PERRY TWP. − Abby Schafer deserves a lazy, lounging, loafing Mother’s Day.
Especially after how hard she worked on this day a year ago.
The now 29-year-old was literally in labor. It began on Mother’s Day 2025 and ended a day later, with the birth of Everett, her fourth child. Schafer and her boyfriend, Josh Robinson, 28, and the couple’s family support system then put in overtime for the next five-plus months as Everett bounced between neonatal intensive care units at Aultman and Akron Children’s hospitals.
Initially, at least, fighting for his life.
Schafer was 23 weeks pregnant when Everett had decided it was time. That’s four months early. Even with continued medical advances, a baby’s chance of surviving such an early birth is about the same as correctly calling a coin flip.
As Schafer prepared for an emergency cesarean birth at Aultman Hospital, Dr. Caitlin Irwin, a neonatologist, explained the options.
“She said, ‘We can either fight for your baby’s life or choose not to intervene,'” Schafer recalled.
Babies grow and develop best inside mom’s womb. At four months early, a baby’s lungs aren’t ready to breathe. Their hearts and brains are susceptible to complications. Their digestive systems can’t process nourishment.
“I remember the heartbreaking, honest conversation I had with his mom just moments before (Everett) was born,” Irwin said. “Babies born at 23 weeks are incredibly fragile with a long, uphill road and unfortunately many of them do not survive.”
‘He doesn’t even have a name’
Last year, Mother’s Day fell on May 11.
Schafer and Robinson, her longtime beau, already had a full house. There was Braxton, now 13 years old, and Bentley, 5, and Elouise, 1. The expectant parents hadn’t even agreed upon a name for the newest member of the family.
After all, their baby wasn’t due until September.
Following a family breakfast at Bob Evans, Schafer’s stomach began to ache on the way back to her Saratoga Avenue SW home. It had been a generally yucky few weeks anyway, because she’d recently lost her grandpa.
While using the restroom, Schafer saw blood.
Robinson was at work at Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway, so his stepdad hurried over and took Schafer to Aultman.
“They told me I was three centimeters dilated,” she recalled.
Medical staff, she said, managed to slow the labor. The idea is to keep the baby inside for as long as possible. Schafer figured she’d be on bed rest for weeks to come. She fell asleep at about 3 a.m. May 12.
A few hours later, came an ultrasound.
The baby’s feet were in the birth canal — his birth was imminent one way or another.
“I think I did 110 mph down Route 30,” Robinson recalled of his drive from work.
Schafer was on the operating table for the C-section when he arrived.
“I can’t plan a baby’s funeral!” she told him.
Irwin, the neonatologist, said conversations about post-birth treatments for such early babies — or decisions against it — are difficult.
“But Abby was optimistic that Everett would pull through and be a fighter,” Irwin said. “And she was right!”
Still, Schafer and Robinson weren’t ready for this.
“He doesn’t even have a name,” she said.
Robinson said it was no time to bicker over names.
Schafer wanted Everett. She’d heard it on a TV show — so Everett it would be.
“I was terrified,” Robinson said.
Everett was born at 8:51 a.m. May 12. He weighed a smidgen more than 1 pound, 4 ounces. Then came the sound Schafer had hoped for.
“It was the faintest cry I’ve ever heard,” Schafer said.
Everett was alive.
Eleven days later, she held him for the first time.
First come Mother’s Day, then Happy Birthday!
Everett was confined to a NICU isolette. A ventilator kept him breathing.
“You could see through his skin,” Robinson recalled.
For everything that could, and sometimes did go wrong in the months ahead, so much went right.
Early on, he came through a bout of necrotizing enterocolitis without needing surgery on his stomach. He had a broken arm. Surgery on his heart, though, had successfully closed a hole. By the end of July, Everett’s oxygen levels had steadied enough to finally take him off the ventilator.
A month later, he reached 6 pounds.
However, by September, it was clear Everett’s chronic lung disease was making it difficult to wean him off supplemental oxygen. He could get a tracheotomy, and maybe come home sooner, or he could stay in the hospital.
Schafer and Robinson kept Everett in the hospital. He moved to a regular crib. On Oct. 5, came a big milestone. Everett drank from a bottle — and wanted more after he’d devoured the half-ounce introduction.
Next came surgery to repair three hernias.
All went well.
“Everett’s time in the NICU was full of challenges but he fought hard and overcame every obstacle that he encountered,” Irwin said.
On Oct. 24, it was time for Everett to leave. His entire life to that point, exactly 165 days or 3,960 hours by Schafer’s calculation, had been spent in Aultman or Akron Children’s, or en route to or from them.
A cold bug he likely caught from his siblings forced a brief hospital stay a few days later, but Everett has done well.
He has a pediatrician, eye doctor, heart specialist and lung doctor. Even a plastic surgeon (Everett was fitted with a helmet to wear at night to ensure his skull developed normally). Late last month, he had laser eye surgery at Akron Children’s to correct a lingering vision issue.
At home, he sleeps in a crib in mom and dad’s room.
He loves to bounce up and down in his activity jumper.
Irwin is happy to hear all that.
“Babies like Everett are the reason that we do what we do and his success story makes all the challenging days worth it,” she said. “I’m grateful that I was able to be a part of his journey and can’t wait to hear what the future holds for him.”
As he nears his first birthday, Everett recently uttered his first words: “Da, da, da.”
Sorry, mom.
Your turn is coming.
Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 or tim.botos@cantonrep.com.On X: @tbotosREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Everett had slim survival odds at birth. Now, he celebrates 1st birthday
Reporting by Tim Botos, Canton Repository / The Repository
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