Scottie's Story

 Scottie around a month old

 3 months old!

 Her mommy is a huge OSU fan. Its always a race on Saturday mornings to get her dressed. I won this time!

 Her daddy made sure he was awake this saturday to get her dressed

Scottie is almost 6 months old now, and I cant believe its been that long since she was born. Our story starts shortly after our honeymoon when I found out we were expecting. We had already made the decision that we would have a homebirth with a midwife. It was very important to me to stay out of the hospital, as I believe that hospitals are for the sick and pregnancy is not an illness. I stick by the decision to this day and can not wait to have my next. The birth went fantastically and she was born a healthy little girl.

From the beginning she struggled with eating and after 5 exhausting weeks we switched her to formula. She slowly began to gain wait but she wasn't growing like a baby should. At her to 2 month appointment she was in the 5th percentile for weight and length. Her doctor also discovered a murmur in her heart but told us this was fairly common in babies. Scottie continued to slowly gain weight and even added some length to her tiny body. It wasn't until her 4 month checkup that the doctor mentioned the dreaded words. Scottie had some symptoms of DS. From the night she was born we noticed that Scottie had a "special ear". I had thought it was nothing serious and that it was kind of adorable. The doctor also pointed out that her eyes have a slight slant (one worse than the other), as well as a Simian line across one of her palms. Although she had climbed into the 10th percentile for weight she had fallen off of the charts in length. Her doctor decided that was enough to do some blood work. Watching your baby have blood drawn is very difficult so I made Drew stand by her while I sat in the chair, trying very hard to hold back the tears. Between her crying and the thought of Down Syndrome running through my head I couldn't fight them back. I probably cried at least 15 different times that day.
The next week dragged by. It was 8 days later when the doctor called us to give us the news. Scottie had Down Syndrome. What many people don't know is that there are 3 different types. We were praying that she had Mosaic which means the extra 21st chromosome is only on some of the cells instead of all. It was a full month later when we would get these results back. Scottie has the most common form, Trisomy 21. Her dr assured me that this meant nothing when it came to her development. There are so many degrees of Trisomy 21.
The next step was to do more blood work as well as an echocardiogram to check her heart. All of her blood work has come back fabulous. She has been diagnosed with 2 minor heart defects. We are praying that these fix themselves but more than likely she will eventually have to have surgery to fix these.

Now on the wonderful part. God has blessed us with a beautiful baby girl. Scottie is the happiest baby I have ever been around. Every time she smiles I am reminded of how blessed we truly are. She is doing great developmentally and is almost right on track with her milestones. Sooner Start comes out 2 times a month and works with her and us. It is a wonderful program that the state provides for children with various disabilities.  We know that there will be challenges and delays, but we also know that God wouldn't give us more than we can handle. Who couldn't love this little girl?
It is my goal with this blog to keep everyone informed with her progress as well as to teach people the joys of having a child with down syndrome. She is my world and there isn't a single thing I would change about her.