Let's backtrack a bit to introduce the star of this blog, Matthew, who arrived quickly and three weeks early on April 16, 2012. It was the day after tax day, which is significant since it's the official end a hectic tax season for Michael, a CPA. After the long hours and continuous weeknight and weekend work, April 15th finally arrived. It was Divine Mercy Sunday, which is always a special day for us as he proposed to me at the Divine Mercy Shrine several years ago. I told Michael that I could have the baby any day now. Sure enough, I went into labor that night. It was probably my best labor yet- our three kids were home with a neighbor and later on my mother-in-law, cozy in their beds for the night. Forget the delivery part itself, my biggest fear was always who would take care of the kids when I was in labor. We had a chatty nurse, who seemed to have one computer glitch after another, but otherwise we were left alone in the delivery room. Matthew arrived smoothly at 12:30 AM, after a few hours of labor, and we were delighted.
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| Matthew Thomas! |
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| Proud parents |
Soon after delivery I noticed a few of the nurses giving each other looks and talking quietly to one another. I asked Michael if he thought Matthew had Down syndrome and he just said that he didn't know. Down syndrome (Ds) (aka Trisomy 21, a genetic condition in which a person has 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46), had become a part of our vocabulary after my 20-week ultrasound, where we saw that Matthew has a sandal gap, or a gap between his first and second toe. This can be a soft marker for Ds. We just assumed that he had his daddy's feet and didn't think too much of it. Although we declined any prenatal testing or genetic counseling to look into it further, I still couldn't get the idea of it out of my head. I wasn't familiar with Down syndrome at all, aside from helping out at the Special Olympics once in high school, and the unknown scared me. Michael, on the other hand, always said that he thought that babies with Down syndrome were the cutest little babies and that if we were to have a baby with Down syndrome then we would just love him even more. From that 20-week ultrasound on, I took some time to learn more about Down syndrome online and become a lot more comfortable with it, still a bit apprehensive though. I think God had a great plan for us.
Now back to the delivery night... in the early hours of April 16th we cherished our sleepy little Matthew, who had itty bitty features on his face and the cutest purple feet. In the morning the neonatal doctor came in and said that some of the nurses last night suspected Down syndrome. She showed me his little and low set ears, the extra skin on his neck, and pointed out that those cute purple feet were also consistent with Down syndrome. I thought she and the nurses were crazy but allowed them to take Matthew for the bloodwork for a karyotype test.
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| So sweet |
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| Love these baby feet! |
The rest of the hospital stay was like a roller coaster. I broke down after talking to the doctor and called Michael who was with the kids at our home. Michael, the matter-of-fact and strong guy that he is, simply said, "So Matthew might have Down syndrome? Ok, let's find out." I felt like we were labeled by everyone as the family who might have the kid with Down syndrome, and not in a good way. Shouldn't a baby's birth be a joyous time? Both sides of the family visited us, the hospital room crammed with people for a couple hours, where it felt like we were finally able to celebrate Matthew's birth in a happy way with others.
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| Meeting their new brother |
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| New family of 6 |
I am so grateful for those hospital pictures of our family from my mother-in-law. I remember looking at the pictures of Matthew, knowing that he had Down syndrome, just not wanting to admit it yet... until I had the positive test results one week later (what a long week). From that point on, I embraced the saying my sister-in-law, Tabitha, told me: this is just our new normal.
Today I look at those pictures and I love the ones that show Matthew's special features. He fits right into our family and is so loved by all, especially his three siblings. We have no clue what the future will be like for Matthew but we're taking everything one day at a time. So far, it's been an awesome ride.
