“The doctor yelled to get the NICU team as soon as possible. They came in so fast we could hardly get a picture. I don’t remember anything afterwards except that my husband googled her syndrome based on her appearance, and I was left alone in the delivery room. No husband. No baby. I asked for a Diet Coke. They only had Diet Pepsi.”
‘What’s wrong with her fingers?,’ my husband asked. ‘They look strange, but they’re perfect.’ Then he saw her toes.’: Parents surprised by daughter’s Apert Syndrome diagnosis, ‘she just wants to be loved’
‘She’s so beautiful’. ‘Yeah, but she has cancer.’: Newborn daughter diagnosed with Neuroblastoma 9 days after she was born
“June 26 was the day the doctors told me my second daughter has cancer. 2 days after my second wedding anniversary. 5 days after my 30th birthday. I begged for my 7-year-old to understand why she couldn’t hold baby sister. ‘She’s very sick’ I would say, and my heart ached with guilt.”
‘Right now is not your time. You’re meant to help other people.’ A 10-minute reign of terror broke out: Shooting survivor recalls ‘resources’ she’s learned from past trauma that helped keep her alive
“From the moment we got around the corner, things felt off, eerie. As this man came closer, I realized something was very wrong. ‘You’re going to come with me and do what I say,’ he said, holding me. I would do whatever it took to keep my daughter safe. If I get a feeling, I listen.”
‘Our son’s entire 18 hours and 16 minutes of life, he was never alone. He was fiercely loved, deeply cherished, and widely celebrated.’: Mom turns loss of son’s ‘fleeting life’ to Trisomy 18 into ‘something of value’
“We were going to travel, tackle, and triumph over every inch of this world. I asked myself one very important question, ‘How can I transform my son’s fleeting life and too-soon death into something of value?’ I thought I lost the chance to have a great adventure with Cole when I lost him, but I think our great adventure together is really just beginning.”
‘I held his tiny hand. I knew what was coming. We made the heartbreaking decision and waited for the chaplain arrive.’: Parents ‘devastated’ over loss of son born with Down syndrome, congenital heart defects
“He waited for his dad and I to be able to hold him before he went. I held him as the nurses took the ventilator, with his daddy by his side. I was Saxon’s favorite place to be. I was his safe space. I believe with all my heart, he waited for me.”
‘Are you going to keep him?’ I sat in tears, softly rubbing my belly. ‘Please grow. Build arms.’ I was hoping there must be some mistake.’ Mom delivers baby with TAR Syndrome after miscarriages
“People would say how fast he’d grow and all he’d do. All those words felt like lies. They didn’t know about his arms. Then there were the people that did know, and that was worse. I couldn’t stand the pity. My son, my angel, was NOT ‘sad’. I cried daily and felt guilty for questioning if keeping him was the right thing to do.”
‘My hands were shaking as I gripped my son’s tiny hand in the backseat. ‘Just hurry up and get to the hospital.’: Mom’s confusion after ‘idyllic’ newborn’s rare Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia diagnosis
“Talk about nerves. ‘He’s a calm little guy!,’ my OBGYN assured us as they whisked him away to be washed and weighed. It was love at first sight. Then, just a few days before celebrating one month on this earth with our son, we underwent an intense baptism into a new, unimagined kind of parenthood. Our son was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder.”
‘Terminate one baby.’ My weak heart couldn’t handle triplets. But as a triplet myself, I wanted all three.’: Triplet births triplets against all odds, delivers 3 ‘healthy, amazing little miracles’
“My heart was operated on years ago. I was told pregnancy would be a risk. Now, my heart had to pump blood for 3 extra people! For the sake of my babies, I drove 7 hours for a ‘fetal reduction’. My husband and I couldn’t even look each other in the eye. 3 hours in, we started crying and decided to stop. I just couldn’t convince myself this was supposed to happen.”
‘I think I made a mistake. A mistake in having him at all,’ I texted. I wished to GOD I could go back to pre-child life. ‘You are not meant to be a mother,’ I told myself.’ Woman’s severe struggle with postpartum depression
“I vividly remember hearing my baby cry for the first time and feeling… nothing. ‘Mom he looks just like you!,’ the doctor said. I tried to squeeze out a tear because that’s what new moms do, right? I tried to feel happiness. It wasn’t there.”
‘You don’t have to be Superwoman, attempting to squeeze out a baby without meds. If you’re vain as I am, wear makeup, style your hair. Do it YOUR way.’
“Your husband will say and do the wrong things leading up to delivery. He will annoy you. Then, your baby will come out looking exactly like him. All that morning sickness, the inability to eat sushi, the limiting your coffee intake, the sacrifices, only for your husband to get all the credit. It will make you slightly crazy.”
