CBS 2 EXCLUSIVE: NYC Parents Bring Home Miracle Baby In Time For Christmas

NEW YORK (CBS 2) -- This Christmas will be extra special for one New York City family. After months of round-the-clock vigil in the Intensive Care Unit, they are finally bringing their baby home just in time for the holidays.

Five-week-old Oscar Rowe may look like an average healthy newborn now, but his parents say it took a Christmas miracle.

"It's the best possible present in the purest sense of the word," Oscar's mom, Sylvia Rowe, told CBS 2's Kathryn Brown.

Parents Ian and Sylvia were thrilled when they learned they were expecting a child, but devastated to find out their baby had a birth defect. His major organs -- including the liver, bowels and stomach -- were growing outside his body. It was a condition called an omphalocele.

"We were trying to be strong and be calm throughout this whole process," Sylvia said. "We always said if we're lucky, we'll be able to bring him home by Christmas."

Doctors delivered Oscar via C-section last month and immediately handed him off to teams of specialists, who rushed him into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at New York Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.

Pediatric surgeon Dr. Robert Cowles performed the risky, four-hour surgery on Oscar several days later, literally tucking each of his organs back into his body.

"Sometimes there's not enough space and in his case, luckily, we did have enough space to fit everything on the inside," Cowles said. "On occasion we don't."

Oscar's anxious parents had to wait 10 excruciating days, but finally got to hold him for the first time on Thanksgiving Day.

"That was just...that was a great Thanksgiving gift," Ian said.

Oscar spent the first five weeks of his life in the NICU, but this week he got to see it from the outside for the first time. Arriving at his new home, Oscar's big sister, Camille, was there to greet him.

After more than a month in the hospital, the Rowes actually look forward to the sleepless nights and normal challenges of having a newborn that lie ahead.

"We're just so excited. We shouldn't be a happier family this Christmas," Sylvia said.

Doctors were also able to save little Oscar's belly button -- something that frequently must be removed in children born with the disorder. Oscar is expected to fully recover.

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