What I would like to say to those parents
who just had a baby with Down syndrome
is that they need to give themself time,
and allow themself to cry and to upset, that, yes,
this happened to my life and I don't like it.
And this is gonna be hard.
But after that, you need to get up.
You need to learn how to enjoy what you have,
because if not, you're gonna miss a beautiful life.
Yeah.
♪ ♪
-High five. Good job. -There you go.
How are you?
Hi, you little cutie.
So cute.
BEATRIZ: Same nose.
SANDRA: I love talking to parents
of young children with Down syndrome,
because we had the advantage of being able to learn
from parents who were ahead of us.
Mistakes they've made,
things that have been successful,
things I want to do, things I don't want to do.
I want them to know they're not alone,
and I want them to know the future
is very bright.
So thinking back to when
your kids were our kids' age.
My daughter's two.
What did you spend the most time worrying about
that you really didn't need to worry about?
(laughter)
Did I get the right speech therapist?
Do I have enough hours?
I'm not saying it's not important,
but, you know, an extra hour of this,
or-or driving an extra 30 minutes to do that,
in the grand scheme of things...
You being relaxed, enjoying your daughter,
spending quality time with them,
at the end of the day, you're the best professional.
It's important, all those-- the therapy, everything--
but if you miss therapy
because you're reading a book to your kid,
or you're playing on the carpet with them,
I think that is good, too.
Enjoy the moment.
It's going to be soon-- way faster than you think.
LAURIE: The only thing I worried about
and I shouldn't have worried about,
was Rachel being happy.
'Cause she's always been happy.
No matter what she goes through,
no matter whether someone insults her,
she always seems to find the silver lining,
walks away, she's happy.
So we have multiple children,
our six-year-old, uh, is typical boy,
and then we-- uh, Chloe is four years old.
And our six-year-old is just starting
to get his head around the fact
that Chloe is a little bit different.
Unfortunately, he's been growing up in her shadow,
because she's always the one that has the therapies
and the doctor appointments and everything.
How do you include the older children, or even,
we have a-a baby, too, how do you include them and, um,
help them come to terms with this?
Forget about disability, forget about Down syndrome.
You have three kids, you need to treat all of them equal.
-And give them time. -MARIANO: It's not so different
from, from the kid who is, you know, a gifted athlete.
And all of a sudden, you tend
to spend more time involving their sports activity,
their football and all of that, and the other one who is,
ah, a mediocre artist...
So you don't have
a-a special child
-and two normal child-children. -Yeah.
-You have three different kids. -Yeah.
And they're all gonna need time.
Mariano has been-- really been a good mentor.
He's been able to relate experiences to me
that I thought were just so practical
and just so useful.
And watching everyone on the show,
they've done a really great job, and definitely something
that has been inspiring for Amy and I.
And just watching where they're at,
it's just like, Rocco's gonna be just fine.
WOMAN: Yeah, I wanted just to know,
if it's better to wait until they ask?
I don't know how they can realize
that they're different.
GARY: I think it's like anything else.
To me, it would be like, uh, having the sex talk.
You kind of know when it's ready and if they ask, you tell them.
You know, Rachel basically knows. She knows
she doesn't have, uh, translocation of chromosome.
I don't think that means much of anything to her, and for her,
it means that it's a little harder for her to learn.
That's really it.
If we sat down and explained 20 minutes
to Rachel of Down syndrome, she'd say, "Great.
Okay, now can I go finish my movie?"
Like, that-that would be her response to it,
'cause it doesn't mat-- it doesn't matter, so...
I think that the finishing that you say is like Cristina.
-Yeah, like, "Okay, we're done." -"Okay, some things,
-it takes more time for me to learn." -GARY: Yeah.
There are things that we-- our kids will be able to do,
certain things they will not be able to do.
And I'm talking about all my kids.
My job as a parent is to facilitate
as much as I can what they want to do.
And help them get as far as they can
with whatever it is that they-they want to do.
If they're ready, they will do it.
People who receive a diagnosis,
they aren't told a rounded story.
They may be told of all the possible medical issues
that can happen, and the worst-case scenarios,
but they're not given the reality
of the average person with Down syndrome
will grow up and have jobs,
they will grow up and have relationships.
They can get married.
They can have normal lives.
(laughing)
What are you...? Wh-- Ow! Ow!