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It has been awhile since I blogged about family members, so I can't remember what has or has not been said. Some of the following post may be either old news or a complete surprise accordingly. And I still have a stinkin' migraine, so please forgive any garbled sentences.

First of all, BOTH my sister AND my sister-in-law are expecting babies! They are due within about a week of each other, which is interesting since the mommies are the same age too. Both babies will arrive sometime around the end of August/beginning of September.

My sister-in-law will be having a boy, so our three-year-old niece will have some competition, heh heh. Apparently, a shopping frenzy is afoot in anticipation of the new arrival. Don't know if there are any names picked out yet, but I'm going to refer to him as my nephew-to-be for now.

My sister has chosen not to be informed of the gender of her child in advance. I wonder if doctors ever slip up and say "him" or "her" when referring to the baby? My sister is picking out girl names and her husband is in charge of boy names.

My sister-in-law's baby has so far been given a clean bill of health, but my sister just found out that her child has Down's syndrome. I think it is a good thing that it was discovered early so the parents have time to prepare themselves for possible challenges ahead. My sister has been doing research and checking out support groups.

Baby "B", as I'm going to refer to my sister's child for now, so far does not appear to have any heart-related problems, which is a relief as up to 50 percent of kids with Down's syndrome have heart defects. The docs will be doing a fetal EKG this week. No other physical abnormalities have been noted, just the chromosomal aberration that determines Down's.

I don't know that much about Down's syndrome except that it usually results in delays in physical development and learning. There is no way to know how profound those will be until after the baby is born. Most of these kids are mobile and able to communicate, but it may take them longer than the average child to achieve such milestones as walking and forming sentences and potty training.

While I am sad and a bit unnerved at the news of the Down's syndrome, and part of me wants to think it is unfair, I also know that my sister will be able to handle it. She is still having a child like she always wanted, the pregancy is progressing normally, and she is in good health. She is probably still going to have a happy child.

My sister is being monitored quite closely by a team of doctors, and there will be a pediatrician present at delivery to check immediately for any problems with the baby after it is born. Apparently, Down's syndrome babies respond favorably to physical therapy for muscle coordination and development, so this might be something that is done. As for education, schooling is less isolated than it once was so the child has opportunities for socialization as well as learning.

That's all I've got on this subject for now. I plan to relate news on my own health at some point after I get done copying medical records for ANOTHER rheumatologist; long story. I also am quite backlogged on mini-reviews for the Netflix movies I've seen recently, so those should be forthcoming.

Peace out.