Doing just fine

Looking at him now, most people can't tell where he's been. They can't tell that he was the sixth in a long, heartbreaking line of lost pregnancies.

Most can't tell that he was born seven weeks premature and weighed just over 2 pounds. They wouldn't guess that for the first month of his life, he was observed by a heart monitor.

Now, at 14 months and 21 pounds, most people just see a happy, blue-eyed toddler crawling and climbing on furniture, throwing plastic lids, vieing for attention and menacing the family dog.

Kolten Lund is a miracle baby.

"He's my miracle," said his mother, Shelly Lund.

Taking him home from the hospital was frightening, Lund said. At the hospital, she had people to rely on, but at home, she had to care for all 4 pounds of Kolten herself.

"I was scared to death," she said.

Times were tough for Shelly and her husband after Kolten's birth. Shelly had a preexisting pregnancy risk, so it was difficult for her to be insured. Hospital bills neared $50,000, but she and her husband, Daron, are making payments -- just like anyone else, she said.

Some of her friends threw a spaghetti feed benefit and that really helped, Lund said.

Daron is a truck driver and doesn't get to see Kolten as much as he would like. Sometimes, being married to a truck driver is like being a single parent, Lund said. But when Daron is around, Kolten can be single minded.

"He wants nobody but daddy," she said.

Now Kolten is going to daycare, which was another fear of Lund's -- in the beginning, others couldn't hold or touch Kolten because he was too susceptible to germs -- but being around the other children has helped him developmentally.

He used to be shy and would only go to his parents, but now he is outgoing and not afraid to try anything, Lund said.

Bobby Jo Larson-Schulz, owner and operator of Sunshine Daycare, said Kolten is smart and improves everyday.

"He's a trooper and he learns fast," she said.

Kolten's grandmother, Laurie Mosolf, agreed. Kolten is astonishing, she said.

"Anything he does amazes me," she said.

As Kolten grows, his mother has only one goal for him. He can be anything he wants, she said, except a truck driver -- the family has too many already.

"I just want him to be happy," she said.

Sun reporter Katie Ryan can be reached at (701) 952-8448 or by e-mail at kryan@jamestownsun.com