Oscar arrived safely via cesarean on the 18th January after a lonnng wait throughout the day as an emergency case was rushed in before me. (the emergency case is now a good friend of mine as our babies have similar heart problems and share the same birthday!)
Oscar looked perfect when he was born, crying and just beautiful. I was in some sort of other universe, I felt so strange, turns out I lost an awful of of blood as they struggled to stop the bleeding.
I remember asking if he was breathing ok and when can they take him...they were showing him to Alan and I but I just wanted him looked after, I felt the longer they waited the worse he'd get as I knew his heart wouldn't cope. I could see he didn't have Downs.
Oscar was taken to the Neo Natal unit in the Womens hospital, Alan went with him and I went to the recovery room.
Alan brought me some photos on his phone to show me, all I could say was, are you sure thats him? Is it definitely him? I couldn't tell, I had only seen him for a few minutes. I panicked and thought what if they mixed him up with another baby, the feeling of complete uselessness was to stay with me for weeks.
Oscar Jack Wright 3 hours old
I was in a ward with 3 other women, I was taken to see Oscar a few hours later, he was hooked up to Prostaglandin and all sorts of other tubes in an incubator but he was sleeping and looked like such a healthy strong baby! He was 6lb5oz at this point.
They took him in a Critical Care ambulance to Birmingham Childrens Hospital that same night.I was wheeled back to the ward, the 3 women had their babies, mine was safe in another hospital but I can't begin to describe the feeling, I'd had a baby but I couldn't see him or hold him.
Grace and her new baby brother Oscar
I focused on getting mobile and over the next few days before I could get to BCH to be with Oscar. I got over there on the Friday afternoon, Oscar looked adorable, they had put a babygrow on him. I got to have a hold of him, he was tiny. Grace was such a proud big sister, stroking his head and kissing him.We left him there on Ward 11 and were told his open heart operation would be happening in the morning.
At home we were a mess, it was such an unbelievably empty feeling, to be home without him :(
The following morning we went back to the hospital with as much resolve as we could find to be with our new baby before he had his operation. I could hardly walk so I was taking painkillers literally to the minute, I highly recommend co-codamol, I owe a lot to them!
The nurses in the High Dependency Unit on Ward 11 were lovely, the one looking after Oscar helped Alan and I to wash him and let us cuddle him for a while.
Then it was time for us to take him to theatre. Alan couldn't do it, he broke down. I carried our baby boy down the corridor and into theatre with a nurse either side of me. I laid him on the table and stroked his tiny hand as they put him to sleep. He looked so peaceful, I still have the babygrow he was wearing that day, it's my lucky mascot I will be taking it with me when he has his next op!
The operation lasted 5 hours.
We got the call at 4.30 that we could see him, we ran back to the hospital (well Alan did, I sort of shuffled) In amongst all the wires and machinery was our tiny boy, with a CHEST OPEN sticker and hooked up to a vent. He was alive, we were ecstatic.
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