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| What a proud father! |
All of my prenatal testing for Down syndrome were negative. So after the birth of my son, my husband recalls the nurses and doctors sounding concerned about David. They took him and were asking about his heart sounds as they were cleaning and bundling him. My husband knew something was wrong, and had a feeling our son was born with Down syndrome, but he didn't want to say the words out loud. He asked indirectly if anything was wrong, like if the baby had jaundice or something to that extent. The nurses simply did not answer him. I, at the meantime didn't realize this was happening as immediately after the birth of our son, I continued to bleed, and a 2nd physician had to be called in to determine the source of the bleeding. I believe it was a part of the placenta still attached to my uterus, and they had to remove it. So that was painful and kept me very preoccupied while the nurses were handling my newborn.
As soon as the bleeding was all taken care of, the nurses brought mention of a pediatric doctor that would come in to assess David. Once she came in, everyone in the room was rushed out to the waiting room so the doctor could talk to James and myself alone. The doctor started to list my son's physical attributes, but I was so happy to be a new mommy, I wasn't paying too much attention to the doctor. The doctor startled me and said, "I need you to look at me, there's something important we need to discuss." Immediately I guessed in my head the doctor would say my child would have Down syndrome. And the doctor's words followed, "You son has the physical characteristics of Down syndrome." And I felt my stomach do a flip flop. I didn't know what it meant to have a child with Down syndrome! I was scared! When the doctor left my husband and I started crying. Not because we felt bad for ourselves or our son. Only because we were so emotional on the chance our son had mosaic Down syndrome, which meant more medical complications. We just didn't want our son to have a shorter life expectancy. But we instantly felt honored by God, that He chose us to be parents of this baby boy. He trusted our care to be the best care for a child with special needs. We thanked God as we prayed right there- in the delivery room- together a blessing over the baby and over our lives.
We had to wait 2 days for genetic testing to confirm the Down syndrome; more specifically, if David had Trisomy 21 or Mosaic Down syndrome. David had Trisomy 21, to our relief. David also had heart testing to find out that his heart was perfect! The problem we had was that David was not feeding well. His mouth muscles were so weak, that he couldn't physically drink too much breast milk or formula.
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| David and his heart ultra sound- negative for heart defects! |
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| David hooked up to too many machines! |
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| After wiping the eye drainage: red, puffy & painful looking! |
David was admitted to the NICU on the second day for feeding issues, so he was given a NG tube. In a matter of days, David developed an eye infection, had spots on his lung xrays, and started having reflux- he would not keep the milk down. His Oxygen rate also dipped into the 80's and David needed oxygen as well. The doctor though perhaps David had chlamydia, which means he would have gotten it from me, his mother!
Days later, the chlamydia tests were negative, and he had feeding studies done. The tests results that came back from the feeding studies puzzled the doctors. What was happening inside David was that he would drink the milk and it would linger in his esophagus and would spasm and be refluxed back out. In normal reflux it would empty completely into his stomach first. But this was not the case. The doctors were having talks about sending David to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital since they would have a team of specialists there, and could better care for David. At this moment we have been at the hospital for over a week and a half.
That night our pastor came in to pray over our son. We have been praying over our son everyday up to this point, but that night it meant a lot to have our pastor make it in the NICU to pray over David. We were believing for healing! The next day another set of chest xrays and feeding studies. That evening we found out the spots on the lungs have disappeared. The following morning we found out the feeding study turned out normal! They were talking about sending us home soon! (By that point the eye infection was significantly better as well.) They let me have David that night in my room! The next day we received instruction on how to care for the NG tube, and we had our follow up appointments set up for feeding therapy and we were discharged! God truly healed David overnight! We are so thankful to serve a living God that answers prayers!
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| David at 5 weeks- the NG tube came out by accident! Perfect time for a photo! |
We were in the hospital for 2 weeks exactly before being discharged. Thankfully, we did not have any issues from that point on. Our next mission was to get David off the NG tube, which took an additional 3 weeks.
That was the story of David's birth & time at the hospital! I am thankful that today, David is a healthy, happy boy! Praise the Lord!
