Baby Sebastian's First Hours of Life | The Diagnosis.

First hour of Life, before diagnosis, they were giving him a little oxygen to see if his levels go up. 

Our Little Sweet Sebastian came into this world September 12^th, 2013 at around 8:00am.   I wrote this poem before he was born as joy was bubbling inside me knowing my son was moments away from being born.

The little man,

my little son

How I long for you to come
Moments away, soon to be

My son in my arms forever will stay.

Mother is near and soon you will hear
The chime of our voice as you get closer near.

Cold it may seam
But cold it will not stay
As in a loving bundle,

you will find a peaceful bay

Family united
Child of mine
Your loving father
Together we will bind.

Most babies are born and soon after they are placed in their mothers loving arms. However this was not the case for little Sebastian. Shortly after his birth the doctors noticed his oxygenation was low, and called in a cardiologist. Soon after, they diagnosed him with a rare congenital heart disorder known as Teratology of Fallot. Because of little Sebastian's low oxygenation of blood due the severity of Tetra of Fallot, the doctors recommended that an open-heart by-pass surgery be performed as soon as possible. They would perform a right-to-left shunt in little Sebastian's Aorta and Pulmonary arteries. 

I could not believe was I was hearing, Alicia was not even out of recovery and now I know my son has a serious heart condition and needs immediate open-heart surgery, how was I going to tell her?

Because of the emergency nature of the situation, I had to tell Alicia right away, as little Sebastian needed to be transported to another hospital that afternoon.

In a state of recovery still not knowing Sebastian’s condition, Alicia naturally asked “where is my baby boy?” She wanted to hold her baby for the first time. Spikes of thoughts pierced, painfully I asked the doctors to come in and reveal the situation to her. Tears burst from her face, as I smothered her with what little comfort I could give.   

Our hearts were instantly torn from us.  To know our sweet and seemingly perfect little son, was going to have to be cut open and his tiny newborn heart operated on, felt like a fist constricting around my soul, squeezing the life out of me. 

But the fact was the surgery was crucial, in order to get little Sebastian's oxygenation levels sustainable. We said ok, as we sank into the hands of our Lord God, and prayed desperately to keep our son with us. 

Alicia decided that before his transport to the other hospital we would baptize him. We beckoned the priest, who came with a bottle of holy water to perform the ritual. The priest, Alicia and I, stood over our peaceful sleeping baby boy, dressed in scrubs stained with tears we prayed as the priest poured Gods Holy water over his red-brown hair. Our precious little boy surrounded by Gods love and protection.

To be continued…..

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