An open letter to Pampers, and any other parent-directed websites.

Let me start by saying that I love all of your products. Pampers are the only diaper I use!  In my opinion, they’re the only ones that mask the pee pee smell.  This is not an attack, this is a friendly suggestion. As a mom who had an unexpected diagnosis for her baby after birth, […]

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I have Down syndrome, too.

When I returned to my job as a second grade teacher, I was not fully prepared to discuss Nicholas’s diagnosis yet.  I was so afraid that if someone brought it up, I would break down crying.  What would the kids think of their long-absent teacher then? It wasn’t only that.  I had gone into labor […]

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Seeing other extraordinary people.

This is when I don’t know how to be an advocate… Bear with me, friends.  I have only been a part of this community of moms for 8 months, and I am still learning the ropes. Last Sunday, my friend and I decided to venture to the baby clothes store, which is about an hour away […]

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The hospital stay.

No, I am not talking about the original hospital stay.  I am talking about the one from last night.  The one where I had to terrorize a security guard to get access to the children’s ER. Okay, maybe I didn’t terrorize them, but I was scary enough to make them think that they would rather […]

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The gap in pictures.

36 hours.  That’s how long we had to celebrate our son without the debilitating shock of the possibility of Down Syndrome looming over us.  Just 36 hours. Look at us.  We are so happy.  The photograph was taken prior to the nurse practitioner asking to see us alone and saying “I need to talk to […]

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What does a Down Syndrome mom look like?

I want you all to know that when I talk about the difficult times after I gave birth to Nicholas, it in no way means that I am upset about his having Down Syndrome. There are two reasons that I talk about it so often. The first is because when I was going through it, […]

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I know I only post on Saturday and Sunday, but this can’t wait.

I, as you can guess, have a ton of pictures of my son on my desk at work. I mean.. look at him.. why wouldn’t I? My students from last year are now in 3rd grade, and most of them still visit me on a daily basis. Today, one of my girls visited me and […]

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“Hi, this is Mary, Nicholas’s mom..”

That’s a message that I was leaving Nicholas’s babysitter one afternoon. As those words were coming out of my  mouth, I remember thinking “what did I just say?” For some reason, this message that I left was when it hit me that I was someone’s mom.  It wasn’t in the hospital after giving birth, it […]

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Muscle Tone

Before Nicholas, I had previously known some things about Down Syndrome.  After the doctors told us that they were going to order genetic testing to see if he had it, they kindly asked us not to google anything.  There was no way I could do that anyway.  I couldn’t even look at my phone at […]

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