 19; Henry, 16; Frank, 14; Sam, 13; Quinn, 12; and Spencer, 10.

Jim is curator of collections and exhibitions at Southeast Missouri State University; Anna is manager at My Daddy's Cheesecake in Cape Girardeau.

"We are so thankful for all the nurses who came and went, and the doctors," Anna said, during the pregnancy and during Jack's hospital stay.

"They were very thorough -- both at St. Mary's and at Southeast. I felt confident that they were taking good care of us," Anna said.

"They made us feel as if we were the only ones they were taking care of."

The couple's thanks extend beyond the many medical professionals who tended to mother and child.

Jim, who missed about two months of work, said his colleagues were "very accommodating and very supportive."

"We're very thankful for the support of our parents, our co-workers and our church family," Anna said.

"We're thankful for Jack; it shows how tenuous life really is," Jim said.

"We're thankful for him just being here."