“I did my best to breastfeed, and I gave them formula. I did my best to socialize them and teach them, and I let them watch TV and play on their iPads. By my third, I stopped caring.”
‘I started to compare her to the other two and blame myself. Somehow, I was responsible.’: Mom talks importance of not comparing your children to others
‘Is he walking yet?’ I got defensive. I gave a long-winded response, explaining everything else he was doing as if it were an issue.’: Mom urges ‘don’t rush milestones’
“He is 12 months old and still not walking. Why is it we want to rush the milestones instead of embracing them being babies for just a little bit longer?”
‘Could you be pregnant?’ I mean yeah, I guess I could be, but I’m pretty sure I’m not. I decided to put ‘Yes’ for the answer.’: Woman gets surprise pregnancy news at dentist
“‘I need you to go take this test to make sure. If you are pregnant, we can’t do the x-rays.’ I thought this was crazy, went into the bathroom, and pee’d on the stick. She grabbed it, looked at me, and called for another lady to come look. The other lady looked at me. ‘Yeah, we aren’t doing the appointment.’ I walked out, called my boyfriend and told him they wouldn’t finish my appointment. He was confused.”
‘She had abnormal, starry blue eyes. I had a gut-wrenching feeling. We were told ‘not to worry.’ A checkup for a mild cough changed our lives.’: Mom births baby with Williams Syndrome, ‘Genetic disorder or not, we will love her more each day’
“Her low birth weight was dismissed. The doctor told us her heart murmur would ‘dissipate on its own’ and she would be just fine. Little did we know, these were the very first signs. As much as I wanted to convince myself nothing would be wrong, I had a gut-wrenching feeling. My mama heart just knew. They failed us.”
‘Does he sleep in his own bed?’ The question makes me cringe a little. I lie about it, but I shouldn’t have to.’: Mom urges us to ‘trust our intuition’ with meeting milestones and ‘answer shamelessly’
“‘How long did he breastfeed?’ ‘Have you started potty training?’ Confession time. I’ve lied about all of this before. But I’m done feeling ashamed for the choices I make. My kids may not seem ‘independent’ enough for some, and that’s okay because these kids? They’re mine to bring up.”
‘As a mom, you just KNOW. Something didn’t feel right. Cars zipped by on the busy street. I trembled as we made our way to the front of the building. We were only a few steps away. I wanted to run, but I didn’t.’
“I wish I could’ve jumped into one of those passing cars and pretended it never happened. That I hitchhiked, ran away, disappeared. I thought we could find someone to ‘fix’ my son. As the woman in the office spoke, I couldn’t take my eyes off her mouth. I knew the word that would come. I didn’t believe her.”
‘I spent hours searching, which told me my daughter had autism and was mentally impaired. I cried and cried for weeks, absolutely devastated my child was ‘not like the rest.’
“I started to notice she wasn’t ‘just like her sister’ around 9 months old. She still didn’t have her first teeth, and was barely babbling any words, let alone noises.”
