Jayden was born on October 2, 2006. We didn’t know until birth that he was born without his right hand. It was a shock to all of us! We all wondered what went wrong! I had 3 ultrasounds done and nothing was discovered. Although on my last ultrasound which was at 8 months pregnant, the technician performing the ultrasound had a hard time trying to find one of his hands. I asked her, “Why can’t she find his hand?” and her response to me was that, “he might be hiding it.” I didn’t think anything of it at that time, and never in a million years would I have thought that my little angel Jayden would be born with a missing limb.
When I first saw Jayden without his hand, so many questions went through my head. How is he going to crawl? How is he going to play with his toys? How will he be able to dress himself, zip-up his jacket? How will he tie his shoes? Will he be able to do things like normal kids? Will he be teased in school? Will people see him different? So many questions unanswered. I thought the worse! I was afraid of showing him to the world. I didn’t want people starring, pointing, or whispering things. I wanted to protect my baby from everyone. I would hide his hand every time I took him to the doctor’s office. I know the time will soon come when I have to show him to the world. Hopefully then I would be ready and prepared for all the negativity that society brings our way.
Jayden is now a healthy 5 months old. He is just full of life; I wouldn’t change a thing about him. He grabs his toys with both hands and pushes them into his mouth. He gets mad when he can’t put the whole toy in his mouth and starts screaming. He’s having a hard time trying to hold the bottle in his mouth because the bottle is too wide. But I can’t change his bottles because he only likes the Avent ones. He is now turning over with no problem at all. He is such a happy baby. He goes to sleep with a smile and wakes up with a smile. Just seeing him smile, takes away all my fears. It’s like nothing else matters to me in this world.
I did research about missing limbs and found this website. Tears came down my eyes as I read other people’s stories. Now I know that my baby is capable of doing anything his little heart desires. I won’t let anyone or anything stand in his way. It feels good to know that we are not alone.
