Beach Baby!

I am 36 years old and have been camping all my life. My husband and I decided to buy a travel trailer in 2007 and start camping with our family. We had one little boy, age 2.5 when we first set out on our family camping trips. In 2008, we decided to add another member to our family and he was due in September 2008. We scheduled a vacation for July 2008 and took off with our then 3.5 year old little boy and our dog.

Lakewood Campground in Myrtle Beach is where we set camp on Saturday the 19th of July, 2008. We spent Sunday and Monday playing in the sand, mini golf, and shopping. Then on Tuesday, I did not feel real well and that evening we decided to be checked out at Grand Strand Regional Hospital in Myrtle Beach. Come to find out, we had to have an emergency c-section to have our new little boy delivered on July 22nd, 2008!

The little boy that was not due until September was delivered at Myrtle Beach, while we were on a camping trip! Our new little boy is named Wyatt. Wyatt had some difficulty in the beginning with his lungs because they were not developed enough to function without help, so the hospital arranged for an ambulance transport for Wyatt and they sent him to the NICU at Mcleod’s Children’s Hospital in Florence, SC. Thank goodness there was a KOA nearby. As soon as I was released from the hospital, we moved our camper to Florence and set up camp at the KOA there. That became our home for the next two weeks while we were going back and forth to the hospital to visit Wyatt.

During this time, our oldest son, Will, was able to still feel like he was on a vacation because of the KOA facilities! He went swimming and played on the playground and he got to visit his new baby brother on sibling visitation day! I had a really good c-section recovery in our camper and loved having the comfort of o! ur “home” instead of being in some hospital or hotel room! WE LOVE OUR CAMPER! Then, when Wyatt proved that he was able to keep his body temperature regulated, could breathe room air with no problems and was able to take in food without a tube and tolerate a car seat, he was released to us.

Wyatt’s first place to come home to us our 2007 Jayco Jay Feather and his first ride was in the big Dodge Ram 2500 all the way from Florence, SC to Bristol, TN! What a trip and what an experience. We call Wyatt our beach baby and will never forget that trip. We really appreciate how nice the KOA was to us because we basically had to tell them we did not know when we were leaving and played it day by day. They also let me use their fax machine for important documents. Wyatt will always have a great story to tell about his birth and his brother Will will always remember that beach camping trip as the one where we “got our brother!”

Submitted by Danielle Parker of Bristol, TN as a part of the RV Centennial Celebration “Share Your Favorite RV Memory” contest.

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