31 for 21: O's Story

Yo and O, the twins.

My 7 year old brother, a twin, is #10 of the 11 children born to my mother. (She was 39 years and 364 days old when she had the twins). He has Down Syndrome. We did not know he had a couple extra chromosomes until he was born. The diagnosis came from the hospital as bad news. He wouldn't be able to do this, he wouldn't be able to do that. They would later be proven wrong.

It was a long 2 weeks in the hospital. My mother was determined to breastfeed him. After long tireless nights, she convinced the doctors she could take care of her own child. Mom, O and Yo (the twin sister, who is "normal") came home. A sickly baby boy with oxegen tubes, a vigilant mother and a re-searching, caring oldest sister who loves him so dearly.

One thing that should be noted here is that all of the kid's before the twins were birthed at home. We don't go to the hospital all the time (but there is a time to go to the hospital). With O, we did check-ups about every 2 weeks, but we refused vaccinations (to many bad stories).

By God's grace, O grew strong. Within one month of dietary supplements, he looked like a different baby. We found out what you CAN do for your baby with Down Syndrome. Thus, the close to 600 page book that the oldest sister and mom put together. To see my sister's work, you can see her website here - Got Down Syndrome? - and her blog here - Got Down Syndrome's Blog. There's a lot of info in those links, and I would encourage you to check it out if you know someone with Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome).

That's a short version of our story . . .

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month. There's a blog challenge (that I told you about some yesterday) I have done the past 2 years. It's called 31 for 21, raising awareness 1 blog at a time. If you sign up, what you do is post at least one post everyday in the month of October, 31 days, to raise awareness about Down Syndrome, a triplication of the 21st chromosome. I'm participating, so are you looking forward to all the posts (I do have some recipes!)?



~ Hanunyah

31 for 21 is a blog challenge to raise Down Syndrome awareness 1 blog at a time. The challenge is to blog everyday the whole month of October (31 days) to raise awareness for Down Syndrome (aka Trisomy 21). This is the 6th Annual 31 for 31 Challenge.