A dance with Coraline

Here is Coraline back home and in her blanket given to us by the hospital, as she had been in it a lot there. We brought her home on a Saturday night and on Sunday morning two lovely, warm midwives appeared on a home visit as part of the usual care you receive. One of them, from Ireland, had been a midwife for 40 years and the other was finishing her training. This wonderful Irish midwife chatted us through everything. She looked at Coraline and said, "you're just perfect". They were doing 11 visits that day and said they were struck by how tranquil we were and we could see they really meant it; "she was born into the right family. You're calm so she's calm. Keep that attitude, she's a very lucky baby. She's a well baby". I said to her that it feels odd that we have a baby with Down's Syndrome but we know hardly anything about it yet. She said, "you don't need to know anything about it. You just need to know your baby. You can begin reading about it in a few weeks". She told us about a little boy called Oliver who she knew who has Down's Syndrome and said he had a beautiful disposition and that at a wedding, "everybody wants a dance with Oliver". We hope that in life everybody will want to dance with Coraline.