Cam’s Birth Story

Cam’s Birth Story
By Mom, Krysten

We did not have a prenatal diagnosis with Cam. The day he was born was kind of a whirlwind. I was 2.5 weeks from my due date, so part of me couldn’t believe I was in labor. Things weren’t “ready” at home or at work and my oldest daughter was sick. Even so, we were so ready to meet our little man. Labor was fast and my epidural didn’t work, so when Cam was born I was very relieved. Our little boy was finally here! Only problem was, he was pretty much purple when he was born and he took longer than normal to pink up. After a few minutes on my chest, the nurse took him for further evaluation and said they may need to take him to the nursery to check his oxygen levels.

After they took him from the room, my husband said to me “I think he has Down Syndrome”. I asked him why he thought that. He showed me a picture, and I agreed. At that point, neither of us knew what to think. Here I had just given birth and I was supposed to be holding my baby and nursing. Instead, we were sitting alone in the delivery room waiting to hear how our Cameron was doing. A little while later a doctor came in and told us two pieces of news: 1) It looked like Cameron had a heart defect and needed to be on oxygen. 2) Cam showed signs of Down syndrome.

I didn’t know what to think. All I knew is that I wanted my baby boy to be OK and that I wanted him in my arms. Over the next few days, we would find that Cam needed heart surgery sooner rather than later. Before his Down syndrome diagnosis was even confirmed by blood tests, Shawn and I felt confident enough in the fact that he had Down syndrome and wanted to share that with our friends and family. The amount of love and support we felt was unbelievable. We had so many people researching what that would mean for our family – and a number of people recommended GiGi’s Playhouse as a resource.

The week after Cam was born is a blur of emotion and prayer. Our little man needed open heart surgery at a week old. He had Down syndrome. I honestly didn’t quite know how to reconcile those two things in my head. I worried about the surgery first, and his diagnosis second. After I thought about the surgery (which terrified me), I had moments where I worried about what Down syndrome meant for him and our family. Would he be able to keep up with his sisters? What would adulthood mean for him? Would he ever fall in love?

Cam came into our lives at the perfect time. He has changed the way I parent and how I think of my children for the better. I realized through him that my job as a mom is to not limit any of my kids and to help them reach their full potential – whatever that may be. Before having Cam, I thought that was how I was parenting, but in the back of my mind I always thought that “reaching their full potential” meant being successful in school, a fulfilling career, and a family. I now realize that in order to help my children reach their full potential I need to leave behind all of my preconceived notions of what “full potential” looks like. I need to remove my biases and really truly let them lead the way.

At the end of the day, life is better with Cam in it. He’s not even a year old yet, so we have a lot of unknown in front of us, but that does not scare me. Looking at him with his older sisters makes me so thankful and grateful for everything we have been given.