Update

My son, Nicholas Quillen Perry, was born on Thursday (1/11) at 8:21 P.M. after 16 hours of labor. Shannon's water broke at 3:45 AM and we'd been in the hospital since 4:45 or so. It was a very difficult labor and birth because Nicholas was facing up most of the time, although he rotated at the last possible second and emerged face down. He was 7 lb 13 oz.

He has Downs Syndrome. This was a surprise to Shannon and me. No testing had hinted at the possibility, but I guess it's always possible. About 1 in 800 babies have it, worldwide (a staggeringly high rate of occurance) and doctors really have little understanding of the risk factors. It involves a genetic mutation (an extra chromosome) immediately upon conception, but does not usually seem to be passed down genetically. It just happens, and it's happened.

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Update again

Hi all. Here's the story: Nico is still having trouble with temperature regulation. This means it will take some days for him to come home, as hopefully having more nourishment and time outside the womb takes care of that problem. No one has expressed any real concern about this taking anything more than time.

So we'll be coming and going from home to hospital, being there from 7 AM to 8 or 11 PM. If you have any questions, I'll try to respond to any that are posted in comments to this post. I've read everything, but won't be going back and responding to all that much. Thanks for all the support.

Anticipating answers:

We don't really know what we need, but we'll speak up when we need something. I'm not shy about asking for help.

Everyone who wants to meet him will, but we're taking it very very slow. We'll hear you if you ask for the chance to come to the hospital, but please, please, pease, don't be offended if we don't get back to you right away. We'll also try to get him out to public events in February, if all goes well.

Holland also has chocolates.

mia_mcdavid used the phase "welcome to Holland" in a very sweet email to us. We didn't get it. My mother, though, got the story in an email from a friend (historian Linda Kerber, interesting woman), who went to highschool with the author. Emily Kingsley helped create Sesame Street and her Downs child appeared on the show from time to time. Anyway ... I /love/ this metaphor.

I speak Italian, ironically enough. Not Dutch.

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