Kashton :: Born at St. Luke’s Hospital

“Is he gonna be okay? Is my baby gonna be okay?,”  she whispered. I was holding Allison’s hand, smoothing her dark hair back from her forehead, squeezing it as the doctor finished post-delivery medical attention. She, Josh, myself and newly-born Kashton were at St. Luke’s hospital in Duluth, MN and while Allison and I were in the delivery room, Josh and Kashton were in the NICU.

 

I didn’t know if Kashton would be okay. At that point, nobody knew.

 

Allison and Josh had hired me to document the birth of their first baby, a baby boy. Pregnancy agreed with Allison: when we met for our consult, discussing birth photography, pregnancy, mama things, and going back to school, well, she fairly glowed. For all intents and purposes, both mama and baby were respectively, to borrow a colloquialism, healthy as horse{s}.

 

Allison kept in contact throughout the latter portion of her pregnancy, noting that her Ob-Gyn suspected that she would deliver earlier than her expected due date.  Fun fact: I tell all my clients to keep in close touch with me, that all information is welcome and that nothing is TMI. Girl, I’ve had kids. I know all the things. In any case: tests confirmed the suspicion. Typically, I go on-call for clients at 37 weeks but understood that I’d need to be on call at an  earlier juncture for Allison, Josh, and baby Kashton.

 

Which brought us to tonight, and Allison full-term at 37 weeks to nearly the day.

 

She’d been experiencing regular contractions and so she and Josh headed to the hospital, where I planned to meet them. To Josh’s consternation, Allison insisted on curling her hair before making the trek–she looked beautiful. We laughed about it in the room, and of course, I sided with her.  Labor, gentle at first, quickly ramped up: she reached 5 cm and one hour later, Kashton was born.

 

Like most babies, he was a bluish purple upon arrival. Not to worry. The nurse briskly rubbed him with a receiving blanket to stimulate blood flow and circulation. He responded, but briefly. She repeated the procedure, with the same response from Kashton. Without alarming anyone, the nurse called the NICU doctor who also repeated the procedure. Again, the same response. Something was clearly wrong. The question was what.

 

Allison and I waited in the delivery room, waiting for the doctor to finish. We waited for word from the NICU, from Josh, from anyone. Eventually, Josh came into the room, his face creased with worry. “They need to Lifelight him to Children’s. There’s a problem with his heart.” My stomach dropped; I knew–from personal experience–how serious this was. I also knew, again, from personal experience–what exceptional care Children’s Hospital provides.

 

Josh and Allison waited in the NICU with Kashton as the team prepped him for the trip to Minneapolis. I talked to Allison’s mom, Josh’s mom and sister explaining what little I knew. And we waited, and waited, and waited. Praying. Waiting.  Before Allison and Josh left Duluth for the Minneapolis, I hugged them both hard, all of us unsure as to how the story would end.

 

 

Thankfully, the story has sweet ending.

 

Kashton was born with an Congential Heart Defect; more specifically, a Dextro-Transpostion of the Great Arteries (D-TGA).  He underwent an arterial switch operation, an open heart surgery where the heart is stopped during the surgery, to reroute and “switch” the circulation, enabling the heart to carry oxygenated blood to the body. It was a success.

 

 

To raise awareness about Congenital Heart Defects, Allison and Josh are organizing a CHD Awareness Warrior Walk 5k  on August 17th,  in Kashton’s honor. All proceeds will be donated to the (Midwest) Ronald McDonald House. It’s a race I’m going to run.

 

Allison and Josh: Kashton’s birth story, as unscripted and unplanned as it was, is miraculous. Your son is a warrior no doubt, but you both are equally fearless in  your unflinching love and advocacy, in your efforts to raise awareness, and in giving back to an organization that supports and comforts families. Thank you both, for allowing me to document the day Kashton arrived and to celebrate the absolute miracle he is.