The begining

I was 34 weeks pregnant and got back into bed after *another* toilet visit in the deep dark of night, when I felt a familiar pop (all three of my labours have begun with my water breaking). I laid there trying to ignore it, wishing it wasnt what it was, but after a few gushes and the bed starting to get wet it was time to admit that my baby was on its way!

The date was the 21st of March 2009 - which I would later find out is World Down Syndrome Day. My little chickee was 6 weeks early, he wanted to be born on THIS day the most important day of the whole year !

I had a Csection due to problems from my second childs birth and I remember just longing to hear the baby cry to know that babys lungs were going to be okay. And there it was - a long Bellowing sound - WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED HERE !!

My husband and I had begged for the baby to be delivered onto my bare chest, I had read alot on baby crawl (see http://breastcrawl.org/video.html and we wanted to give this baby the BEST start. Since his lungs were in such good order the Ped. was happy for the baby - A BOY - to be put to my chest. I will never ever forget that moment...ever.

Owen stopped crying immediately and then under the cover of a blanket he opened his eyes and looked at me.

His eyes were SO dark so enchanting.

But there was something else too, it was his nose it looked....... well flat, like he'd been 10 rounds with Tyson it looked strange -

But those EYES they burned into me,

and then he started to kick and lick and suck his hands and I am sure if I had been able to move I might have been able help him to the breast but lying flat while I was being sewed up wasnt' helpful. I also noticed that if I took my hand away from his dear little head it flopped forward and so I left my hand there supporting him so his head didn't flop downwards,

Later I would learn that the flatness at the bridge of his nose and low muscle tone (not being able to hold his head up) are some of the indicators of Down syndrome.

In these minutes before we knew about DS we were so happy, so relived and so tired !
All that was about to change.