Down's SyndromeWhen Anne-Marie and her husband heard their unborn baby had Down's their first reaction was to have him adopted after birth. However, some moving scan pictures changed their minds… Finding out …I first knew something was wrong with my baby at my 20-week scan. His left ventricle in his brain was dilated so I had to go back a week later for a follow-up. I was then sent to St Mary's Hospital in Manchester for a third scan. They said I needed to have a blood test for viruses and an amnio because the defect could be due to a number of genetic disorders. Very reluctantly (I hate needles and was scared of the risk of miscarriage) I had it there and then. A few days later we received a telephone call giving us, what at the time, was devastating news. My son had Down Syndrome. When we first heard the news, we decided to have him adopted. The hospital had said, when they broke the news to us, that we could have a termination if we wanted and that there was no rush. However, for me that was out of the question. It would have involved an injection through the stomach to kill the baby then a delivery in my local hospital. I decided, instead, that I might as well go full term and give the baby a chance with an adoptive family. We spent ten weeks of unbelievable stress and upset then decided we would keep him (we knew it was a boy). I think seeing him and getting his scan pictures at 33 weeks was the decision maker. When he was born I felt the odd pang of sadness but we had done all our grieving during the pregnancy so we were able to appreciate and love him straight away. Also, you couldn't tell he had Down's - I don't know what I was expecting he would look like but he was just normal. He's an easy babyMy son is now six months old and he shows no real symptoms apart from the fact that he is snuffly quite a lot and colds seem to take ages to clear. Fortunately it doesn't bother him at all! Because he doesn't have any specific illnesses (eg he doesn't have a heart condition) him being here is the same as with a 'normal' healthy child. He has some low muscle tone in his legs, which came as a surprise because of the amount of kicking! He has had two sessions with a physio and these will continue so she can monitor his progress and give me exercises to do at home with him to help his development. My son is a very alert, laid-back and contented boy. In fact, he's an easy baby and my three-year-old daughter adores him. When we first found out he had Down's we were devastated. Our daughter still doesn't sleep through the night and, with the long list of possible illnesses we were told he could have, we didn't think we could cope. Since he is so snuffly we expected he wouldn't sleep through the night but he has done since he was ten weeks old! Without sleep, it would be too difficult to cope with extra ailments. Believe what people sayIf someone had told us when I was pregnant what he would be like we wouldn't have believed them. We did some reading on the internet about how good and lovely children with Down's are but just thought "They would say that". My advice to people who are expecting or have just found out their new baby has Down's would be to look at all the internet sites and do believe what people say. For us, it isn't a case of "coping". It is just something we will adjust to as he grows older. He will just develop at a slower rate but should achieve all his goals. Where to next?
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