A New Normal...

Recently, I’ve met with a few mothers who've either just had a baby with DS or are expecting one.  The topic of “our whole lives are going to change” always comes up.  It’s true.  Your whole life does change.  BUT not so much the kind of change we expect.  When Welles was fist born, I guiltily felt sorry for myself.  Our whole future was going to be so different from the one we’d dreamt up.  We were never going to have a “normal” family again.  We were probably never going to do “normal” things.  How could we ever travel, go on date nights, or take our family on fun adventures without worrying about his health the entire time? When a child is born with Down syndrome the process goes something like this… Tests, tests and more tests.  Checking their heart, chromosome testing, genetic testing, the usual ears, eyes and whatever further testing the doctor thinks necessary.  On top of that you have nurses watching over your shoulder to make sure they get the feeding process down (low muscle tone can make the suction motion more difficult) and a lot of times a feeding tube is placed.  A lot of babies with DS need help breathing and are placed on oxygen.  The list goes on.

You come home from the hospital a bottle of nerves.  You worry about every little thing you discussed with doctors while in the hospital.  But things eventually calm down.  Even for the friends of mine whose little’s had heart defects and other conditions.  Things do slow down, and so does the worry.  We all embrace this new normal.  A much more wonderful normal than we could have ever imagined.  Maybe this normal comes with more tests throughout their lives, more work and more bumps along the way.  But it does start to feel normal.  And I promise that you will not want to trade your normal in for someone else’s.  ALSO, you will still travel, find a trustworthy babysitter so you can enjoy those date nights, and take your family on beautiful adventures!  Life does change, just for the better.

For the reasons above, I’ve decided to show a little more of our family on this blog.  Proof that we still function like any other family.  But maybe our normal is a little more extraordinary, that’s all ;)

So check out our weekend below.  It was full of being out in the beautiful weather, Scarlett "gardening", hanging Christmas lights, Scarlett fixing Welles car ;), daddy serenading us and meeting our newest buddy, Hannah! [Side note: Hannah was born to some of our dear friends!  Her daddy and Scott grew up next door neighbors and great buds, what are the chances they would also have an angel with DS as well?!  We are so happy Welles will have another life long buddy.  Isn't she gorgeous?!]