National Down Syndrome month

October is National Down Syndrome awareness month, and with being a new mom of a baby with Down Syndrome I thought that I would share some of the facts, and myths each day this month that we have discovered in the last month. There are so many myths out there, and we are guilty of believing some of them ourselves. I would like to clear these up so that people will be able to get to know our little man! When we recieved the news that our little guy had DS we were in shock. I remember thinking that this shouldn't be happening to me. They say that you are at a high risk to have a DS baby when you are over 35, and I am only 27. Well what we soon learned was that the statistics are a little misleading. Over 80% of babies with Down syndrome are actually born to women under the age of 35. And the average age of these women is 28! An older mother is more likely to have a baby with DS than younger mother, but older mothers only make up about 9% of all live births each year and 25% of Down syndrome births. I had thought that if I had my children before I was 35 I wouldn't be at risk. I guess that I was nieve (like I think a lot of people are) about the whole thing! We are so grateful for Brunton and all the joy that he has brought to our lives. He has thrown us for a loop, but we have already grown and learned so much from him. One of the things that he has taught me is that you can't plan everything in life, but that it is best to just live in the moment because you never know what might come next. I have had so much fun these past few weeks spending time with my boys. I have neglected a lot of things (housework), but these are moments that I will never have again, and the housework is always there!! So I will try to live in the moment more and plan LESS, lets face it I will always be somewhat of a planner!