Aubyn's Story
Early Diagnosis
At our 20 weeks scan, we received the news that our little girl had a heart condition and a solitary kidney, just a few weeks later we were given the diagnosis for her heart: Tetralogy of Fallot which meant she was facing possible multiple surgeries.
From then on, we were under the care of the Queen Elizabeth in Glasgow to keep an eye on her heart and our local hospital for growth scans. I was scanned weekly in the months leading up to our baby’s arrival as our little girl was growing very slowly, under the lowest percentile. We were told it would be likely she would be premature and possibly need immediate surgery due to her heart condition.
We were given a date for a planned C-section on January 25th 2022 meaning she would be just over 36 weeks at birth and delivery would have to be at the Royal Hospital for Children so that her neonatal and cardiology team would be on hand.
The House
It was terrifying, facing the unknown of how she would be when she arrived and what was going to happen. Having a place to stay took a lot of the worry away as we live over an hour from the hospital. I ended up staying at the House while my husband Kris travelled back and forth from Troon to finish off her nursery and to go to work.
Baby Aubyn arrived kicking and screaming weighing 3 pounds 14 ounces! We managed to get a cuddle before she was taken to the neonatal ward where She stayed for just under two weeks and didn’t need to undergo any surgery which was a huge relief!
The whole time we were there I was able to walk over to the ward in time for rounds as the House was so close and I knew that if anything happened, I was right there – It meant the world.
Chatting to the staff and telling them how she was doing helped as well, seeing them genuinely happy for the progress Aubyn was making and how pleased they were to meet her when we checked out!
Aubyn Now
As of writing this Aubyn is 8 weeks old and has had her first cardiology check up, she’s doing great. She is almost 6 pounds and hopefully she will continue to do well so we can get her weight up for surgery this year. I know once that time comes, the House will be there for our family again.