Palmdale, California
I was 19 years old and just getting to know my 2 1/2 month old son when I learned I was pregnant again! Uneventful pregnancy. Had all the usual tests including the AFP, and all had normal results. Ultrasounds all looked good and normal.
January 22, 1993 my second son, Jared Daniel, was born. It's almost embarrassing to admit, but one of my first thoughts was that he wasn't as 'cute' as our firstborn son. Things happened quickly after that. Jared would not eat in the hospital, and hadn't had a bowel movement, yet they sent us home 18 hours after he was born. That night Jared still didn't eat, began coughing up some thick, terrible black/green fluid, still no bowel movement. We took him back to the hospital and that's when we started to 'grieve' for the baby we imagined we'd have, and had to realize things weren't right with Jared. Jared had to have a colostomy at 3 days old, had 3 operations by 6 months old, which was when he had the pull thru done, and no more colostomy! yea! We were on the road to normalcy! or so we thought anyhow. We knew something wasn't right. "why isn't he trying to roll over?", "why doesn't he sit up yet?" etc... We asked the pediatrician, who said he must just need time to catch up from all the surgery. Well I guess when your Dr.'s name is KROCK...that's what you get!
My husband and I even talked about down syndrome quite a bit. Like so many other parents here, deep down we knew. With my 3rd pregnancy, my Dr. sent me to a geneticist to see if Jared's bowel disease (Hirschsprung's) could be genetic and what risks my future children had, etc. I had no babysitter that day, so I just happened to take Jared with me. The geneticist was more interested in Jared than in me, and finally asked if she could do some blood work on him, and the words I'll never forget,"..he has some characteristics of some chromosomal disorders."
Then that agonizing 2-week wait...and the results, Jared had Mosaic Down Syndrome, and that his ratio was 50/50. Mosaic? what's that? Who knew there were 3 kinds of Downs, and wow, my son has the rarest form! Jared just turned 7. He has 2 older brothers and a younger brother and a younger sister. We're an interracial family. My stepson is all African American, and our children are mixed, but Jared doesn't look typically downs, but doesn't resemble his siblings very much either... I get a little tired of getting asked how I like foster parenting!! <wink> But it makes for interesting conversation!
Jared is very well-liked at school, gets along well with everyone, very easy going, and better mannered than all my other kids too!! His motor skills were never too far off, but his language was. He really didn't start speaking until he was 5-years old, and I never taught him sign language because I was always told "he'd be higher functioning". He's in a special ed 1st grade class. Things do come very slow for him, his last IEP had him at a mental age of 3 1/2. I'd really like to help him lessen the gap between his chronological age and his mental age! Such is life! Good luck and Blessings to you all!
My husband and I even talked about down syndrome quite a bit. Like so many other parents here, deep down we knew. With my 3rd pregnancy, my Dr. sent me to a geneticist to see if Jared's bowel disease (Hirschsprung's) could be genetic and what risks my future children had, etc. I had no babysitter that day, so I just happened to take Jared with me. The geneticist was more interested in Jared than in me, and finally asked if she could do some blood work on him, and the words I'll never forget,"..he has some characteristics of some chromosomal disorders."
Then that agonizing 2-week wait...and the results, Jared had Mosaic Down Syndrome, and that his ratio was 50/50. Mosaic? what's that? Who knew there were 3 kinds of Downs, and wow, my son has the rarest form! Jared just turned 7. He has 2 older brothers and a younger brother and a younger sister. We're an interracial family. My stepson is all African American, and our children are mixed, but Jared doesn't look typically downs, but doesn't resemble his siblings very much either... I get a little tired of getting asked how I like foster parenting!! <wink> But it makes for interesting conversation!
Jared is very well-liked at school, gets along well with everyone, very easy going, and better mannered than all my other kids too!! His motor skills were never too far off, but his language was. He really didn't start speaking until he was 5-years old, and I never taught him sign language because I was always told "he'd be higher functioning". He's in a special ed 1st grade class. Things do come very slow for him, his last IEP had him at a mental age of 3 1/2. I'd really like to help him lessen the gap between his chronological age and his mental age! Such is life! Good luck and Blessings to you all!
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