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Wow, that was a fairly long hiatus, but there has been plenty going on.

As many of you reading this will have already heard from us in the past weeks, We learned in the days after Henrik’s birth that he was born with Down Syndrome.  While this is certainly not the news we were hoping to hear about our new child, it does not in any way diminish our happiness and excitement about the new member of the family.

The doctors and nurses at hospital were great with us in how the news was delivered a well as pointing us towards the resources for parents of a handicapped child.  Germany has quite good support infrastructure and is very much in favour of integrating kids with Henrik’s condition to the regular education system. 

So aside from some extra therapies and doctors appointments, we will be raising him just like any other child.  Indeed, the first couple of years with a DS baby are not particularly different from those with a healthy child.

The first big tests came just a couple of days after his birth, as around half of all DS babies have a heart flaw that requires immediate surgery.  We were very fortunate that Henrik was in the 50% that are good and healthy.  In fact, he is otherwise the picture of health.  Heart, lungs, liver, kidney, brain, all checked out as perfect.  Another characteristic of DS kids is low muscle tone and strength, but again, Henrik is absolutely normal in this department.  He can feed fine and is even lifting his head on his own after just three weeks!  He is powerful.

We are hoping that we will continue to get only good news regarding his physical development and his handicap will be  a mild one.  There will be some challenges ahead, but that is something we will adjust to over time.

Now… some photos.