Writing this on July 18, 2006:

We're a homeschooling family, living in New Zealand. Dad is a kiwi, mum is from Holland. I (mum) use British English spelling, as that's what is common in New Zealand. Just so you know ;-)

In Sept. 2005 we found out that we were pregnant with our fifth baby. A very welcome surprise!
Noah was born at home on Sat., May 6, 2006, ten days before his due date. It was a very long and hard labour, some 28 hours all together, but without complications. And we were thankful to have another healthy baby, or so we thought...
By Thursday morning May 11, Noah was a strange colour and he wasn't feeding at all. It scared me, so I rang my midwife Bet. She was able to come over almost straight away.When she took one look at Noah's skin colour, she said we had to go to hospital NOW. It was so scary, I had no idea what could be wrong with my precious, tiny 5 day old baby.
Bet put Noah & me in her car and drove us to our local hospital in Tauranga. It's about a 30 min.drive from where we live. I remember keeping an eye on Noah in his carseat and wondering what was wrong with him and if he'd make it to the hospital... All I could do was cry...

Once in the emergency department, they saw Noah within minutes of us arriving there.
Lots of doctors, house surgeons and other staff all had a look at him, poked him, prodded him, tried to find veins to take blood. It was so awful! Noah just screamed and screamed and his little body had gone into shock, so they couldn't find any veins.
In the end, after a powercut (it was a stormy day), x-rays and lots of other stuff, including a lot of crying, Noah was transferred to the ICU and put on a ventilator.
It was decided he had to be flown by helicopter to Waikato Hospital, a far bigger hospital, as Tauranga can't deal with very sick babies.

Craig & I went home to get some stuff and to pray with the other four children and say goodbye to them. Mike (Craig's best friend) was already staying with us, so he could look after the children.
By about 6pm the hospital rang us that Noah was on his way in the helicopter to Waikato Hospital in Hamilton.
Craig & I drove to Hamilton, about a 2 hour drive. I don't know how I survived it. I'd never ever left one of my babies at this young age. And now Noah was somewhere up in the air, in a helicopter, on his way to NICU (Newborn Intensive Care Unit)...

We spent that night in Waikato Hospital, still not knowing what was wrong with Noah. They suspected infections, maybe blood poisoning or pneumonia.
The next morning blood test results starting coming back but they didn't show the amount of infections suspected. It was decided to do a heart ultrasound on Noah.
It was then that the reason for him being so unwell was discovered. He had multiple heart defects!
I was in shock when I was told yet at the same time strangely 'happy' to know what was wrong. Craig had a coarctation of the aorta too, so I knew what that was.
At this stage in Waikato, all we were told that Noah also had a coarctation of the aorta, a narrowing.

Waikato Hospital doesn't deal with cardiac babies so Noah would have to be transported once again. Only one day after his first helicopter ride, he was to have another one. This time to Starship Hospital in Auckland, the only children's hospital in New Zealand. Craig & I had to drive to Auckland, as we couldn't fit into the helicopter.
By the time we got to Starship's PICU (Paediatric Intensive Care Unit), it was around 8PM. Noah was already stabilised and again on a ventilator. He was also quite bloated from fluid retention. He looked like a little Michelin Man! Every time I looked at him, I just cried... The cardiologist told us he'd already done a heart ultrasound himself and explained that Noah not only had a coarctation of the aorta but also at least one hole, a VSD (of some 7mm!) and that the left ventricle of his heart was small. It was all rather overwhelming to take all that in at that stage.