HIGH POINT, N.C. - A Triad baby, who was once smaller than the palm of your hand, is making big moves.
We introduced you to Amari Jones back in 2016, when he was 8 months old. He was born a micro-preemie, only weighing 15 ounces, which is less than a pound.
He was hooked up to breathing tubes and spent months behind glass at the Forsyth Medical NICU. But now, Amari is approaching his second birthday, and if you met him, you probably wouldn’t know he was born four months early - the size of a smartphone.
“I was there during the daytime, daddy was there at night. Amari was just laying there, but he is not laying there anymore. He's far from it,” said his mother, Rodericka Moore, “He won't stay still until he sleeps.”
Now he's wild, rambunctious, curious - all the things a healthy toddler should be.
“He turns two on February 25,” said Moore, excitedly.
His parents say they had no idea they would all make it this far.
“We're very excited, after everything that we've been through,” said Andre Jones, Amari’s dad.
Amari spent 120 days in the NICU at Forsyth Medical Center. After months of being hooked up to tubes to help him survive, and a few more surgeries along the way, little Amari got to come home.
“He went from under one pound, to almost 20 pounds,” said Moore
He's still underweight for his age, but Moore says a month until his second birthday, everything is different now.
“It’s a huge relief. It never goes away, that he was born so early,” she said, “I think some days now that he's older I'm more scared now, because now he can hurt himself because he likes to climb and fall.”
But his happy family says - it's all good here.
“It’s a great different,” Moore said, “I wouldn't trade it for the world.”
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