3rd doctor visit

August 9th 2012 Chase had his one month check up. He is 7 lbs 5 oz and 19 ½ inches long. Not a big baby still but 9 more ozs to go to have gained a whole 2 pounds since he was born! I would say that is a big deal. He has grown 1 ½ inches and is on track where he needs to be. He is eating well now and I can barely keep up it seems at times. Jocelyn warming up to him but she has many moments still during the day that she struggles with all the changes in her young little life. Toys that are not hers, mom not being able to spend every moment entertaining her, the crying...... She looks at him with strange looks or tells him to Shhhhhhhh. But she also gives up her toys or her blanket at times to take care of him. Every morning she wakes up and looks for the baby and has to go through her morning routine. Life is settling down and we are getting the hang of things and having two kids is a little weird but cool.

Chase's arrival story

Well to start from the beginning Missy got a phone call from her doctor telling her that from the ultrasound that was done the baby is small and they think that the placenta was not working properly anymore for the baby to grow. After doing some pondering and praying we decided to follow the doctors concerns and directions to go to the hospital and to begin the process of induction. We got the hospital (Mountain Vista Medical Center) about 5:30 that evening and got set up in a room and there was no turning back. They soon after got Missy set up with an IV and paperwork done. She then received her first induction medication called Cervidel, which basically ripens the cervix. After 12 hours (the following morning) they applied a gel that would quicken the process. The gel also made Missy start having strong fast contractions. At this point Missy decided to get the epidural about 11 am which helped a lot but then could not eat. As the morning came and went the OB-GYN swung in and introduced himself, left again for another operation at a different hospital and a couple hours later came back to check up on how things were going. He is an extremely nice and intelligent doctor and we greatly appreciated his style. Around 2 pm when the doctor got back he proceeded to break Missy's water. About 15 minutes later she was ready to push the kid out but had to wait because the doctor once again left for a different hospital to do yet another operation or check-up of some sort. Missy called the nurse in at this time and told her that she was ready to push and she can’t wait. The nurse then sent for everyone to get the room ready and everything ready to go for the doctor, pulled her phone out to call the doctor to come back right away and told Missy to hold off for just a little longer. As Missy was laying there, trying to not have the baby, people were in an out getting ready just in case the doctor didn’t make it back. At the very last moment the doctor walks in the room, the nurse throws the gown on him, the gloves go on and the doctor turned around just as Missy gives her first push and he caught the baby. As quick as the doctor came he stayed for as long as he was needed and was off the complete what he was doing before. At this moment things changed drastically. A man we have never seen before who is a registered nurse came to Missy’s bed side and said with a very emotionless straight face that,” it appears your baby has Down syndrome, were you aware of this?” We responded in disbelief no. He continued to explain that our baby has many of the facial features indicating that he has Down Syndrome. Not knowing what to say or do Missy laid there in her bed as they cleaned everything up and did the initial examinations and routine checks that are done. Greg had a hard time not crying. After what seemed an hour or so when all the doctors and nurses were done and gone we sat in the room and looked at Chase (who didn’t have an official name yet) and wondered what was going to happen next. It took a while but as the night went on and we had time to process what was going on Greg picked up the computer and started reading about Down Syndrome. For the next couple days emotions ran high and there were tears shed. Some tears were because we didn’t feel adequate for taking care of this child and others because what we were planning for the future and what we were picturing was no longer going to happen. We had so many mixed emotions that it seemed like it was not real. After all calmed down and we could make some sense of things then we started focusing on what we are now going to do. Chase was in the hospital for a week in the NICU. He was basically monitored there until the doctors thought he was good enough to come home and not be at risk. He will have heart surgery when he is about 6 months old to repair the wall that separates the chambers of the heart. Mean while we will be going to many doctor appts.