"It was pretty scary, I guess, knowing that your baby is not your perfect little healthy baby."
For the remainder of her pregnancy Ally made trips to Auckland for scans and when she was 37 weeks pregnant she moved into Ronald McDonald House so she could give birth at Starship hospital.
Mike and Holly would visit during the weekends.
"It was not the ideal situation. The first night my husband and I spent apart since getting married was when we were thrown into this. It was lonely for me and Mike."
On March 20 last year Naia was born.
"We got a little cuddle and she was sent off to the NICU and got hooked up to heaps of stuff," she said.
Naia had one procedure on her heart the next day. She was then transferred to the heart ward and after about a week and a half the family were able to return to Te Awamutu where they were visited by home care.
Two weeks later they headed to Starship again to await Naia's first surgery at 6 weeks old.
"It was scary. You send in a baby that looks healthy and happy and you go back and her chest is still open. So she's just got this little napkin over but you can still see her chest was very much open. And there's tubes everywhere," she said.
Naia and Ally were in Starship for about two and a half months after that surgery, and then stayed in Waikato hospital for a few weeks before going home.
They were home for about a month and then returned to Starship for Naia's second surgery. They were home within a month, and in December they moved to Whangārei.
Ally said Heart Kids had been a great support.
She connected with them when she was pregnant, and went to her first coffee group just before she moved to Auckland for Naia's birth.
"It was really cool to talk to mums of other babies and kids who had grown up and were healthy, that had been through the same thing. It was great establishing those contacts, I could lean on them if I wanted to."
Naia will have another open heart surgery at age 3 or 4 but Ally said she is doing well.
"I'm so stoked she's just loving life and growing and getting stronger every day."
Heart Kids receives no funding from the Government so it relies on public support. Visit www.helpingheartkids.org.nz, or text HEART to 2427 to make a $3 donation.