After restlessly waiting 9 long months, panting through labor and pushing through delivery, the moment finally arrives. The nurses grandly present your gorgeous newborn baby to you to hold and meet for the very first time and you feel like you’re going to explode with love. It’s a nice story,…
We’re getting closer. I try to stick to the nuts and bolts, but my heart and soul so easily weep. I have to hand you over again soon, too soon. And I have to trust and let you go because I am a Heart Mom. I never anticipated joining the…
“Well she’s actually safer inside.” They would freeze in discomfort clearly unsure what to say next. “She needs open heart surgery around 4-6 months old.” I would explain to another person. Next, I would erupt in a nervous giggle not wanting to make them uncomfortable, also unsure what to say…
Heart mama life is not for the faint of heart. Pun intended. If you’re a heart mom, you’ve likely heard, “How do you do it?” And “I can’t even imagine.” Or maybe “I couldn’t do what you’re doing.” But you can, and they could, and so could she. Because when…
Monitors alarming, machines beeping, and lights flashing are not the delightful Christmas sounds and sights I anticipate annually. They don’t ring quite like jingle bells or twinkle like lights on an evergreen tree. Christmas in the hospital is not something anyone puts on their wish list. Yet, we found ourselves…
We arrived at the front desk frantic… “our newborn baby was brought here by ambulance, where is she?!” The hospital lobby was eerily quiet since it was Saturday and the holiday season. Such a contrast to the cacophony symphony raging through my head. It took forever to get us checked…
December 17, 2021, the day I became a mom of three, the day my heart warrior arrived, was the best and worst day of my life. This is a day I’ll never forget. Without a doubt, it was the most emotionally charged day of my life. Things did not go…
A heavy decision How do you decide? How do you decide…? How do you decide who to let slice open your infant’s chest? How do you decide who to let mar their perfectly soft skin? How do you decide who to trust to stop their beating heart? How do you…
September 10, 2021, the day I became a heart mom, 25 weeks into my pregnancy, is etched in my brain forever. “There’s something not quite right with your baby’s heart” are words no mom-to-be is prepared to hear. No time is a good time to find out your baby has…
Only a little before my third trimester, a high-risk doctor handed me his business card and wrote the AV canal defect diagnosis on the back. He had discovered a large hole in the center, of my baby’s heart, which he suspected to be an AV (atrioventricular) canal defect. From the…