FISHER HOUSE - HELPING MILITARY FAMILIES

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For 104 days Jonathan and Brittany Charles watched their newborn, Reagan, gain weight by the ounce.

Reagan Elizabeth, who was born at 2:46 p.m. June 3 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., weighed only 15 ounces.

"She's doing very well. She's gained a little weight. We get her weighed again next week, but she's at eight pounds, nine ounces," Brittany said.

After being on oxygen for seven months, Reagan is breathing on her own.

Reagan is the first child for the couple, who wed Aug. 14, 2004. Jonathan, 26, is a 2002 Philo High School graduate. He met Brittany when they were both 18 and attending Ohio Valley University in Parkersburg, W.Va. The family plans to move to Zanesville next weekend to be closer to Jonathan's parents, Tom and Caren Charles.

The doctor's appointments have faded from two or three times a week to two or three times a month, and Reagan already has been assigned doctors at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus who will take care of her, but the couple went through a lot to get to this point, and so did Reagan.

"I went in for a routine ultrasound, and they found that she wasn't growing properly. I was diagnosed with intrauterine growth restriction, and there was backflow in the umbilical cord," Brittany said. "That was at 26 weeks. She spent the next 104 days in the hospital."

Immediately after Reagan was born via Caesarian section, she lost about an ounce, Jonathan said, but quickly regained it. Jonathan said his daughter was no bigger than the palm of his hand.

Brittany's original due date was mid-September.

In the months to follow, Reagan would go through four surgeries, including a heart surgery, an eye surgery and a surgery for a hernia.

"She pulled through and you can only say that's a miracle, that's amazing," Jonathan said.

The couple now describe that time as stressful, to say the least. Jonathan, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, tried to go into his job every day as program evaluations manager for the 79th Medical Wing executive support staff, while Brittany stayed with Reagan. Jonathan was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, D.C., for four years. The couple called the Fisher House, a donation house similar to the Ronald McDonald house in Columbus, home during that time, but the drive to and from the hospital was an hour each way.

"Emotionally, you can only talk yourself up for so long before you have to take a time out," Jonathan said. "We leaned on each other. We have a great support system, a great family, friends and co-workers and the military has been an amazing support."

She's healthy and growing, and no one can tell she's been through all this, Jonathan said.

Now that it's all said and done, Brittany said a part of the experience has been rewarding.

"We've actually been in contact with another couple who has a premature baby in the neonatal intensive care unit and we've been giving them advice. They'll ask us, when did Reagan start to grow, when did this happen or that happen, and we give them pointers and tips on how we dealt with it," Brittany said.

The family will be staying with Tom and Caren for a few weeks until they find a place of their own, and Tom and Caren are happy to have them.

"She's doing great. She's up to a little over eight pounds now, about eight and a half, which is a big improvement from 15 ounces when she was born back in June," Tom said. "A lot of prayers were answered there."

Jonathan is happy to return home. He and Brittany plan to raise Reagan here and help Tom and Caren. Tom had a stroke about a year and a half ago, and Jonathan wanted to be closer to his parents. He chose to be in the reserves part-time, because he said he made a commitment after Sept. 11 to be involved until the war is over, but it will leave him enough time to help his parents.

"I'll say it this way, I'll be having a 10-year high school reunion in about a year and getting to go home and see faces after being away so long, it's exciting," Jonathan said.

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