Our five older children sent to the playroom to wait, had only made it to the opening scene of “Frozen” when we delivered Colt in our bedroom at home with our midwife in what was a peaceful, smooth and FAST delivery. With the exception of a great deal of swelling due to an unusual face presentation birth, there was nothing unusual about our beautiful baby boy.

But as the evening went on I began to notice something unusual. Colt didn’t cry the entire night. He hadn’t cried since his birth. While this was pleasant, I knew that it wasn’t normal.

As his swelling went down I noticed the almond shape to his eyes. That was the first moment that I saw it and the first time I said my thoughts out loud to Jim…

“Do you think he has Down syndrome?”

Instead of sleeping, we found ourselves scouring the internet for “signs of Down syndrome”.

When our midwife returned the next afternoon, we did not immediately mention the diagnosis that in our hearts we were certain of.

I noticed her examining all the areas that I had been staring at all evening, checking for the gap in between the big toe, the crease on the palm of the hand, the smaller ears. Colt had none of these, but his eyes told it all.

It wasn’t just his beautiful almond shape eyes with the skin fold on the upper eye, but one of my favorite traits, his Brushfield spots, the little white sparkles on the blue iris of his eyes that told us his diagnosis that first night, long before the lab tests.

She asked me if he looked like our other children. I responded that he looked exactly like his older brother as a newborn but with Down syndrome.😊

Our sweet midwife didn’t know that we had suspected this and shared that she agreed. She asked us how we felt about this if it proved to be true. Jim quickly responded, “we don’t care… why would we feel any differently? He’s just as wonderfully made as our other children.”….

**Part 3 in next post**

Thanks so much for all your sweet notes!