When my husband and I were expecting our first child, we were preparing for the great journey of parenthood! When Lincoln arrived into our lives on April 18, 2009, we were the happiest we ever thought we could be. He was a healthy happy baby boy! Breastfeeding did not work out, so I was a full time pumping mom as he would not latch properly. As the months grew on, so did some struggles. Lincoln only wanted (weather or not he wanted to or not i'm not sure, but its the only way it would work) He would only drink when he was sleeping, so needless to say, every two hours I would rock him to sleep so I could give him a bottle. After numerous visits to my Nurse Practitioner, she insisted that I just wasn't waiting for the hunger cues. Every time, I would go home and just wait for some type of cue, not feeding him while he was sleeping. 6 hours would go by and he would still fuss and scream when i would try to feed him. I was used to that routine, and i suppose so was he (weather he knew it or not.. i'm not sure). When it came time for solids at 6 months, he showed no interest. I wasnt too worried about it, as some babies just arnt quite ready at 6 months... at round 7 months he started taking some in, but whatever he swallowed would come back up. So again, I went to my nurse practitioner - and she set me up with a pediatrician. At 7.5 months of age, Lincoln started on formula, and started drinking while he was awake with out a fuss. 1 week before my visit with the pediatrician, Lincoln started eating solids and actually keeping it down - which was such a relief, but i decided to keep my visit with the pediatrician just so a baby specialist could take a look at him. When I walked into my appointment on January 18, the Ped. took a look at Lincoln and some of his special traits - which included a short neck, an open mouth posture, and a simian crease on his right hand. She then thought it would be best that we get blood work done as she was concerned for him being a little on the smaller side (6th percentile) and a little slow reaching his milestones - but just a little slow, he was sitting unassisted by 7.5 months. On Jan. 27th we got blood work done, and waited patiently for the results to come back. 5 weeks later, we received a phone call from the Pediatrician asking my husband and I to go to Peterborough to go over the results... it was then that we knew there was something they had found. When we got there, she went over the results with us, and informed us that our 10 month old had down syndrome. Shocked by the news, we both started to cry, and try to figure out why God had picked us. We didnt have too much time to think about it, as 2 days later, Lincoln got pneumonia. We took him to the Dr. which referred us to the hospital, where we took an ambulance to a bigger hospital - in Peterborough. He was put on oxygen because his levels were so low. While we were in Peterborough, we had some routine tests done that they do on down syndrome babies like kidneys and heart. We then found out that Lincoln has ASD - a small hole in his heart... what a week!!! one thing after another after another... by the end of our 5 day stay at the hospital... we were thrilled to come back home with our happy boy again. We came to the realization that he is who he is... we knew him as who he is for the first 10 months of his life, and finding out he had down syndrome wasnt a big deal to us... rather, just a few answers to some of our struggles. He continues to be our happy baby boy and we are blessed that God chose him to be our first child!!! As it has only been two weeks since we found out, we have arranged for a infant development worker to come in and work with us as we try to get our Lincoln crawling and eventually walking! I am very excited about this new road we are on - I'm sure it will be full of happy times spent as family, with a few rough patches along the way that we will get over with ease! We are praying for the continued health and happiness of Lincoln for many years to come! I am new to blogging, but I will try to keep up! on April 09 Lincoln goes in to sick kids for another echo on his heart, where we will meet with a cardiologist who will decide when and if Lincoln needs surgery - so that will be my next post I guess!
Thanks for reading so far!!
Michelle *
