Amber DeAnn Rojas, a mother of five from Texas, knew after four pregnancies, which included a set of twins, that something felt different with this baby, and she was right. During her pregnancy, she sensed something was wrong.
After short labor, Amber gave birth to a daughter, Amadeus, who she quickly realized had Down Syndrome. Her fears were confirmed when she scooped up her baby girl Ami at her water birth.
She told POPSUGAR that she came to the realization almost instantly:
I didn’t know why or how, but I always told my husband this baby was going to be different. My pregnancy wasn’t different but I knew something was. The next thing I know, my sweet baby is in my arms, and [I felt] so many emotions. As soon as I looked down I saw [that she had Down Syndrome]. I saw it on her face. I thought to myself: “My baby has Down Syndrome.” At that moment, I totally forgot that we kept the baby’s gender a secret. Then I looked down and to my surprise, it was a girl! I’m so excited, my thoughts of her having Down Syndrome went away because I was so happy we were having another girl!
Amber’s midwife explained to Amadeus that their daughter had several of the Down Syndrome signs after she had her newborn assessment. Despite the fact that Amber confesses she had little knowledge about the ailment, she was unfazed by the news.
She added: “We didn’t care that she had Down Syndrome because we were all obsessed with her . . . she’s like all the other babies we’ve had! She needs milk. She cries when she’s wet or uncomfortable. She smiles when she sees us and we love her fiercely! Amadeus has brought us together. We are learning together about a whole community that we never knew anything about. God gave us Amadeus for a reason and to us she’s perfect! We don’t see her diagnosis or her label, we just see her as our daughter.”
So far, Amber is enjoying bonding with her baby girl. And although baby Amadeus needs to have open heart surgery on Feb. 27 to fix a heart defect that children with Down Syndrome are sometimes born with, the Rojas family is hopeful that she’ll have a speedy recovery.
As for her other children, Xavier, 10, twins Zayden and Kaydence, 8, and 23-month-olf Ezra, Rojas says they were initially worried that their sister would face bullies due to her condition.
“But at the end of the day, she is our baby and we are her family. To us, she is perfect. We don’t see her diagnosis or her label — we see Amadeus Reign Rojas.”
