Nathan, born 2008

My husband and I were married October 27, 2007, had been married only a few months and in May of the following year, we found out we were expecting our first child. We were OVERJOYED, to say the least. I had a wonderful pregnancy. We found out at 14 weeks that we were having a son! Nathaniel Luke would be his name and we would call him Nathan. We had so much fun preparing for Nathan's arrival.

 

On Saturday, December 27, 2008 at 8:30, Nathaniel Luke arrived! He was PERFECT...6lbs 11 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long.We thought we had a perfectly healthy baby... wow, things would certainly change the next day. The next morning Dr. Blubaugh, the neonatal doctor at JARMC in Meridian came by to tell us he heard a heart murmur while examining Nathan. Well even then Donnie and I are thinking no big deal...lots of babies have those, right? Well he goes on to tell us he would like to do an echocardiogram because the murmur is very loud. When the doctor came back to our room, that is when our world came crashing in on us.

 

He tells us that he is almost certain Nathan has Tetralogy of Fallot with Pulmonary Atresia.  How do you go from having a perfectly healthy baby to one with a heart defect? Now we are told the heartbreaking news...our baby that's under 24 hours old will need to be taken to another hospital for better care...either Jackson or Birmingham. We chose UAB in Birmingham. Nathan was airlifted there and we had to drive. That was honestly the worst drive of our life. I tried to rest considering I was less than 24 hours out of labor but that was about impossible. After getting to Birmingham it was confirmed that he did have TOF with PA. We stayed there for two weeks.

 

At ten days old Nathan had a BT shunt put in and we were able to bring our precious baby home. Thank goodness Nathan didn't and still hasn't shown any symptoms of having any problems. At 8 months old Nathan had his first heart catheterizations and it was decided it was time for his first open heart surgery, so on September 11, 2009 he had his first repair which took 5 hours. Talking about a long day..whew! Nathan had trouble losing too much blood but was given blood and platelets and he was fine.

 

It is with God's grace that we are so blessed to have our son still here with us. We cherish him daily and couldn't ask for more. Nathan will continue to see his cardiologist, Dr. Pearce, at UAB, several times a year and may require more surgeries down the road. For now, he is a typical little baby.

 

Story by Nathan's mom, Amy - Mississippi