All is Well

I went to the doctor, and guess what it was? Round ligament pain. Yes, something that can possibly continue the rest of the pregnancy, is more prevalent with the second pregnancy, but is nothing to worry about, except it will hurt. I felt very relieved, but also a little foolish for wasting a doctor's visit over ligament pain. But my fears were put to rest, since the baby was moving and the heartbeat was fine.

We finally started telling family and friends that we are pregnant. I suppose at this point, if something happens it will be sad, but I can't really keep getting bigger and not have people notice. We told Erik's parents the other night, and of course his mom said, "I knew it! I just knew it! I could see that you were getting fat." She even called my sister-in-law to tell her how fat I was getting, and asked her if I had said anything about being pregnant. Nothing like a MIL to make you feel good about yourself, which is precisely why we waited to tell her in particular.

Erik and I spent Friday at the National Down Syndrome Conference which tool place in Irvine, California, this year. What an amazing event. First of all, I have to say that I have never met so many parents who are so in love with their children. We attended some panels, but the most exciting part of my day was having a chance to talk to Dr. William Mobley, who is at the forefront of the studies on Down Syndrome. He had given a speech months ago about how they are about 10 years away from developing a drug that can help to isolate the extra protein that is being given off, and the result would be a greater cognitive ability, even bringing some kids into a normal cognitive range of IQ. When I saw him on Friday, I told him how impressed I was by the research and that I was looking forward to the advances that could be made. I asked him if it was true that they would be ready in ten years (when my son is 12), and he said you can call me out on it if we don't have it before then. Then I said, "so it's entirely possible that my child may be able to have a career one day, and even get married and live on his own?" He told me that we better invite him to the wedding, because he intends on dancing at it.

Later in the afternoon, they had some support groups for women with children 0-2, and then a separate one for men with children from 0-2 (they had all age groups, but that was what we were concerned with). I thought it was so healing to be among other women, from all kinds of backgrounds, all age groups, all ethnicities and different parts of the country. We were able to really talk about issues that were affecting all of us, on different levels. It was comforting to me, to know that every one of us in there had been picked to be a parent of a special child, and we were all succeeding, on many levels.

Owen just woke up, have to run.