‘Hold her and look at her.’ The daughter I thought we’d have died, but my heart melted.’: Mom says daughter with Down Syndrome is a ‘blessing’

“On the night of March 18, my husband Wade and I arrived at the hospital so I could be induced since I was 4 days overdue. Due to Covid, my mom couldn’t come with me as planned. I got there, and I had Pitocin started immediately. As they were getting me prepped, Wade and I started talking about what our daughter might look like and how she might be. I had dreamed of having a baby girl for years, and I was really praying for this moment.

During my pregnancy, I had suffered from a subchorionic hematoma, which caused a tremendous amount of maternal bleeding and put me at a very high risk of miscarriage. Therefore, making it to this moment felt like a miracle. The contractions were getting bad, so I asked for an epidural. My epidural didn’t work as planned because my blood pressure was literally all over the place, I started feeling really lightheaded, and my whole body went numb. I struggled to remain conscious as my blood pressure was dropping.

After they removed the epidural, contractions were coming in very strongly. They were not stopping. It was literally one after another, and I was crying in such pain. Our little baby girl was in distress. You could tell she did not want to come out! I started pushing and lost track of time. On March 19, 2020, at 7:39 a.m. our Liliana ‘Lily’ Rose White was finally born bright red and screaming. They put her on my chest the moment she came out, then they took her to be evaluated as usual.

While the pediatrician was evaluating Lily, she mentioned her having low muscle tone. Once they brought her back to me, Wade said, ‘Look, Alex, I think she might haveDown Syndrome。“我immediately told him he was wrong and he was just overanalyzing things. We enjoyed her for about 10 minutes, then the nurse said the pediatrician would like to speak to us. We wondered why but didn’t think much of it. When the pediatrician came in, she said, ‘I believe your baby may haveDown Syndrome。’

The words after that were a blur, but I do remember us asking what the chances of her being wrong were. The happiness in that room turned into such hurt, sadness, and worry. In my mind, the daughter I thought we were going to have died. I could not stop crying that day, and I shut myself away from the world. I called my mom immediately, hoping she could take the pain away, and I asked her to tell all of my family members because I just couldn’t do it. Many friends of ours were calling and texting to see how I was doing. All those calls and texts went unanswered because we didn’t know how to give them the news of her birth.

我继续思考，“我们将如何能够成为残疾儿童的好父母？这将如何影响我们的儿子大卫？那天晚上我睡觉，希望这将是一个噩梦，当我醒来时，一切都会回到正常。但它没有。

第二天，韦德离开了医院去检查我们儿子大卫，当时4岁。当时的医院政策允许不同的访客进出，只要它一次只有一个。离开后，我的妈妈去了。在我的妈妈离开后，我父亲能够看到百合和我。我很高兴他们都来了，因为我真的需要他们，因为我在这些时刻非常脆弱。

I didn’t really get to hold Lily and soak her in because I was in such emotional pain the day before. However, after my mom told me to hold her and look at her, I just couldn’t stop. When I did, I realized how beautiful our Lily Rose was. She was a little bundle of love. My heart started to melt.

Over the next few days, I realized God didn’t give us what we expected, instead, he gave us what we didn’t know we needed. And, boy, did we realize we needed that little girl. This was the baby girl we prayed for so hard after almost losing her to my subchorionic hematoma several times throughout my pregnancy. When Wade came back, I told him to hold her for a while. After he held her, he couldn’t stop gazing at our beautiful baby girl. He realized how much of a blessing she was and how grateful we were to have her.

Before we left the hospital, they did some blood work on Lily for genetic testing to confirm whether a child has Down Syndrome or not. It took roughly 1 week for the result to come back. That week was difficult because we kept on focusing on her characteristics. Sometimes we saw someDown Syndromecharacteristics, and other times we didn’t.

我们带回她家的那一刻，我们的儿子大卫和我们的父母在我们的前院等待着我们。大卫跑到我们卡车的门上，等着我们姐姐出去。我永远不会忘记他在那一刻有多开心。他迫不及待地想抱着她，亲吻她。从那以后他们一直在离不开。

一周后，当我把莉莉带到儿科医生时，我被告知她的血液回来了，她确实有唐氏综合症。我的心沉没了一点，因为我的一半仍然拒绝。大多数是因为我有未知的恐惧。我叫韦德和我的家人告诉他们这个消息。与我们的支持小组发表讲话后，我意识到一切都会好起来的。

接下来的几周是压倒性，因为我们有各种约会来检查我们女婴的健康。幸运的是，她大部分都很健康。随着时间的发展，我们开始更爱我们的百合花。现在，我们知道这个小女孩比我们所要求的更多。爱情，微笑，快乐，甜蜜，她给我们的甜蜜就是我们所需要的。

看到她和她的兄弟互相互动让我们的心想爆炸。她经常寻找大卫在房间里，当她找到他时，她开始跳跃这样的幸福。大卫希望与姐姐，百合花，不断地告诉我们他多么爱她。他几乎没有明白唐氏综合症是什么，但这并不会影响他对姐妹的感受。

So far, our journey of being a parent of a child who hasDown Syndromehas been an overall wonderful ride with some speed bumps every once in a while. We are constantly reminding ourselves it will take longer for Lily to achieve her milestones, but she will achieve them. Throughout this journey, we are learning to be more loving, patient, and understanding. We are also learning to enjoy the small things in life. As a mother, I do have my difficult days when I worry about the unknown road ahead of us, but looking at the smile on Lily’s face when she becomes happy about things I often take for granted eases the worry away.

Now when I look back at the day Lily was born, I wish I would have known how much of a blessing she truly was. I wish I could have told myself how she would make all of us better people. I wish we would have known how lucky we truly were to have her as a part of our family and that the journey we were about to embark on isn’t as scary as it seemed at first. We are still new to this journey, and we cannot wait for all the joyous moments we will experience with Lily.

Now that I have learned more aboutDown Syndrome, my words of wisdom to new/expectant mothers of babies with Down Syndrome is to use your support system, reach out to your local Down Syndrome organizations, and snuggle that sweet baby of yours because they grow up so fast. Down Syndrome can sound scary at first, but you will soon learn your sweet little baby is a blessing just like every other baby is. Last but definitely not least, congratulations on your sweet beautiful baby.”

这个故事已提交给 beplay网络一直不畅by Alexandra “Alex” White from Sanford, North Carolina. Follow her onInstagram和Facebook。提交自己的故事 这里,和be sure to 订阅to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube为我们最好的视频。

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