Continuing with our theme of newborn babywearing, one of our most-loved BCD members, Esther, shares her son Noah’s story. Despite planning on wearing Noah right from the start, it was a long time before they had the chance.

 

In late 2005, when I was pregnant with my fifth child, I knew I wanted some kind of baby carrier for my new baby. I just had no idea how to go about finding one. Baby-Carriers-Downunder didn’t exist yet and I didn’t know about TheBabyWearer back then. I ended up buying a pouch when I was about seven months pregnant in anticipation.

 

But it would be a while before I could use it.

 

My baby boy was born at home on 6 May 2006 without complications. Or so we thought. By his fifth day my baby Noah was very sick, so my midwife raced him and me to the nearest hospital. Nobody had any idea what was wrong with him. The doctors ended up putting Noah on a helicopter to a bigger hospital. He spent one day and one night there where it was discovered my newborn had major heart defects. He needed open heart surgery and fast. So he was put on the helicopter again and flown to Starship Hospital in Auckland. He underwent two open heart surgeries in his first month, with more than three weeks on a ventilator in intensive care.

 

 

 

Needless to say it was a scary, difficult time. One of the hardest things for me was that I was barely allowed to hold my little baby and was even told at times not to touch him, as it would stress his little heart out too much. It just broke my heart, all I wanted to do was hold him…

 

He left the intensive care when he was exactly one month old. We still had a few rough weeks ahead, in and out of hospital with mainly weight problems. But once he was home, I couldn’t wait to start wearing him. It was a bit tricky at first, as he still had some tubes. But it was so good to be able to hold him now! Wearing him also helped making up for all the lost time in hospital and enabled me to attend to my four older children and still hold Noah.

 

 

Wearing him also has helped his development. I was told to expect his milestones later in his first year due to all that he’d been through. But Noah never listened to that, was happy to be worn which must have helped him heal faster. He was sitting up at five months, crawling at eight months and walking at thirteen months! All this for a child that had his chestbone cut open twice…

 
I believe that babywearing helped strengthen the bond between my youngest son and me after his difficult start in life. Noah is now nearly three years old and I still wear him at times, when he lets me. He’s a picture of health these days for which I’m eternally grateful.

 

Thanks to Esther for sharing her amazing story. Do you know any special kids? Have you had a sick child? Have you worn your sick child or was it not possible at the time? Leave a comment and let us know…

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Tags: heart defect, homebirth, hospital, newborn, PICU