This is probably the most silly thing to be surprised by, but with as many people as there are in the world, I can’t be the only one who felt this way.
The first surprise that Down syndrome has given us is that Ds can be a birth diagnosis.
For many of you, I feel like this is a “well, duh” moment. For me… well… the idea of such an occurrence never crossed my mind. I had always assumed that if something were “off” with the baby, our prenatal ultrasound at 20 weeks would have shown it. This is a small part of the reason that those first several hours after her birth were so rattling for me – I couldn’t understand how no one had any idea of this prior to birth.
I have learned a lot since then.
This past year when we were preparing for Lauren’s arrival, we once again chose to forgo the prenatal testing, this time with a more solid understanding that at birth, something could be atypical. I still maintain that if we were to go back, we still wouldn’t have done any testing prior to Tessa’s birth. I am certainly pro-information for those who want to prepare for the unexpected, but for our family, uncertainty is a type of stress that we would be very challenged by.
Looking back on that silly, smushy face on the ultrasound machine, I am even more amused at the surprises she had in store for us. Being a girl, coming early, being a blonde, having Down syndrome… take your pick. That birth day was anything but ordinary.
Yo soy La Lay 
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