Finally Home

Sunday October 13th, 2013- third day after birth

Deacon went through all of the normal tests that any other new born would endure, and thankfully everything was normal.  He passed his newborn screening which included hearing and vision.  This was all great news.  :)  Our pediatrician checked Deacon every day and while checking his heart he told us that everything sounded good.  He did not hear a murmur, which was encouraging.  Nearly half of all babies born with Down Syndrome have heart defects.  Before we could leave the hospital Deacon had an echo-cardiogram with a pediatric cardiologist.  Julie and I were there the whole time and it was pretty much an ultrasound of his heart.  It was tense for few moments, but the doctor quickly assured us that he thought everything was A ok.  We were extremely thankful!!  :)  The fact that his heart was just as it was supposed to be was one reason why it was not obvious during the pre birth ultrasounds that Deacon had Down Syndrome.

With Deacon's heart being cleared we were ready to go home!!!  We were headed home on Sunday just two days after Deacon's birth.  The same as all three of our other children.  Believe me, I was super pumped.  The birth of my children is something that I will never ever forget and it is joyed with extreme joy in general, but one part of the whole process that I despise is sleeping in the hospital.  The rooms have these chairs that fold down into "beds", but most of the time I end up sleeping on the tile floor.  Let me describe these chairs for you:  They have stiff vinyl; almost no padding; they are divided into three sections so you always have a crack that meets up with some crucial comfort point on your body when you lay down; the three sections shift and move if you move; to put it lightly, the suck!  I was looking forward to a good night's sleep in my own bed.

Before we went home the only other two things that needed to be done were Deacon's circumcision (ouch!), and then we had to wait for the home medical equipment company to come by.  Deacon's biliruben count was mildly high so we needed to take a "Bilibed".  Basically, this is a lighted bed for him to lay on with lights to help lower the count in his blood.  After everything was loaded in the van we waited for about two hours for the equipment to be brought to us......GRRRRRRR at this point I was pretty impatient, I was ready to be home.

As I drove home I couldn't help but think about, and wonder what the future would hold for us.  I was certain that there would be many challenges ahead.  I also was certain that there would be many joyful things ahead, but in situations like this I think it is easier to dwell on the negative.  So, I had this sort of somber feeling fall around me.  It was nothing specific that I was feeling, it was almost like I knew I had a list of 500,000 things to do and I was on number 7.

So, Julie has breast fed all of our children much to my great pleasure.  It is something that I highly recommend and encourage couples to consider.  The science is there for anyone to read, it is just better for the babies.  Lets be serious, how could something man made be better for babies than something created naturally through a mother.  So, while Deacon was in the hospital he breast fed pretty good.  Our lactation nurse and the doctors seemed surprised by this.  At times it was almost like they did not believe us at all that he was breast feeding.  The reason that they were surprised is that many Down Syndrome children have misshaped mouths/tongues and can lack the sucking reflex that most babies are born with.  Most babies lose weight right after they are born, and Deacon went down to 6lbs 14oz from 7lbs 6oz when we checked out of the hospital (which is within normal range).  We knew that the day we came home that Deacon would be sleepy and possibly upset, (remember he was just circumcised that morning)  The day we came home he did not eat very well.  We hoped the next day would be better.... Unfortunately, the next day was not better, in fact Deacon was not eating at all.  Julie was forced to pump milk (which she hates doing) and we had to feed Deacon from a medicine dropper.  He wouldn't even take a bottle.  Feeding a newborn infant from a dropper is a tough process.  To be honest, it was down right discouraging.  :(  Julie was miserable pumping and it was hard to know if Deacon was getting enough milk.  We called the lactation nurse and basically the only thing she could do was encourage us and tell Julie to not give up.  Thankfully, Julie is one of the most stubborn, strong headed, determined people I have ever met and she would not be deterred.  We fed Deacon from a medicine dropper for three full days, and then........he started taking a bottle.  After about a week he would take a bottle and occasionally breast feed.  When we took Deacon in for his one week check up he weighed 7lbs 6oz so he had gained all the weight back that he had initially lost when we left the hospital.

Of course I am not surprised, Julie would not allow failure and Deacon was already exceeding expectations.

More to come.....  :)

A Tidal Wave of Support and a Trip to Holland

Once Julie and I posted on Facebook about Deacon there was a huge relief.  I immediately felt 1000 times better.  It was out there now, I no longer felt like I had to tell everyone that called, emailed, texted, etc.  that our son had Down Syndrome.  What I did not expect was the enormous amount of support that we would receive.  We literally had hundreds of people reach out to us.  It was something that I will never forget and something that I am extremely thankful to have been able to experience.

There are a couple of messages in particular that I want to share.  The first one is the post that my father in law made on his Facebook page.  He has a way with words that few people I have encountered can even get close; its almost like a talented artist painting a picture.  His words certainly struck a chord with me:

Well I guess I took it all for granted. Why not? My first four grandchildren came into my life completely healthy. Certainly I realized that with childbirth there is always a chance for problems, but I just never thought it would happen. On Friday, when I was first introduced to my new grandson, I continued with this over confidence. Deacon Robert Deuser is a beautiful little boy who appeared as healthy as all of the others. I returned home very relieved that he had arrived and that all was well.

That evening, as I hosted 50+ poker players in my home, I received the phone call that all grandparents fear. It was my wife, crying as she delivered the horrible news. Deacon, my beautiful new grandson, has Down syndrome. All of a sudden the bad cards I had been getting all game didn't seem to matter. In fact, for the next several hours nothing did. I suppose that the flood of emotion that I experienced is fairly common. You feel anger, fear and frustration all at the same time. I knew nothing about Down syndrome but it seemed extremely unfair that this precious little boy was to be its latest victim.

Over this weekend I have begun to familiarize myself with the facts surrounding Down syndrome. Ironically, it is not a lack of something important in Deacon, but too much of a good thing, so to speak, that is the problem. Where you and I have but 2 of the chromosome 21, little Deacon has three. That extra chromosome, repeated in all the cells of his body, manifests itself in many different ways, most of which are negative. The cause of this condition is unknown and there is no cure. Nothing his parents could have done would have prevented this situation from occurring. It happens once in every 700 or so births and last Friday Deacon drew the unlucky number.

This weekend has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I have cried more times than I can count. I have prayed seeking God's guidance in a situation that I am simply unable to fully comprehend. I have worried about how Deacon's condition would affect his future. I have also worried about the possible negative effects his condition would impose on his family. After all Julie and Blake have pretty full plates, with Brylee, Garrett and Cayson, not to mention their work duties. In short, I have spent most of my time since I learned of Deacon's situation, thinking about the negatives. But as I have tried to concentrate on the bad, the good has forced its way into my thoughts.

Amazingly, this good news begins with Deacon himself. Quite simply, he is the luckiest unlucky little boy in the world. Sure he was unlucky to get Downs, but from that point on he hit the jackpot. It is hard to imagine a better family for him to have been born into. As I watched his mother and father deal with this completely unexpected and devastating news I was again reminded of how proud I am to call Julie my daughter and Blake my son-in-law. They will fill his life with love and experiences. They will challenge him to develop to his full potential.

Deacon is lucky to be the youngest of four children. As he grows he will benefit from his older sister and brothers. They will laugh, play and explore together. Deacon will be taught many things by his siblings and, if necessary, he will be taught again and again. His world will be expanded as a result of these experiences. Brylee, Garrett and Cayson will be a constant in his life and they will provide him both love and, if necessary, protection. In the process, Deacon's older siblings will become better as well. They will mature into better people, more caring and understanding of others with disabilities.

Deacon's grandmothers are also a perfect fit for his situation. His Grammy is a Speech Therapist who has years of experience working with children with Downs. His Mimi is a gifted kindergarten teacher who can provided any educational support which he may need. Both are loving and nurturing and each will willingly rise to the occasion.

But little Deacon is not the only lucky one. Julie and Blake will benefit as well. They will watch as Deacon reaches milestones in his life and they will be unbelievably fulfilled by that sight. They will be blessed by the love that Deacon showers upon them in return.They will watch as their three oldest children gain enhanced maturity and responsibility as a result of the most important roles they play in Deacon's life. In very short order, Julie and Blake will not be able to imagine their lives without Deacon. In fact, I predict that all of the family and even the extended family will be changed, for the better, by Deacon.

There can be little doubt that Deacon's life will be different as a result of the Downs, but different does not necessarily mean worse. I do not know what a young man with Downs can accomplish if he has unlimited love and support, but if I am alive in 20 years I will see for myself first hand. I will see it in the life of my grandson, Deacon. Down syndrome has given him a hill to climb, but he will not have to climb it alone. I am so very thankful for the family that will be with him and I am so proud that he will take my name on that journey.

Love always,Papaw 

What a great message.  

We also had a couple of people send us this story that I think relates perfectly to our family.  Here it is:

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

I have said it multiple times already, but I want to thank everyone that has shown us such huge amounts of support.  It is amazing when you really think about it.  There are times when I think that this world and the people in it are pretty rotten, but after seeing and hearing all the people that reached out to us you can't help but see that there are still a lot of really good people.  It is an indescribable feeling to hear so many positive wishes of encouragement.

Back to the details about Deacon.  At this point he is two days old and honestly Julie and I still notice nothing different about him in comparison to our other kids at this point.  He is breast feeding which I think is pretty rare.  The pediatrician thinks that his heart is fine, but he schedules and echo cardiogram before we leave the hospital to verify.  Everything is on schedule for us to leave the hospital at a normal amount of time, which is a good thing, because I was ready to go home.  Hospitals are uncomfortable places for me and I guess I am a bit of a home body anyway, but after all of the ups and downs of the past few days I just wanted to go home.  Not to mention, sleeping on the chair in the hospital room sucks.  There is no other way to describe it.  I tried to talk Julie into letting me go home and sleep, but she was not hearing it.  :)  It was all in jest and I wouldn't have wanted to leave anyway.

One thing I would like to note.  As mentioned previously, I do believe God has a plan.  When we were coming up with names Julie pretty much picked Deacon's early in her pregnancy.  (Yes, she did get it from the show Nashville)  But when you look at the actual meaning of the name Deacon you will find:

dea·con
noun \ˈdē-kən\

: an official in some Christian churches whose rank is just below a priest

Is it irony that we chose a name associated with God/church??  My personal opinion is...No Way!  We travel the road God has put in front of us and Deacon is one of the stops on our road.  He will help guide us through the path of our lives.  I can't wait to see where we end up!  :)

Have you ever woken up suddenly, in an unusual place and think to yourself, man what a crazy dream I had....but then you realize, it was no dream; everything that you thought you dreamed for a few seconds in fact actually happened.  The day after finding out that Deacon had Down Syndrome I woke up the next morning and I honestly thought that the whole previous day's events were a dream.  I say I woke up that morning, but I don't really remember sleeping that night.  It felt like more of a drunken haze.  But as my mind cleared, Julie and I were faced with the reality that our lives were going to change in a big way.  I guess your life will change with any child being born, but our lives were going to change in a way that was unexpected.

Word slowly traveled to some of our immediate family.  It seemed like we had less visitors at the hospital by comparison to our other kids, but then again, this was our fourth child.  I suppose many people thought, "Well the Deuser's had another kid".  :)  This was not upsetting to me at all, in fact, at this point I was glad that we saw less people.  It avoided the awkward conversation of telling someone that your child has Down Syndrome.  When someone did come to visit or anytime someone came in the room I felt like they were staring.  I felt like they were trying to figure out, what is wrong with this baby.  It was a horrible feeling to have.  The actual truth was probably that no one would have had any idea that Deacon had Down Syndrome if Julie and I had not told them.  But......that is not how I felt.

Brylee holding Deacon at the hospital

Julie and I went through the day researching and gathering information on the internet as fast as possible.  I compare it to getting a drink of water from a fire hydrant.  There is a lot of good information available on the internet, as well as some bad information.  One of the first worries that surfaced was that many children with Down Syndrome are born with "other" complications, such as heart defects.  Nearly 50% have some sort of heart defect which can be life threatening.  Fortunately up to this point Deacon seemed health in every way.  When our pediatrician showed up to check on Deacon I had numerous questions.  He was able to answer almost all of them and he was very positive.  Children with Down Syndrome have a wide range of abilities.  There was a time when having Down Syndrome was a virtual death sentence.  Most people with Down Syndrome would live in an institute (mental hospital), but in today's world there are many people with Down Syndrome that graduate high school, attend college, become gainfully employed, and live completely independent lives.  This information was very uplifting for me.  When I first found out about Deacon it almost felt like a life sentence, but that was only because of my ignorance in understanding the condition.

Remember that nurse that pissed me off when she lied to my face about Deacon??  Well, it turns out that she was pretty upset about the whole incident too.  Now, I made it very clear to our pediatrician, Julie's OBGYN, and some of the other nurses how upset I was about the incident; BUT she did come by our room in tears and apologize to Julie.  She didn't apologize to me because I had left the room to get Julie lunch, but she did apologize.  I think she waited for me to leave the room to come apologize.  :)  I don't blame her, it was probably better that I not talk to her at that particular time.  I hold no grudges against her at all.  She was put in a unique and very delicate situation where she made a decision that I did not agree with.  Forgive and Forget.  Let's move on.

Me, Garrett and Brylee with Deacon.  You might ask where Cayson is....at this point he still had not accepted that there was a new baby in the Deuser house.  :)  I will post more on that later.  

As the day passed on, I still had the awkward feeling any time I talked to a friend who congratulated us, or read a post on Facebook, or whenever someone came to visit.  It is not easy telling people that your son had Down Syndrome.  I have many friends, but on that day there were two very good friends that I texted unannounced and told them about Deacon.  I don't even get to see either one of these guys that often.  One of them lives a couple of hours away, and the other one lives nearly across the country.  With everything that had happened I just wanted to talk to someone about it.  It didn't need to be in person or even on the phone.  I had a couple of exchanges on text messages and it brought me to an "Ah Hah" moment.  One of the guys I exchanged texts with immediately told me "Well Congratulations!  I am not going to say I'm sorry because I believe its God's plan and I know he will bring you tremendous joy."  He went on to say that his wife loves all of the Down Syndrome kids that she works with (She works in the NICU).  This was a decisive moment for me.  That weird feeling I had anytime Julie and I told someone about Deacon came from not wanting people to feel sorry for us.  I don't ever want anyone to feel sorry for me, or for Deacon.  That awkward feeling had nothing to do with Deacon and Down Syndrome, but everything to do with the pity I thought we might get.  It is just an uncomfortable feeling for me and one I try to avoid.  At this point Julie and I talked and we decided to put a post on Facebook and share the news with our "Social World".  The decision was sort of a pressure release, we didn't want to feel awkward talking about Deacon.  In fact we wanted to celebrate the birth of our fourth child.  It was the first time in 24 hours that I felt any real hope instead of worry or fear.

I want to say that I appreciate all of my friends tremendously.  It rarely gets said, but Thank You All!

Here is what we posted:

On October 11th 2013 God blessed Julie and I with another angel child. Deacon Robert Deuser was born seemingly healthy at 10:21am, 7lbs 6oz, 21 inches long. Our world was changed for the better! Approximately 12 hours later upon further assessment we were told Deacon has Down Syndrome. I believe God has a plan for everyone and Deacon is part of our plan. This post is my feeble attempt to avoid some of the social awkwardness that is likely to occur. Julie and I are blessed in many ways, and this is another one. Deacon is our son, and he is perfect. One point I want to make is that I don't want anyone else "to be sorry for us"; because we are not sorry. We are thankful. Deacon is and will be like the rest or our children, Brylee, Garrett, and Cayson. There may be small challenges ahead, but they are only small bumps in the broken road we call life. — with Julie Gullette Deuser.

The response we received from our friends and family was enormous.  There was an outpouring of support from many people, some people that we don't even know that well.  Deacon had already made an enormously positive impact on our life that no one could have ever predicted and he was less than two days old.  Just think how much he will bring us getting to spend the rest of our lives with him.  :)

Here is a picture of Cayson avoiding Deacon by eating Mommy's edible arrangement.  :)  

The First Day of Our Journey

October 11th, 2013

~11:00 pm; The flurry of emotions that have just occurred in the last 30 minutes can not be described.  A combination of fear, disbelief, anger all coming from the very core of my being in which there is no way to control or hide.  I can't remember if I cried immediately when the doctor told us that Deacon had Down Syndrome.  I know I cried after he left, but I think that I was in such disbelief I couldn't immediately cry.  Now when I look back, for the first 12 hours of his life I truly believed Deacon was a perfectly healthy baby in every way.  But then again..... The old adage "hind sight is 20/20" is certainly true, but I think we often think we remember things differently than how they actually happen.  For example, when Deacon was born I definitely thought he had big cheeks.  Was that a sign of DS?  Did I ask myself, "Is that normal"?  I really have no idea.  There were 10,000 thoughts, feelings, and ideas running through my brain, body, and heart.  It seems like forever ago, and Deacon is less than three months old.

I do remember feeling a huge growing anger inside of me.  So much that it was hard to contain.  I have always felt that I have an even keeled temper.  I have a slow fuse, but once the fuse had been burned, watch out.....a volcanic eruption.  You may wonder what would make me mad....well at the time I felt cheated.  God was punishing me for something.  When I look back I realize how ridiculous that idea was.  I was angry at the doctor for telling me my son had Down Syndrome, and it was no fault of his.  I was angry that it had not been caught on any of the three ultra sounds we had.  I was mad that it happened to me, when actually nothing happened to me.  I was angry for selfish reasons.  Deacon was still......Deacon, and I loved him no matter what.  Julie, our family, myself, and everyone else that saw him was blinded the first 12 hours of Deacon's life by love.  We didn't see that he was Down Syndrome, or did we?  I really don't know.  As I mentioned when I look in hind sight, maybe we did know before anyone told us.  Julie is adamant that when she first saw Deacon she knew something was "different".  She never said anything, no one said anything, but inside she thought there was something off.  I don't know, but I don't think I had any idea.

For all of you healthcare professionals here is some advice; don't lie to your patients, or your patients parents.  The one thing that still bothers me to this day is that in the first minutes after Deacon was born when the nurses were cleaning him up and assessing him one of the nurses looked at another nurse and said, "He has lines on his hands."  When this occurred, I was standing 18 inches from that nurse and I asked point blank, "What does lines on his hands mean?"  Her response was, "Oh nothing, we just look at that to judge gestation."  That seemed like a perfectly logical explanation to me especially since Deacon was about three weeks early.  My problem now is that a line across the hand is a marker for DS and the nurse knew immediately that Deacon was DS.  That pisses me off.  Don't lie to my face.  I understand that nurses can't make a diagnosis, but come up with something better than that.  Tell me that a line across his hands can be a marker for multiple things, don't just blow me off with a lie so you don't have to answer a tough question.  I am his parent, I deserve the honest answer when I ask the question.  That is my personal opinion and advise for anyone in the healthcare field that ever finds themselves in a similar situation.  Now, off my soap box.

If you remember from my last post my sister was in the room when our pediatrician told us that Deacon had Down Syndrome.  I remember glancing at her a couple of teams and the look on her face; a true 'deer in the headlights' stare.  I think if she could have disappeared or just shrunk to the size of an ant and crawl out of the room she would have.  It was an awkward situation for sure.

Once my sister quickly left the hospital, there was an awkward silence between Julie and I.  I don't know why there was, but it was there.  The elephant in the room..........who happened to weight 7 lbs 6 oz and have an extra chromosome.  I honestly will admit that I didn't take the news well.  My wife Julie is amazing.  Based on my demeanor she rightly questioned what I was thinking.  My love never faltered for Deacon.  I will love all of my children equally no matter what and he would not be an exception.  I had a huge fear inside of me.  Fear of the unknown.  I was in no way prepared to take care of a Down Syndrome baby because I had no idea what he would need that might be different from our other three kids.  I kept thinking to myself, maybe the doctor is wrong.  Maybe its just not true.  Google can be a dangerous tool.  It obviously gives us access to unlimited information.  Some of it is good, some of it is bad.  You can get information overload.  Julie and I never had any genetic tests, or had an amniocentesis performed, because it would not have ever made any difference.  We are firm believers in the rights of unborn children.  Deacon is already a sweet baby and I can't fathom the thought of aborting a pregnancy.

It was a late night for Julie and I.  We told our immediate family about Deacon, to their shock, but the rest of our friends and family had no idea.  There was a lot of reading on the internet, lots of tears and emotions, but it was the first day of our journey.  A journey that will take us down a path not yet known, but that's OK, we like surprises.   :)  

Lets set the stage; I have been very fortunate in my life.  I grew up with loving parents, never wanted for much of anything that I did not receive. I get along with most people.  My siblings (one brother, two sisters, all younger than me) and I all have very good relationships.  I have been blessed with relative good health.  School was never a problem for me, I made it through elementary/high school/college with minimal effort.  I enjoyed the benefits of athleticism and played collegiate baseball.  I have been fortunate to fall into a career field that allows me flexibility, decent earnings, and is quite enjoyable. I am truly blessed to find my soul mate (Julie) and we joined our lives in a union of marriage that I am confident will stand the test of time.   Of course, not everything is perfect and we certainly have our hard times and struggles, but for all intents and purposes as my father in law always tells me, "Blake, you have got it made".  I couldn't agree more.  :)

October 10th, 2013
- Jumping ahead a bit in this chronicle; Julie is pregnant with our fourth child.  Our daughter Brylee is six years old, son Garrett is four years old, and son Cayson is two years old.  As anyone might expect, there is never a dull moment in the Deuser house.  When Julie and I decided that we would like to have a fourth child just like with our previous pregnancies.....it didn't take long.  Julie hoped and prayed that this child would be a little girl so Brylee would have a sister to play with.  As fate would have it, baby Deuser #4 was a boy.  Julie is a pro at pregnancy.  She stays active, she knows what she can and can not do.  With any of our pregnancies she has never been "really" sick.  Of course she has days where she is nauseated, etc, but all four pregnancies went smoothly.  Baby #4 was no exception.  Through the whole pregnancy, every doctor visit, every ultra sound (three of them), there were absolutely zero flags/problems and no concern that anything could be wrong.

October 11th, 2013
- Julie wakes me up, very early in the morning, and says that she is having very regular contractions and she has been having them for a couple of hours.  We are still about three weeks short of her due date, but she never made her due date with any of our other three children, so off to the hospital we go.  We live about 45 minutes from the hospital.  There were a few moments in the car when the thought crossed my mind based on Julie's responses to the contractions that, "Damn, she is going to have that baby before we get to the hospital".  Thank God, she didn't.  :)

We arrive at Floyd Memorial Hospital.  Julie gets registered and taken up to labor and delivery.  She is dilated to about 3 cm, but the nurses and doctors want to wait and see if she progresses before they make a decision on whether to keep her or send us home.  An hour passes, and Julie has progressed to 5 cm.  This being Julie's fourth baby delivery things progressed quickly.  She received her epidural and seemed to be pretty comfortable considering she was getting ready to push a watermelon through a garden hose. :)

The time arrives; 10:21am, 7lbs 6oz, 20inches; Deacon Robert Deuser has arrived.  A beautiful healthy boy has joined the Deuser family.  Family and friends at the hospital meet him and everyone immediately falls in love.  I mean, seriously who wouldn't?  After his initial feeding and being passed around the room Deacon is taken to the nursery for his new born screening.  We are taken to our regular room where Julie rests for a couple of hours (she earned it) and after his first bath and assessment Deacon is brought to our room.  Everything is grand!

~10:30pm;  Our pediatrician arrives to take a look at Deacon.  Technically, all pediatricians have 24 hours to come assess new babies.  I believe our pediatrician is exceptional, and we have a very close relationship.  The only reason it took him 12 hours was that it was his daughter's senior night for high school soccer.  He came after the festivities.  Most doctors would have just waited until the next morning.  I remember that the doctor showed up and Julie had to use the restroom as soon as he arrived.  While Julie was in the bathroom the doctor gave me a glance and asked, did Julie have any ultra sounds during the pregnancy? My response was yes, three of them actually.  Julie returns to the room, my sister has come to visit so she is sitting in the room as well, the doctor looks at both Julie and I and says, "I think he has Down Syndrome".

Gut Check.....