Meet Pepper!

My name is Nicki Scott. I'm the proud mama of Shelby Pepper Scott who was born June 30th, 2011 at 39 weeks gestation. At birth, she was whisked away to the nursery after only a moment of holding her 6lb 2oz little limp body against mine. After 4 hours with no word and no baby, I was able to get up and walk to the hospital's nursery to see my sweet baby in an oxygen helmet with tubes and cords coming from what seemed to be every limb. She was beautiful. I loved smelling her skin and petting her little tummy. Later that day, her doctor would come to tell me that he believed she had Down Syndrome and affectionately called her a 'Downie.' Symptoms he sighted were slanted eyes, ear placement, simean crease on one hand, low muscle tone and inability to regulate oxygen levels.

Let me back up. At my first prenatal appointment of this pregnancy, my midwife had me fill out all of the family health history information questionaires. One of the boxes I marked was for Autism. Just a week before discovering we were expecting, our then four year old son's teacher and school counsellor suggested that he might have Aspergers Syndrome (a form of autism). Upon seeing that box marked, my midwife suggested that we have the 'triple screening" blood test done to see if there might be concerns in this pregnancy. When the test was done, the results showed high markers for Down Syndrome in my blood stream. I was referred to a hospital in Tulsa for regular 4d ultrasounds to monitor the baby's growth. The doctor on staff said she couldn't tell us that the baby didn't have Down Syndrome without an amniocentesis-which carries some chance of miscarriage or infection. However, she said everything looked 'normal' so far. As we left, she suggested once again that we have the amniocentesis done soon so it wouldn't be too late to terminate the pregnancy if there was something wrong.

On our drive home that day, we purposed in our hearts to prepare ourselves as if she was going to have Down Syndrome. I grieved as if I had lost a loved one that day and for more than a week I grieved. It was as if the dream of a healthy daughter had died. I still grieve over certain things. Near the end of my pregnancy, I read about Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego and the furnace. They purposed in their hearts to praise and serve God whether he spared them from the furnace or not. Some days are harder than others, but our God is still good and worthy to be praised! We thought we were prepared emotionally, physically, and financially but it remained a mystery until the day she was born. She was and is beautiful. She is the sweetest baby.

This blog is therapeutic for me. I will be posting about the things we learn about Pepper, Down Syndrome, and about life. Feel free to post comments and questions. We would very much appreciate your prayers and we count on our friends and family to ask others to pray, too. God is good and has been good to us. We know He chose to make Pepper exactly who she is from the beginning of creation He knew this is how our daughter would be.

Blessings!

Nicki