One Step at a Time

For those of you who don't know me, I am a rule follower, I have always hated confrontation and arguments, and pretty much have always done what I'm supposed to for fear of the consequences.

Needless to say, being told that my child was diagnosed with Down Syndrome wasn't easy because it means that Colin isn't necessarily going to do things in the time frame he is "supposed to". He wasn't going to be following the "rules" of development. I jumped right into the research to make sure I understood DS, to find out what we needed to do (Early Intervention, blood tests, hearing tests, heart tests, etc.), when we needed to do things, when Colin might do things, and how we were supposed to go about all of this.

Through all of the early assessments, we were told things like: "Colin has low muscle tone" or "Colin probably won't hit milestones when other children do", or "he might have health problems", etc. It's not easy when it's still new to be told so many "negative" things along the way, especially when for 9 months we were expecting something different.

I have been writing about how people in our lives are raising awareness about Down Syndorme because of the wonderful things they are doing, but the most important person that is doing this is Colin. He is raising awareness of Down Syndrome by showing that he doesn't follow no sticking rules.

At first, he wasn't eating very well and now he eats solids (loves them) and holds his own bottle some of the time:



We were told that Colin had low muscle tone after a 2 min. evaluation so at 4 weeks, he rolled over from tummy to back over and over and over again...

(this is one of the first videos we got of him doing this on our phone).

Because of his low muscle tone, we were told he had to do tummy time all of the time. He wasn't always happy and in the beginning, he didn't do very well.


...and now he does this:




He couldn't sit...

...and now does this!

And many, many more!!

I will tell you that this journey isn't always easy. However, Colin is bringing awareness to everyone about Down Syndrome by saying that just because I have this diagnosis, doesn't mean that I can't do things!

...and I think he's going to break the mold!