On Sunday, June 10, 2001, our second son Dylan was born. My husband and I arrived at the hospital at 4:00 a.m. With Dylan being my second child, you would think I would know what labor pains felt like. Dylan was born at 5:20 a.m. The first thing my husband noticed when he saw Dylan for the first time was the size of his tongue. Little did we know that there would be other physical attributes that the doctors would bring to our attention that caused them to believe that Dylan had Down syndrome (DS). 

My pregnancy was normal with no complications during the entire nine months. All monthly visits showed a healthy, viable birth in the future. The screening test, Alpha-fetoprotein Plus (AFP), was to estimate my risk of having a baby with DS. It came back completely normal. My doctor has told me since Dylan’s birth that my AFP results were “more normal” than his wife’s, who had a perfectly healthy baby. 

Around lunch the next day, a nurse and a Neonatologist, whom I had never met, came to my hospital room. The Neonatologist said that he needed to talk to us about Dylan. We had no idea what he was about to tell us. He said that after examining Dylan, he believed that he might have DS. The first thing that I said was, “My AFP test came back normal, this must be a mistake.” My husband asked the question, “What is DS?” The doctor’s reply was that DS had been associated in the past as mongolism or mongoloid. Jerry’s depiction of that was horrific, not knowing anything about DS. I asked the doctor what were they seeing that caused them to believe this. He pointed out several physical traits that pointed to the diagnosis of DS; a single deep crease across the center of his palm, almond shaped eyes, an excessive space between the first and second toe, and a large tongue in relationship to the size of his mouth.

We were in shock and not prepared to hear that our perfectly healthy baby boy might have this disability that we knew nothing about. I blamed myself for not doing the right things during the pregnancy, but the doctors assured me that there was nothing I could have done to prevent this from happening. We cried for a while and then denied it for a while. We tried to associate every DS characteristic with a trait that a family member had to convince ourselves that Dylan didn’t have DS. Family and friends told us that they didn’t see any abnormal traits when they held Dylan, giving us a hope that the doctors were wrong. 

A blood sample was taken and sent to University of Mississippi Medical Center for testing. We spoke to a social worker before leaving the hospital and she told us that a service coordinator from First Steps would be contacting us in a few months. We arrived home a few days later and immediately started searching the Internet for anything we could find about DS. About a week after returning home, we got the news that the blood test results had come back positive. Dylan had Down syndrome. 

Dylan attended a home-based childcare facility when he was six weeks old. His environment consisted of four babies ranging in age of two months to one year. We met with an assessment team from Willowood Developmental Center at two months of age. He was assessed using a profile that compared his development skills to a child with no disability. That profile consisted of gross motor, fine motor, cognitive, language/communication, self-help, social emotional, and coping skills. In each area, his developmental age range was two to four months. He did not exhibit any developmental delays, so a decision was made not to have any intervention. We were given play activity suggestions and requested another comprehensive assessment be repeated at six months of age. 

At seven months of age another team from Willowood assessed Dylan. The same profile was used and his developmental age range was four to seven months. The only area that he required services was for gross motor development. He started physical therapy that month and continued therapy every week. 

When Dylan was 14 months old, our physical therapist from Mid-South recommended that we enroll him in the Toddler I class at Ridgecrest Baptist Weekday. She said it would be beneficial to Dylan to be with children at his age level. He started speech therapy when he was 16 months old. He stared occupational therapy when he was 18 months old. At 19 months old, he was promoted to the Toddler II class at Ridgecrest. He was recently promoted to the two year old class, placing him back into a class of his peers. 

The therapists from Mid-South continue to work with him by visiting Ridgecrest on a weekly basis. Listed below are a few of the milestones that Dylan has obtained:

• Rolled over independently – 8 months 

• Sat up with no assistance– 12 months 

• Crawled – 13 months 

• Walked with hand held support (short distances) – 16 months

• Said “bye-bye,” “uh oh” – 16 months 

• Independently pulled to stand – 17 months 

• Played “pat-a-cake,” waved “bye-bye” – 17 months

• Fed himself finger type food and held sippy cup – 17 months 

• Pointed to body parts with assistance – 19 months 

• Said “da-da” – 19 months 

• Said “ma-ma” – 20 months

• Stacked blocks – 21 months

• Walked with push toy – 22 months

• Crawled up stairs on hands and knees – 22 months 

• Said “no-no” – 22 months

• Walked with no assistance – 23 months 

• Ran – 25 months 

• Said “”wow,” “oh boy” – 25 months 

Dylan has grown into the most lovable little boy. He loves playing with his big brother Jarrett, whom he calls “Bubba.” They chase each other around the house, wrestle on the floor with daddy, and watch Barney videos together. He is accomplishing new goals every day. Each goal that we set for him, he surpasses. His favorite word for animals is “ah-coo.” 

Dylan is a gift from God. My husband and I came to the realization soon after he was born, that God had placed a special gift in our hands. God has entrusted us with the responsibility of raising this special “angel” sent from heaven. We were already blessed with one gift in our first son Jarrett, but Dylan is our special gift. We pray everyday that God will grant us the courage, strength, and fortitude to rear both of them under His care. 

Jerry & Deborah Pierce 
(601) 605-8775 
Email: dpierce88@yahoo.com