“No one saw the storm coming, nor should we have. I was still in that newborn, post-delivery haze: night feedings, peri-pads, staples sore in my stomach. I had a rough go since my son’s birth. Then, that Saturday morning, the tsunami hit.”
‘That’s when I heard the thud. The sound of a 200-plus pound body hitting the nightstand next to our bed. A healthy, 31-year old, former athlete doesn’t just drop.’: Woman surprised by husband’s heart condition
‘I wondered what they meant by ‘whatever brain tissue was left.’ They were having me sign consent forms to keep her alive. He said ‘We need you to understand her life will not be normal.’
“The neonatologist and nurses still didn’t have any idea what was going on or why she was in the condition she was in. The neonatologist said, ‘we aren’t really sure what’s going on, but the baby is very, very sick.”
‘She had less than 25 words in her vocabulary when you met. You said to give her a chance. When others doubted her potential, you advocated.’
“She had round cheeks and two tiny, wispy pigtails that you tell me you remember like it was yesterday.”
‘It’s identical twins, the embryo split.’ WHAT! Hearing I may never carry a child at the age of 22 was heartbreaking and a complete shock’
“We went in for our first ultrasound around 6 weeks and that’s when we heard the news from the doctor ‘there is no heartbeat”
‘I came home and took off the removable seals from our lids… and THIS is what I found!’
“My husband actually battled infection in his body this fall, and we couldn’t figure out what was going on. Now I wonder if it too was attributed to our cups!”
‘Every week, they wanted me to abort. I was asked several times at every appointment. Did they get a prize for ‘selling’ me on an abortion? It sure seemed like it.’
“At 16 weeks, we were scheduled for our anatomy scan to find out if it was a boy or girl. On that day, not only did we find out that we were going to be having a boy, but we also found out that our baby had an anomaly, and we needed to see a specialist right away.”
‘Doctors told me, ‘He will look like a ‘normal’ newborn.’ The tech said, ‘They saw something wrong with the brain, right?’: Baby born with Factor V Leiden, ‘I am beyond proud of him’
“He had his hand on my shoulder when he told me my son’s condition has gotten worse. ‘Your sweet little boy needs you to stay strong’ he said. ‘He is still absolutely perfect.”
‘He found the one man in the mall he felt deserved a ‘thank you.’ A man wearing a Navy veteran’s hat.’: Proud mom watches from afar as son thanks elderly man for his service
“Without hesitation, he respectfully stood before that man who came 50 years before him, and told him he could rest easy, and that his generation would take it from there. All those sleepless nights, all the tears — magically disappeared. It suddenly became worth it.”
‘I found myself obsessing about alcohol and how much was too much while breastfeeding. Doesn’t everyone get so buzzed they can’t drive home?’: Mom grateful to enjoy family with ‘freedom from alcohol’
“I wish I could say that was the first time I woke up after a night of heavy drinking wondering who put the baby to sleep.”
‘He was yelling down the hospital halls, ‘Best day ever!’ As happy as I was for my son, I felt such sadness for my daughter. She was diagnosed first.’
“Both of our babies had cancer. Even before their diagnoses, they were inseparable, best friends. We sometimes joke, he couldn’t even let his sister go through brain cancer without him.”