Brennan's Birth Story

We arrived at the hospital early on the morning of March 27, 2008 for a scheduled c-section. We were pretty relaxed as this was my fourth c-section - so we knew what to expect. We went through the pre-op paper work, signed consents, got my IV, etc. We even saw a friend of mine coming out of the operating room with her new baby boy as we were being wheeled into the operating room. As before, it was only a few minutes until I felt pressure on my stomach and was told he'd be out soon.....a bit more pressure and there he was! They held him up for me to see....he looked so cute and little. The only thing I clearly remember noticing upon seeing him was that his little tongue was sticking out and thought, "the little guy must be hungry already!" They then took him over to get weighed and be given an initial exam by the pediatrician. I told Eric to go over and see our new baby boy while they were finishing my surgery. I remember the OB talking to the nurses in a very hushed voice. Then, I heard the pediatrician talking to Eric and thought I heard him say "chromosome" and wondered why he would be talking to Eric about chromosomes while doing my son's exam. Then, Eric came over to me and I asked him if something was wrong. He told me we'd talk about it after they were done with my surgery. I told him that I wanted to know now. He very calmly told me that the pediatrician suspected that our new baby boy had Down syndrome. They would be taking him to the NICU for further observation and to have a blood test done to determine if, in fact, he did have Down syndrome. And this is where our journey began.....

Here we go.....

So, here I go with my first blog entry. The purpose of this blog is two-fold. First, to let friends and family have a means for stopping in to see what's going on with our family of six. Second, and actually more importantly, is to be a resource for people receiving a pre or post natal diagnosis of Down syndrome. After Brennan was born, I spent many hours scouring the internet to find information about Down syndrome. My greatest source of comfort and inspiration came through reading blogs of families who have children with Down syndrome. Through these blogs I was able to see that their lives were just so normal - which is not what I thought our life would be when I was first told that the doctors suspected our son had Down syndrome. My hope is that someday, someone will come across my blog and find comfort in seeing just how normal our life is.