Smith, 19, said she was at work that day while her son was at home with his father, Colby Perdue. She said she had just pulled into the driveway when she was told 911 was called because the baby was having trouble breathing.

“I held him and it was just — he was just struggling to breathe,” Smith said through tears. “I didn’t know what to do.”

The Stokes County Sheriff’s Office said an investigation, conducted with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, led to the arrest of Perdue, 24, of Pine Hall. He is charged with murder and felony child abuse inflicting serious injury and is being held without bond in the Stokes County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court May 12.

Smith said she was not allowed to ride in the ambulance with her son and spent hours being questioned before she was able to see him at the hospital. She described the moments she spent with him as he laid there with a breathing tube.

“They think he’s fine … he’s moving his legs and he’s moving his arms,” she said. “He blinked a little bit while we were in there.”

That was the last time she saw Preston alive.

Smith remembers her son as a happy baby who “loved to smile” and “loved his mama more than anything.”

After his death, she said, she was able to hold him one final time.

“I held him till I couldn’t no more,” Smith said. “And then they did a little baptizing thing for him … and that was it.”

Smith said becoming a mother brought her a kind of happiness she had never experienced before, even in the short time she had with her son.

“It really made me more happier than I ever have ever been,” she said.

The family has a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses.

The investigation remains ongoing. Authorities have not released additional details and are asking anyone with information to contact the Stokes County Sheriff’s Office.