When little Axel Winch was born 13 weeks prematurely, doctors warned his parents Melissa and Adam Winch that their baby boy likely would not make it. Axel was born with a variety of issues, as he had bleeding in his brain, a hole in his heart, scoliosis, and vision and hearing problems.

On top of that, he weighed just two pounds, 12 ounces, and after one week in the hospital, he developed life-threatening intestinal condition. This left doctors with no choice but to airlift baby Axel and his mother over 200 miles to neonatal intensive care at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora.

Though Axel eventually stabilized, his health was up and down over the next few weeks as his lungs and lymphatic system shut down repeatedly.

“There were many times we didn’t think he was going to live,” Adam recalled. “He would die in our arms, and the nurses would scramble to revive him.”

Making matters even worse, the hospital was a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Melissa and Adam’s home in the small town of Grand Junction. Luckily for them, however, help was on the way for their little family.

Though Adam currently owns a defense training company, he was formerly a police officer in Grand Junction, so his former department called up the Aurora Police Department to ask for a favor for their fellow brother in blue. Adam recalled that they said, “Hey, you need to check on one of our people.”

Before long, police officers in Aurora were offering the Winches help in any way they could. Some brought them food, while one detective even offered them a place to stay. Things took a turn for the worse when Axel and Melissa had to return home on two occasions: the first being when they had to move out of their house, which had been under contract, and the second when Melissa had to return to work after her leave ran out.

It was heart wrenching for the couple to leave their son, but the police officers in Aurora were still there to help them. Aurora police sergeant Mike Pitrusu set up a 24-hour schedule for his officers to go be with Axel at all hours when his parents were gone.

“I didn’t want him to be alone,” Mike explained.

The cops called it “cuddle watch,” and more than 20 officers signed up to participate. Through it all, the officers would text Adam and Melissa photos and other updates about their son.

“It meant the world to us,” Adam said.

Axel ended up helping the officers as well, with one of the officers saying that it helped her get over some of the horrific things she had seen in child protective services. Adam said that she told him that “her soul was heavy from dealing with the most terrible things on the job. She said that the cuddle watch healed her.”

Axel was thankfully healthy enough to move home after four months, and Adam said that their family is “just seeing miracle after miracle.” While they are incredibly grateful to the officers for what they did, Melissa said that there was one downside to cuddle watch.

“He just wants to be held all the time now,” she said.

And who wouldn’t want to hold this adorable and resilient little baby?