Winston Salem NC Birth Photographer {Evan's First Year}
M+J moved to Winston Salem, NC a few years ago and quickly nestled in and made this city their home. Now life couldn't be more perfect with their little peanut, Evan. He just celebrated his first birthday.
As a photographer, to share such an experience with clients, such as the expectation and arrival of a child is one of the most rewarding experience I have yet to know. I have worked with these three over the last year documenting maternity, birth, newborn and just this past week in honor of Evan's First birthday, we let him get a bit messy with a cake.
Evan's first year has been quite tremendous. As if it's not life changing enough for everyone involved to adapt to a new baby, Evan was diagnosed with a Congenital Heart Defect shortly after birth. With the Grace of God, the wisdom of great doctors at Robinhood Pediatrics + abroad, plus strong, loving parents- Evan is as healthy as ever!
I sometimes get really behind on blogging. But somehow this has worked out beautifully to honor and celebrate his year of life. It is a treat to share his images and story and celebrate the first year with him!
I have included a note from his mom at the end of this blog, that shares her experience of his disease throughout this first year. For any other families out there that may be experiencing this, I hope that it can give you hope and strength.
"On June 7, 2013 we were blessed by the birth of our son Evan. He was a strong little guy and seemed as bright and healthy as any newborn. The second morning in the hospital, the pediatrician doing his daily exam heard a heart murmur that had not been present during previous exams. He was sent to the lab for an echocardiogram and they found that he had a hole in the wall between his chambers and there was thickening in his pulmonary artery. He was given the diagnosis of a mild form of tetralogy of fallot. Over the next few months we visited cardiologists at Wake Forest Baptist Health and Duke Childrens Hospital as well as many visits with Dr. Clifford. Over time Evan had difficulty gaining weight due to his increased heart rate and he also started to have heart failure as his lungs retained fluid due to his incorrect plumbing of the heart. He had labored breathing, a high pulse rate, and was required to have a higher calorie diet in order to gain weight. Even through all this Evan was still doing so well in many other areas and meeting milestones it was hard to believe he had a broken heart. We were encouraged by many medical professionals that assured us that while Evan would require a major open heart surgery that his prognosis was very good and that they had every expectation that the hole would be patched and he would grow up to be a normal healthy little boy. Evan had open heart surgery at Duke Childrens Hospital in Durham where they patched the hole and slightly stretched his pulmonary artery. The surgeon and cardiologist felt that he should not need further surgery and hopefully his pulmonary artery grows with him and will not need to be stretched again if so it will be a more minor cath. lab procedure. He was in the hospital for 6 days which was the best possible outcome and he recovered amazingly well. He visited Dr. Clifford the following Monday and all were impressed with how his vital signs were normal and he was happy and very active just a week after surgery. Over the next few months Evan continued to gain weight and catch up on the growth curves and it is becoming more difficult to find reasons to come visit our favorite doctor and nurses. Evan is currently almost 8 months and is continuing to do wonderfully he is sitting up, rolling around, trying to crawl, alert and active and eats his bottles and solids like a champ. Evan will be monitored by cardiologists for his entire life, but we are hopeful he will not need further procedures. We are so thankful for Dr. Clifford for her amazing, caring medical attention during these extremely wonderful and difficult times. The nurses have also been very professional, knowledgeable, and extremely kind as well. They have made this journey less scary and we look forward to seeing everyone at our appointments and showing off each new milestone and achievement! We love Robinhood Pediatrics!"
