Aydon’s Story"This is my story of my angel.. my son, Aydon..."
I found out I was prego in November of 2006. I was so shocked. My son's dad was not supposed to be able to have kids so yeah I was shocked and he was too. Well I never had morning sickness or anything which to me was not odd because I have a 3 year old little girl too and I never got sick with her so I didn't think anything of it.Everything was going great up until I went to see what the sex of the baby was. We got there and she said "it's a boy" and everything as far as she could tell looked fine so we left there soooo happy. Then I get a phone call a week later. The nurse said the baby's head is too small for his age. I could not believe it...not my baby boy. So I had to start going to Birmingham, Alabama to see what was really going on with Aydon. Guess what, he has Spina Bifida. So there was another heartbreak. So I end up getting a MEO. I get a call 3 days later saying his lungs looked good and to come on in and have him.
Okay so I am having the surgery and they get my son out...I hear nothing at all...I am freaking out. I'm asking everyone why is my son not crying. I get no response. Then the doctor said he is ok he just needed some o2. As soon as I get to the room, my mom, my sister and my son's dad all come around me and said April, the doctors think that Aydon might have CMV. I was clueless to what that meant. I went to see my son as soon as I could feel my feet. There he was. He had blue spots all over his body but he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. He stayed at Chlidrens Hospital for a month and a half.
Now as far as we know, this is what all is wrong with him...CMV, Spina Bifida, deaf in left ear, blind, clubfoot, dislocated hips, cerebral palsy, and fluid on the brain. Now Aydon is almost 10 months old and he is my life. I am a single, 21 year old mother and it's so hard sometimes but all he has to do is laugh and smile and all my tears fade away. It's going to a long, long road but I will be there through it all...he is my angel!!!!! ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT GOD DOES NOT GIVE YOU ANYTHING YOU CAN'T HANDLE!!
- Submitted by his mother, April
Perhaps no one is able to give greater insight into living with congenital CMV than the parents of those children and adults born with this disease. Click here to read their stories.
Lisa Saunders
"Sixteen years after her birth, I awoke feeling so proud of Elizabeth on her birthday. She had fought hard to stay with us in the land of the living, surviving several bouts with pneumonia, seizures and surgeries". ... more
Melissa Prosper
"For the rest of my pregnancy I got bounced around from specialist to specialist for all kinds of testing. I had MRI's and ultrasounds and with all of them came more bad news. It seemed like every doctor had no hope for him"... more
Rosemary Carter
"Two days after his birth, he failed his newborn screening in both ears. He didn't like being held because he liked to bend his back backwards a lot. He failed all hearing tests and we did an ABR"... more
Sharon Caldwell
"As a new mom I believed she was just a little slow and she would catch up (she was 3 months) but I did as the doctor wanted and that is when all the tests began"...more
more parents stories Share your CMV Story
Please include details about you and your child's experience with congenital CMV. You're encouraged to include information about your pregnancy, delivery, diagnosis, prognosis and how your child is doing. Feel free to write about your thoughts and feelings as you have raised your CMV child.
Your experiences will encourage and strengthen other CMV parents and will offer the public invaluable insight about the CMV virus. These compelling stories can be the key to positive change - policymakers, the press, and other key influencers will learn more about congenital CMV and its profound impact, largely unseen around the United States and the world, until now...
Send your story to: email@stopcmv.com.
Real Story of Congenital CMV"Imagine giving birth to a baby and finding that your baby was exposed to a dangerous virus during pregnancy.
This virus, Cytomegalovirus (CMV), could have a questionable impact on your child’s development and prognosis and you have no outlook as to what your child’s life and medical situation would be. You were never informed of this virus by your OB/GYN while pregnant and were never told to take any precautionary measures to prevent exposure. You blame yourself for allowing harm to come to your unborn child and you wonder how and where you may have acquired the virus and what you could have done to prevent it. Upon learning that you likely acquired the virus from small children, even possibly your own small children, you blame yourself for not being more careful but you also slightly resent your other children for indirectly harming your newborn.
When you research the internet and search for information about CMV, words like "herpes" and "HIV" come up in many of your searches and you feel additional shame and guilt wondering what you did to harm your baby. When you read about CMV, you read in pregnancy and parenting forums that it is "rare" and "uncommon", coupled side by side with data from medical sites, putting statistics closer to 1 in 150..."