Down Syndrome Awareness: Reid

In September of 2019, our family was surprised with news that at 39, I was expecting our third child. We were nervous and excited to reopen this chapter of our lives, that we thought was closed.  We brought our older two kids to the anatomy scan and we were so excited to share this with them. It seemed as though everything was fine.

I had to go back to capture a few more images because our little boy was so active. I returned alone on my birthday and when they were done they told me I had a phone call from a doctor. This had never happened before, so I knew something was up. I heard words like heart defect, genetic abnormality, and high risk.  I was rushed off for blood work. A few long weeks later, I received another phone call letting me know that our baby had a high chance of having Down syndrome.

The next few months were hard and I was just plain sad.  I tried my best to enjoy being pregnant because I knew this was the last time. Even though I’m absolutely miserable, I love being pregnant.  We shared his diagnosis pretty openly because we didn’t want to walk through this alone.  Every appointment was extremely stressful as they measured movements and unexplained fluid accumulation in baby and me.

Reid was born in April of 2020, during the time pandemic when most things were shut down here in PA.  There was a definite learning curve in helping to care for him in the NICU.  He took some time learning to eat and required oxygen.  Sometimes you don’t know how strong and capable you are until you are faced with the unexpected.

Reid is absolute sunshine and our family’s biggest blessing. My other two kids would wholeheartedly agree.  He makes us laugh ALL the time and he gives the best snuggles. He works so hard to accomplish what we took for granted with our other kids.  He has opened up our eyes to a whole new world.  I am convinced that all three of my kids are going to be world changers in their own way.