Atrial Septal Defect

As you may recall when Sawyer was born he had to get an Echo before we were released to go home. There appeared to be the presence of a heart murmur. They couldn't determine completely what it was so set us up with an appointment to follow up 2 months later. We went to his follow up appointment at Pediatric Cardiology of Springfield yesterday and after 2.5 hours of tests, Dr. Shapiro determined Sawyer does have a heart condition but not a murmur. The condition they diagnosed him with is ASD or Atrial Septal Defect, a congenital condition that is basically a hole in his heart between his atria. All babies have the presence of the hole in utero to allow blood flow from the uterus to the baby but it closes when they are born. Sawyer's didn't close completely. His ASD is small to moderate (5-6mm in size) and may require a procedure when he is 2-4 years of age to close. Dr. Shapiro wants us to come back to see if the size of the hole has changed in November and then determine the next step.
Good news is this shouldn't affect his ability to be an active child and he should live a normal life.  While no heart condition should be taken lightly, he should be able to do everything we hoped he could.
I reached out to my Aunt Julie who works in the clinic at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis and she went and spoke to their heart team about it. They were very encouraging saying not to worry and there is even a possibility it could get smaller as he gets bigger. They pointed me in the direction of their website for more info, it had some really great info. Thanks Aunt Jules!!
Here is the link: http://www.cardinalglennon.congenital.org/?id=atrialseptal1

The arrow shows the hole location