Sebastian came to us at a time when we were still getting over losing Max. I got a call from one of the directors if we could possibly take in a 3 week old baby boy, who more than likely would be "adoptable" in the future...............
My mom happened to be with us, we all talked it over and agreed to say yes.....
It was the hardest thing, I felt like I was betraying Max, but felt strongly I needed to move forward and not keep hoping that one day Max would come back to us.
Sebastian was born to a mom with pretty severe mental health issues, who had already lost 3 kids previously. After he was born he did go home with her, but after about 10 days he was removed from her care. He was taken in by his grandmother, who after a week called CPS and told them he needed to go to a foster/adoptive home. I never met her, but it must have been such a difficult decision......she was in her 70's and her husband was terminally ill, she just could not care for him.
It was obvious when he arrived that he was loved, he came with bags and bags of clothes, a bassinet, a swing, a carseat, you name it, it was there.
The caseworker who brought him siad he had been screaming for the past 2 hours, and when she handed him to me........................there it was.......the magical moment........he stopped crying and just looked at me.............the caseworker was amazed as I just told Sebastian that everything was going to be okay and I would be his mommy and take care of him. Everyone was so excited !
He looked like a little old man, failure to thrive (underweight) and I suspected right away he had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome just from his facial features.
Sebastian was the best baby, just a joy, very laid back and content, but it was obvious he was very delayed and had a lot of feeding issues. Not only did he have severe reflux, but he would have formula come out of his nose while he was drinking his bottle. Tons of respiratory infections, poor weight gain, we muddled on, I was feeding him 2 oz every 2 hrs for months..................
Right before his 1st birthday he had a massive pneumonia again and while inpatient the dr's had a first hand look at how he would throw up and choke, aspirate a lot of times, turn blue on occasion, etc and the decision was made to transfer him to All Childrens in St Pete where a G tube was placed. We came home with a feeding pump, an IV pole, tons of meds, but I had received a lot of training in the hospital, so we felt we could handle this. We actually had to fight to prevent him from being placed in a medical foster home. Legally, his mom had already signed surrenders and we had been asked if we wanted to adopt, no way they were going to take my baby away !!! Give me the training and I'll become a medical foster parent !
Little did we know, but that was only the beginning of our medical journey. Even on G tube feeds, Sebastian kept getting pneumonia's and his O2 levels would bottom out in seconds.........................................
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