Christmas 2002

Alyssa -- 18 months old

Dustin -- 6 weeks old

My husband and I have been together for ten years and were married in May of 2000. We had been trying to have children for awhile when we found out that I was pregnant with our first, Alyssa Noreen Eileen Wright, she was born June 2001. We had wanted our next child within two years and sure enough I found out I was pregnant again in March, due date November 28, 2002. During the first ultrasound we found out that we were having a boy and that made my husband the happiest man on earth. We have the prefect family.

Rob has two other children and in September we got custody of his son, Christopher Lee, he is seventeen years old. A very mature and responsible young man who adores his little sister and could not wait till his baby brother was born.

Rob, was out of town for a few months, so Alyssa and I would spend the weekends with my parents and Chris would spend weekends with his friends. I had been feeling very uncomfortable since the 25th of October but I thought that the baby was just dropping and turning. I thought I was having slight contractions but I was not sure. I was induced with Alyssa so this was totally new experience. I had to call to the doctor on Sunday because of slight bleeding but he explained that it was nothing to worry that I just lost my mucous plug and it could be anywhere between now and two weeks. At this point my contractions were around and hour and a half apart and at 11 pm I decided to go to bed. Short lived, I woke up in pain at 12:27 am. I was hemorrhaging really bad and phoned the hospital, which in turn told me that I should come in for an internal. By the time we reach the hospital at 1:15 am my contractions were every 20 minutes and by the time the doctors came in to see me my contractions were three minutes apart. I did not even notice that he was doing the exam when I heard him tell the nurses to get me ready for an emergency c-section. Dustin’s feet were already coming out. I was so scared; I was not sure what was going on.

The doctors could not tell me anything, they took me to the recovery room and then to my room where I spent eighteen hours crying my heart out, blaming myself for this child’s problems. The doctors finally came into tell me that they diagnosed Dustin with Aperts Syndrome and that he was meant to be this way from conception. I could not care what else was wrong or what needed to be done at this time I was just relieved that it was nothing I did.

The next morning the specialist came into tell me that all of his organs were fine and they were going to do a different scan on his brain to make sure that was okay as well. They explain some of the different operations that he would have to undergo as well as the several operations that they would have to do on his skull to allow the brain to grow.

I was released from the hospital nine days after Dustin was born due to complications with my incision sight, they removed the staples too soon and it sight opened up again. Rob finally got to come home for the day to meet his son Nov.7 and Dustin was finally released November 19th. It was so good to have my children under one roof again.

As the last two months have gone by we have become very knowledgeable and informing other in our area seeing that Dustin is the first child to be born in Victoria with Aperts Syndrome. We are very luck to have two very beautiful children. And as you can tell Alyssa loves her baby brother, Dustin, with all her heart just as much as we do.

Dustin’s first surgeries are not scheduled until he is almost nine months old, so that will give us time to prepare and enjoy him.