{"id":33281,"date":"2024-10-11T03:42:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T08:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33281"},"modified":"2024-10-31T22:23:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T03:23:32","slug":"baby-boy-born-during-hurricane-milton-is-a-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33281","title":{"rendered":"Baby boy born during Hurricane Milton is a ‘miracle’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was 4 a.m. ET Wednesday when Kenzie Lewellen\u2019s labor began at her home in Port Charlotte, Florida, with Hurricane Milton\u2002<\/a>hurtling toward the Gulf Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lewellen and her boyfriend, Dewey Bennett, 24, were both on edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mind was just running a million miles an hour, like, what am I going to do?\u201d said Lewellen, 22. \u201cI was very nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bennett, the baby\u2019s father, said in an interview Thursday, \u201cI was very stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, Bennett\u2019s own father, also named Dewey, died when Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy dad had a massive heart attack because the ambulance could not come out to us during the storm,\u201d he said. Now, with another medical emergency on their hands, he couldn\u2019t help but remember what happened the last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monster storm Milton made landfall at 8:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, causing massive flooding and leaving millions without power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milton hadn\u2019t hit yet, but the couple\u2019s house was already taking in water before Lewellen\u2019s contractions began. Lewellen, a first-time mom, was 39 weeks pregnant, and the couple knew that if she \u201cdidn\u2019t start having contractions until during the storm the roads would have been flooded and we were going to have a tough time getting\u201d to the hospital, Bennett said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just didn\u2019t want to go through what I had to go through with the last hurricane back in 2017,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had considered evacuating to West Palm Beach on the east coast of Florida. \u201cI\u2019m kind of glad we didn\u2019t, because they ended up getting, I think, nine tornadoes before the storm had even made landfall,\u201d Lewellen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe day before, we were both calling the hospital and seeing if there was any way we can just check in,\u201d she said. \u201cBut obviously during a storm, they don\u2019t just let people come stay here, because they\u2019re not a shelter.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Lewellen labored for 4\u00bd hours at home, the couple began the perilous journey to Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Venice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mom was driving us, and it was extremely windy, so we were trying to be as cautious as possible,\u201d Lewellen said. \u201cThere was not really many people on the roads, because it was so windy outside and it was raining quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they arrived, only one person could accompany her inside the hospital. So, Lewellen had to say goodbye to her mother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was very, very upset that my mom couldn\u2019t stay, because she is my best friend and one of my biggest supporters,\u201d she said. But \u201cwe were able to FaceTime pretty much the entire time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her distance from her mom only added to the concerns whirling in her head. \u201cMy mom and my aunt, they are extremely capable of taking care of themselves.\u201d But, still, \u201cI was very hopeful that everything would be OK for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She went through labor in a room with a window view of the devastation the hurricane unleashed as it pounded Sarasota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bennett was by her side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was telling him, I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, that tree looks like it\u2019s going to fly out of the ground!\u2019 when I was laboring, because we were just watching the storm and the wind and the rain go crazy. It was definitely intense out there last night.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd it actually did uproot,\u201d Bennett added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After having been in labor for hours, Lewellen was given some distressing news: The baby was in the wrong position, and she would need a cesarean section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had so much going through my head at that point, a storm and my family,\u201d she said in an interview over Zoom Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problems with the epidural left her in extreme pain for hours until she was given anesthesia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was just on my own, by myself, and I was very scared. If I didn\u2019t have the doctors and the nurses that I had, it would have been a whole lot worse,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement Thursday, David Verinder, CEO of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, said: \u201cWe couldn\u2019t be prouder of our team. They left their homes and many left their families to be here for our patients and community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with Kenzie and Dewey\u2019s little boy, six other babies were born at the two Sarasota Memorial hospitals during Milton, Verinder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was all worth it in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 11:45 p.m. ET, Dewey Lester Bennett, IV, was born, a healthy 8-pound boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding Dewey for the first time, Lewellen felt her world change. \u201cIt is the most indescribable feeling. He\u2019s a part of you and also part of the person you love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bennett said: \u201cMy cheeks hurt because I haven\u2019t stopped smiling. It was great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding little Dewey in his arms also had special resonance for Bennett, given the passing of his father, Dewey\u2019s namesake, in similar circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will baby Dewey\u2019s parents tell him years from now about how he came into the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m probably going to give him a hard time for being so stubborn,\u201d Lewellen joked. Some people have joked that his nickname should be Milton, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is a miracle baby,\u201d she said, holding him up as sunshine streamed through her hospital window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was 4 a.m. ET Wednesday when Kenzie Lewellen\u2019s labor began at her home in Port Charlotte, Florida, with Hurricane Milton\u2002hurtling toward the Gulf Coast. Lewellen and her boyfriend, Dewey Bennett, 24, were both on edge. \u201cMy mind was just running a million miles an hour, like, what am I going to do?\u201d said Lewellen, 22. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[30779,2316,30778,23358],"class_list":["post-33281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-baby-boy","tag-birth","tag-hurricane-milton","tag-period"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33283,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33281\/revisions\/33283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}