First newspaper blog

The first blog on our newspaper's website is up already!
In the future, you can visit www.mirrormoms.com to see if I've posted recently. In the meantime, here's the first blog entry:

Extra chromosome, extra special
When our son Zachary was born Aug. 7, my husband Scott and I thought we could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The nine months of funny cravings, embarrassing hormones and holding our breath in hopes for an easy delivery and healthy baby had come to an end. After three days of contractions and a surprise C-section, we didn’t exactly have the easiest of labor experiences, but in our arms was the greatest reward ever – a seemingly-healthy nine-pound baby boy with big blue eyes and a quiet, easy demeanor.
After two days, we were snapped out of our fairytale with the news that Zack might have Down Syndrome.
While we waited for the results of a chromosome test that first week, we entertained visitors who had no idea of what was on our minds, held our baby close and watched the minutes pass by slowly.
I’ve never been much of a risk-taker, but if you had told me the chances of my having a baby with Down Syndrome at the age of 26 was 1 in 1200, even I wouldn’t have batted an eyelash.
But on our son’s one-week birthday, the hospital pediatrician called us personally to tell us that the test results were positive.
Our new lives had begun. I would be lying if I said those first few days didn’t involve a few tears and more research and Googling than probably was healthy, but we got through it as a family. It certainly tested us.
There’s no known cause for this genetic disorder. It took me a while to accept that this wasn’t something I did or didn’t do as a pregnant woman or in delivery or years before.
It’s as simple as the fact that Zack is pretty lucky, too. Lucky enough to have one extra chromosome that most of us probably never thought much about before.
So far, Zack has impressed not only his family but also our doctors. Babies with Down Syndrome often times have serious heart defects, hearing problems, trouble breastfeeding and low muscle tone.
Zack is the strongest one-month-old most people have seen, lifting his head up for long periods of time, loving tummy time and pushing his legs across his crib with extreme strength. He passed his hearing screenings (after several tries), has no major heart problems and nurses like a champ.
We came out of the first trying week – an extra long hospital stay, watching his little chest heave up and down among sobs in the middle of an EKG and ultrasound at the pediatric cardiologist, and just a lot of “Why Us?”
He gives us hope, our Super Baby, although we realize the road ahead might prove challenging. It could be years before we know to what extent this diagnosis will impact Zack’s life. We hope not at all. It’s our mission, as his number one cheerleaders and fans, to make his life as “normal” as possible and to educate others along the way.
He’s already making us better people.
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Any suggestions for future topics/discussions?

Have a great weekend!