Happy Friday! Happy October! Happy Down Syndrome Awareness Month!
Guess what I blogged about today?
I've finally begun to get the swing of juggling work, baby, Grandma DayCare, time with Scott and house stuff and promise to update this blog more often again. Thanks for being so patient!
Have a great October!
Showing posts with label Newspaper Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newspaper Blog. Show all posts
Friday, October 1, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
A blog for Rosa and Zack
When you become the parent of any child, your life changes, as does the way you look at life. Life as the parent of a special needs child teaches you even more lessons.
Words like "retarded" have always been over-used by the general public, but they never hurt me as badly as they do now.
Here's a blog I just wrote about the "R" word.
Words like "retarded" have always been over-used by the general public, but they never hurt me as badly as they do now.
Here's a blog I just wrote about the "R" word.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Bloggin' and Early Intervention
Another blog is up, this time talking about the beginning of our experience with a local Early Intervention program...
Here it is!
Here it is!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Blog time
Here's the latest newspaper blog, talking about the sadness I'm feeling about leaving Zack to go back to work.
I can't wait til we hit the lottery and I can stay at home at least part-time. :-)
I can't wait til we hit the lottery and I can stay at home at least part-time. :-)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Newspaper blog
When not knowing is better than knowing
My husband and I get asked a lot whether or not we knew about Zachary’s Down Syndrome before he was born.
We had no idea at all.
The only thing that would have given us advanced notice would have been optional genetic testing that we turned down about halfway through our pregnancy.
In a journal I kept for Zack while pregnant, I found an entry the other day that described our decision not to do the tests, which only gives a percentage, or odds of certain abnormalities and occasionally causes miscarriages.
“It was the easiest decision of our pregnancy so far,” I wrote in the journal. “We’re going to love you no matter what and we are prepared for all the possible outcomes.”
For a split second after learning of Zack’s diagnosis with Down Syndrome, I kicked myself for that “easiest decision.” But the longer I have to think it over, the more relieved I am that we didn’t spend a huge portion of our pregnancy worrying or stressing about something we couldn’t change and, perhaps more importantly, something that wasn’t going to change us.
Especially with as mild as Zack’s signs of the disorder are so far, I’m sure I would have spent 20 weeks preparing myself for a much worse scenario.
I've been e-mailing with one mom that I met through the organization Parent to Parent, who has a six-month-old daughter with Down Syndrome. She found out early on in her pregnancy that her baby had DS and I keep getting stuck on a handful of words in a recent e-mail from her: "It really saddened my pregnancy."
My pregnancy was an amazing experience for me. I loved being pregnant and I loved knowing that my child was growing inside of me. I'm not sure I ever knew happiness before that positive pregnancy test. I'd hate to have missed out on that bliss, even if it came from ignorance.
And even after what we’ve been through so far, I wouldn’t change a thing. We’ve already decided that if we have a second child, we still won’t get the tests done, even though the odds of having another child with Down Syndrome greatly increase the next time around.
It just doesn’t matter to us.
The end result is still a healthy baby; a baby that will be loved forever, no matter what.
What would you do?
My husband and I get asked a lot whether or not we knew about Zachary’s Down Syndrome before he was born.
We had no idea at all.
The only thing that would have given us advanced notice would have been optional genetic testing that we turned down about halfway through our pregnancy.
In a journal I kept for Zack while pregnant, I found an entry the other day that described our decision not to do the tests, which only gives a percentage, or odds of certain abnormalities and occasionally causes miscarriages.
“It was the easiest decision of our pregnancy so far,” I wrote in the journal. “We’re going to love you no matter what and we are prepared for all the possible outcomes.”
For a split second after learning of Zack’s diagnosis with Down Syndrome, I kicked myself for that “easiest decision.” But the longer I have to think it over, the more relieved I am that we didn’t spend a huge portion of our pregnancy worrying or stressing about something we couldn’t change and, perhaps more importantly, something that wasn’t going to change us.
Especially with as mild as Zack’s signs of the disorder are so far, I’m sure I would have spent 20 weeks preparing myself for a much worse scenario.
I've been e-mailing with one mom that I met through the organization Parent to Parent, who has a six-month-old daughter with Down Syndrome. She found out early on in her pregnancy that her baby had DS and I keep getting stuck on a handful of words in a recent e-mail from her: "It really saddened my pregnancy."
My pregnancy was an amazing experience for me. I loved being pregnant and I loved knowing that my child was growing inside of me. I'm not sure I ever knew happiness before that positive pregnancy test. I'd hate to have missed out on that bliss, even if it came from ignorance.
And even after what we’ve been through so far, I wouldn’t change a thing. We’ve already decided that if we have a second child, we still won’t get the tests done, even though the odds of having another child with Down Syndrome greatly increase the next time around.
It just doesn’t matter to us.
The end result is still a healthy baby; a baby that will be loved forever, no matter what.
What would you do?
Saturday, September 11, 2010
New newspaper blog
Told you I'd be doing a few of these in a row in the beginning! Here's the latest blog post...
The hardest thing for me in coming to terms with Zack's Down Syndrome diagnosis is telling others and their reactions. People mean well, this I know, but sometimes their responses are shocking and even a little hurtful.
Some of our family and community members never sent us a card congratulating us on our son but instead sent notes of sympathy or pity.
"We're so sorry to hear about Zack," they say. Or "Just heard the news and feel so bad for all of you. You're in my prayers."
We still have a brand new HEALTHY baby boy and it's hard for us to come across people who can't be excited about that. The Down Syndrome is definitely hard for anyone to deal with, we know that first hand,
My husband says that the one thing we have to remember is that people aren't all trained to react to this like professionals. In the end, it is what it is. He's our happy, healthy baby boy and others' opinions really don't matter.
I'm really close with my father, who raised me on his own for most of my childhood. He lives about four hours away and had called every day since Zack was born, I think just in hopes of hearing his grandson cry in the background. So when I had to call him to tell him the news, I was more scared to hurt him or let him down than anything else. His reaction was perfect though and calmed me in many difficult days since then.
"So?" he asked. And told me that I was strong and that everything happens for a reason. And then he changed the subject and asked about Zack.
If you're ever faced with difficult news from new parents, I would say this is my best advice: Remember that first and foremost, they are new parents who need help remembering to celebrate their bundle of joy some days.
Celebrate with them!
The hardest thing for me in coming to terms with Zack's Down Syndrome diagnosis is telling others and their reactions. People mean well, this I know, but sometimes their responses are shocking and even a little hurtful.
Some of our family and community members never sent us a card congratulating us on our son but instead sent notes of sympathy or pity.
"We're so sorry to hear about Zack," they say. Or "Just heard the news and feel so bad for all of you. You're in my prayers."
We still have a brand new HEALTHY baby boy and it's hard for us to come across people who can't be excited about that. The Down Syndrome is definitely hard for anyone to deal with, we know that first hand,
My husband says that the one thing we have to remember is that people aren't all trained to react to this like professionals. In the end, it is what it is. He's our happy, healthy baby boy and others' opinions really don't matter.
I'm really close with my father, who raised me on his own for most of my childhood. He lives about four hours away and had called every day since Zack was born, I think just in hopes of hearing his grandson cry in the background. So when I had to call him to tell him the news, I was more scared to hurt him or let him down than anything else. His reaction was perfect though and calmed me in many difficult days since then.
"So?" he asked. And told me that I was strong and that everything happens for a reason. And then he changed the subject and asked about Zack.
If you're ever faced with difficult news from new parents, I would say this is my best advice: Remember that first and foremost, they are new parents who need help remembering to celebrate their bundle of joy some days.
Celebrate with them!
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