Today’s featured cherub is Alexis “AJ” Reynaldo Sanchez. He is the angel son of Reynaldo and Kiara Sanchez, and little brother to sister Kaylin.
Reynaldo had this to share about his son, “Me and Kiara found out we were pregnant about a month after our well deserved mini vacation to Miami for 3 days to see my favorite soccer team play Real Madrid vs Barcelona the world famous el clasico. She started to feel morning sickness and also her monthly was late. We have a 6 year old daughter together and have discussed the possibility of going for a second. Especially since I have always expressed my dream of having a boy to complete our small happy family. To our surprise a month after our getaway Kiara took a pregnancy test at home and we were absolutely overcome with joy. The test was positive and I immediately began praying for a baby boy. For the most part the pregnancy itself was pretty normal, we even held a gender reveal at our home with friends and family. I remember it like yesterday I actually was the one who did the honors and cut into this white and yellow round cake. I remember closing my eyes and saying to myself please be a boy, please be a boy. As I am cutting into the cake, I slowly pull out the knife, eyes still closed and immediately could hear cheers. I opened my eyes, looked down and in my hands is a knife covered in blue cake filling. I was overcome with absolute joy, I jumped up and down like a kid cheering for his favorite baseball team in the world series. The first thought that came to mind was finally my family is complete, I got my girl and boy. That same day I had decided to name him after me I gave him my middle name as his first name Alexis, and my first name as his middle Reynaldo and of course my last name Sanchez. Kiara said the name was a bit long so she would prefer to give him a nickname of AJ which stands for Alexis Jr.
Little by little we started to buy baby boy clothing and sneakers and gifts for his arrival. Not too long after the gender reveal Kiara was due for a 20 week check up. According to her doctor this was gonna be pretty routine and shouldn’t be too long. The day Kiara scheduled it, I actually had to be at work so I informed her I most likely would not be able to make it. I usually went with her to all her appointments, so both of us were sad that I would not be able to make it. But to my surprise my boss let me out early so I can make the appointment just in time, so I decided to surprise her and show up unannounced. I’m so very glad I did as she was shocked to see me there. She was sitting in the waiting room all alone with her pregnant belly at 20 weeks. We both went inside and could not wait to get another glimpse of our baby boy. The ultra sound tech said she needed to conduct an anatomy scan and it should not take very long. During the procedure we noticed the ultra sound tech was very quiet and began calling other professionals into the room. At this point we just thought it was all pretty normal. Up until of course I can see and feel the mood in room shift. Both me and Kiara began to grow worrisome. A woman came into the room introduced herself and asked us to step into her office there was something she needed to tell us. We both sat in her office as she broke the news that our son has a defect and we would need to speak with a specialist at Yale that can answer any questions we have in regards to this condition, because she unfortunately was not able to go into depth about it since she herself did not know enough about it. Both me and Kiara immediately broke down into tears and were in total shock.
That same day we immediately began googling CDH and finding out as much research on it as we can. We also decided to invite our parents over to break the terrible news to them. After that day, I went to every single appointment. We were informed by a specialist at Yale that our son was diagnosed with a rare birth defect called congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). Kiara’s due date was April 15th and it was approaching fast. We had decided to cancel the baby shower and instead turn our focus on a welcome home party for AJ. We were told we had few options on what hospitals we would be able to deliver AJ at due to his circumstances and based off of their fine work related to CDH we chose Yale New Haven hospital. They also informed us that they had completely remodeled the NICU floor with all state of the art equipment. The day finally came on March 26th, kiara called me crying saying its time AJ is coming. I immediately left my job and sped towards the hospital. AJ was born march 26th 2018 at 4:36 pm weighing 6lb 1oz. It was an emergency C-section and as soon as they pulled him out he was immediately rushed out of the room. We did not see him until much later that night, we were so anxious and could not wait to see him.
We finally went up to the NICU floor and there he was in his own huge private room filled with doctors and nurses providing him with around the clock care. Both me and Kiara stood over his incubator and finally laid eyes on our first born son. He was absolutely perfect. Kiara and I basically lived at the hospital. All of the staff was very supportive every step of the way, they even made AJ a small place card that they placed above his bed with a hand drawn picture of a shark because they said he was such a strong fighter. About 3 days after he was born he started to have some complications and we were then informed he would have to be placed on ECMO for him to have any chance of survival. AJ was successfully placed on ECMO and was on ECMO for more than 2 weeks. Doctors felt AJ was doing well enough to have the CDH repair surgery while he was on ECMO. The surgery was a success and shortly after he was removed off ECMO. He was placed on a ventilator and seemed to be doing good. Unfortunately one night his oxygen level started to take a dip and he just was not getting enough oxygen into his blood. Doctors tried absolutely everything tirelessly working hard to get him to bounce back even giving him medicine they have never given a newborn in the hospital before. But even with all the medicine he was not able to bounce back.
On April 26th, 2018, exactly one month after birth doctors held a meeting with us to inform us unfortunately they have exhausted all options and there was nothing else they could do for him. All family that day paid AJ a visit including his big sister Kaylin. On April 26th, 2018, with Kiara by my side, alongside both our parents we finally got to hold our beautiful baby boy. AJ took his last breath in my arms as I gently kissed his forehead. There was not a dry eye in the hospital that night. AJ officially gained his wings that night just after midnight. Alexis Reynaldo Sanchez (AJ) my first born son born 3/26/18 – 4/27/18.”
