Happy Birthday little Blog!

A year ago this week, I started something I never believed I was capable of doing. I started compiling all my thoughts about my pregnancy, birth and first year with Wade and I started blogging. My aim was to speak to other families who may be in a similar position to us and tell them everything. I wanted to show that something can rip your world apart and make you question everything you know and still be positive and joyous. That in the midst of swirling, competing emotions, a path emerges and while it may not be the path you intended to take, there’s no reason why you can’t plant a few bluebells and enjoy the walk.

It was important to me that I didn’t just end up preaching to the choir about Down syndrome too. I wanted to speak to people who had no experience of Down syndrome and show them that life is not like they imagine it is from the outdated stereotypes they may be familiar with. I wanted to throw the door open on my world so that no one had to creep around the issue or feel uncomfortable about talking about Down syndrome. I wanted people to think about and forget about Down syndrome at the same time when they thought of us.

Wade “on the phone”

I remember the week I launched the blog. I had decided to write my whole pregnancy story in 6 parts and publish them together before telling anyone about it. Two days after posting the first few posts, I received my first comment…. from a complete stranger on the other side of the world before anyone knew I was even writing this thing! It blew my mind that in the endless sea of blog posts on the Internet, someone had stumbled across little old me!

Breastfeeding highs and lows.

The morning after Wade was born, we were lounging around in bed waiting for the paediatrician to come and give his assessment as to whether Wade had DS or not. We already knew that he did but this was a necessary procedure as you need an official diagnosis by blood test which has to be ordered by a paediatrician. They also assessed him to see if there were any underlying health issues.

My sister, Sammy, was there when the paediatrician arrived. He also had with him, a visiting paediatrician and a trainee. So, I’m in bed with Wade, Mick was at home getting a few things and Sammy is sitting on the bed too. At the foot of the bed is a wall of doctors. They take Wade to examine him and the two paediatricians explain everything to the trainee. They pointed out all of the physical characteristics of DS to look for when doing an assessment.