When our baby was in the NICU after his birth I had lots of time to talk with the nurses there, and they told me that many more Down syndrome kids are born in our area versus other parts of the country. I asked them why this was and they said it’s because in other parts of the country fetuses that are determined to be Down syndrome are often aborted. Eighty to ninety percent of them. I was holding Wes when they told me that and it just astounded me. I looked down at my little, perfect baby boy and wondered how could anyone decide not to give this beautiful child life? It still astonishes me.

Wes is seventeen weeks big, which makes him about four months old. Monday was his four-month checkup at the doctor’s where he weighed in at 9 lbs 7.5 oz. That puts him in the seventh percentile for weight on the chart for children with Down syndrome. That may not seem like much, but considering that when he was born he didn’t even make it on the chart, he’s making progress.

He’s also 22 inches long, which means he’s grown a full half-foot since he was born in September at 16 inches. I can tell he’s getting taller. He’s filling out his newborn-size clothes really well now. His height puts him in the 12th percentile for kids with DS.

Lastly, his head circumference is 14.6 inches, up from about 12 inches when he was born. That means he’s in the 20th percentile. Not too shabby.

Here are some pictures of him sleeping.

Most days I give Wes some work to do in the form of lying on his tummy for a while, practicing grabbing and holding onto things, keeping his head up while I prop him up in a sitting position, etc. Here are a couple photos showing off his hard work today. The first one is during tummy time; in the second he’s holding a purple maraca rattle. He’s really good at shaking it, but that’s just because he’s really wiggly. It was really hard to get a photo even semi-in-focus because is arms were wiggling all over the place.

A video of Wes that catches some smiles:

1108-smiles-for-mom.wmv

Today John gave Wesley his name and blessing in church. Here’s a family photo taken this evening of all three of us:

Here’s Wes doing tummy time at six weeks old.

And here he is today, fifteen weeks old.

He’s getting big, huh?