Someone else posted this: Have not read the other letters but did anyone notice how they passed that poor kid around like a football? That he did not cry? How could they take a chance on the embarrassment? – maybe he was drugged for the occasion??? Kept awake all day?? The poor kid was being used as a prop to provoke sympathy and the bit in the speech about having an advocate in the white house is BS. What about the women who would lose their right to choose if SP had her way? What about the women who don’t have the support system she can afford? How much maternal attention is this child going to get anyway?

I told myself I wouldn't do this again, but here goes. I had a baby like Trig. It has been so evocative and a little painful to see him in his mother's arms (once) and everyone else's (the rest of the time.) When I look at Trig, I see my baby, and remember what those times were like.

Trig is like most young babies with Down syndrome. They have low muscle tone and delayed motor skills. Over half have heart or intestinal abnormalities. They have difficulties and delays cognitively and with motor skills. Their little bodies feel like dead weight. They don't squirm much, don't roll over, seldom cry or vocalize; they rarely indicate their needs. Thinking they appear "drugged" is understandable, but it's more of an indication of the syndrome.

I remember thinking, "He's such a good baby!" but that was my inexperience talking. He never cried and appeared content. When I learned more about Down syndrome, through intensive study and coaching from an infant learning program, I understood that I would have to reach out, hard and continuously, to bring my son forward in development. I had to turn him into a (typically) demanding infant.

Thus began the day-in-day-out battle for Max. Every environment was modified to make it more stimulating visually and auditorially. I didn't let him just "sit" or "lay." There had to be balloons on strings, home made mobiles that changed frequently, differently textured blankets/towels/etc. for him to lay on, music of all kinds for him to listen to, smells and touch to experience....floor time with a rolled-up towel under his chest while I held his little elbows on the blanket, so he was required to work at holding his head up. I learned and implemented infant physical therapy, sign language, child development and how to facilitate "normal" milestones.

Every day was like this. Every day. It took a tremendous toll, but I have no regrets. He sat up at 14 months, walked at 18 months, was toiled trained at 5. His first words were at around 4(and he still doesn't have many of them at 21.)

I see Trig, an easy-to-love baby. Love is not enough with babies like ours. They take much learning and then application of that learning throughout the day. I fear that his early developmental needs are being sacrificed to a "higher purpose" like getting Mommy elected.

Until you've walked the walk, you can never know how much it takes, for how long, to parent a child like Trig, even with all the advantages that this baby and his family have.

And infancy was the "easy" part.