I must have stumbled upon Felicity’s mummy’s instagram account pretty soon after we had Saajan. Accounts like these really helped to calm my nerves. Felicity is a a year older than Saajan and boy is she enjoying life! Her beautiful face combined with her sassy personality make her so endearing! One of my most favourite things about Felicity is her dance moves – I could watch her for days!
Below, Felicity’s daddy has shared their birth diagnosis from a father’s perspective.
We learned of our daughter’s diagnosis at birth. The pregnancy was going fine until the final doctor visit. My wife had not been feeling well that day so the doctor sent her to the hospital to get some tests done. That is when this roller coaster of emotions started. The doctor came into the room after looking at the ultrasound and said “you are not going home today, the baby has fluid around her lung and we have to induce labor now”. Labor was induced and as it was progressing our Felicity’s heart rate would decrease so the decision was made to do a c-section.
At 2:39AM August 7th our lives changed forever. We heard the first cries of our baby girl. We would only see her for a few brief seconds before the NICU doctor and nurses started prepping her to be transferred to the NICU, where she would spend the first twelve days of her life. As they were prepping her the doctor turns to me and says “she shows characteristics of Down Syndrome”. Shocked I looked at my wife like what did he just say? So I asked him what he said and he said it again. I didn’t even know what to say.
The fluid around her lung seemed like nothing now; the doctors can fix that, Down Syndrome is for the rest of her life. So I followed the doctor and nurses to the NICU with Felicity while my wife finished up in surgery and was transported back to the room. As I looked at her through the plastic enclosure she was in and all the wires and tubes in her I thought to myself, “You’re my daughter and I am going to take care of you no matter what”. My wife took it a little harder than I did. She kept saying I’m sorry and what are we going to do? I would simply reply we are going to raise our daughter. I had my moments of breakdown though. I would cry in the shower so nobody would see because I wanted to be the strong one.
At first receiving a diagnosis like this feels like the end of the world and how are we gonna raise a child that has something can’t be fixed. This is our first child, we don’t know how to be parents let alone a parent to a child with Down Syndrome. As time goes by it does get easier. It’s not the end of the world. It’s the start of an incredible life that I am glad to be a part of. This life has its ups and downs but doesn’t everyone’s?
You can also read another post on a fathers perspective where Preetam shared our diagnosis when Saajan was just two days old.
