“There have been decisions Steph and I have made as parents that we know our children may have opinions on. If one day my children question them, I hope my heart is proud to have raised children who can think for themselves.”
‘We used an anonymous donor to form our family despite having additional frozen embryos we could have continued trying.’: Mom of 3 hopes ‘my boys are proud one day’
‘That night led to a heated conversation. She finally looked at me and said, ‘What do you need?’: Couple struggling with new normal says ‘we must take care of each other’
“She was fried. She hadn’t slept much. I felt invisible. She looked at me and said, ‘This isn’t you, or the parent you want to be, so you need to tell me what you need or snap out of it.’ We sat in that uncomfortable place for a good 45 minutes.”
‘Week two of quarantine, I was acting like my 4-year-old to my adult spouse. ‘Please don’t let this be my karma.’: Mom of three ‘wild ones’ reminds others ‘YOU ARE NOT ALONE’
“I worried about his aggressive outbursts. Earlier that day, I was talking with a friend who was working through her anxiety about leaving her family every shift to work in the NICU. Her anxiety was real. Mine was selfish and unplaced. I was disappointed in myself that I wasn’t able to handle things better for Jack that day, or with my spouse.”
‘I’m going to throw up.’ He looked like an unfamiliar creature. Everything I expected went out the window.’: Woman gives birth to twin preemies at 24 weeks, ‘We knew this would be the greatest fight of our lives’
“A nurse said, ‘Do you want a picture?’ I abruptly said, ‘No.’ I was trying to erase the past 6 hours from my memory. I didn’t even know if my baby would survive. Why would I want a picture or anything that would make me feel attached to this little creature? Baby B was barely alive.”
‘Why don’t you lose weight?’ Me, unimpressed by an egotistical doctor: ‘Or you could just do your job.’: Woman with cervical cancer, PCOS beats infertility, ‘Always fight for yourself because you are worth it’
“I quickly became friends with Wanda, the lovely trans-vaginal ultrasound wand I had a hot date with every morning. ‘We found something on your cervix.’ My period stopped. I almost fainted on the subway on my way to work. I started gaining weight. I was told I likely would never naturally have children. Well, f**k.'”
‘No cuddles today,’ I was told 3 days in a row. I was nothing but a milk machine. It was torture.’: Woman gives birth to twin preemies, ‘I was humbled by our time in the NICU’
“I watched her lips turn blue again. ‘Breathe baby girl. Please.’ We were force-feeding them to keep them alive. They poked Hazel over and over, trying to find a vein, finally landing on one in her head. I was horrified. ‘How in the world are we all going to survive this?’”
‘I asked the doctor, ‘Are you sure they’re identical twins? They look nothing alike. I think you guys misdiagnosed them!’: Twin mom urges us to celebrate differences, ‘Every child has their own unique, extraordinary soul’
“One baby was much paler than the other and born 2 pounds lighter. ‘How could one be so different than the other?’ The science didn’t make sense. I had no idea of the world I would be thrown into. I started to feel like maybe something was wrong with my babies. They had two totally different souls.”
‘She started hysterically laughing. ‘So far I’ve found 3.’ After already having twins! Complete shock.’: Mother births twins, then triplets, then twins again, ‘We were completely dumbfounded’
“It was EXTREMELY rare. After hearing the news, we walked across the street and got pedicures, because what else do you do when you find out you’re pregnant with triplets? After already having twins! I don’t think we said a word to each other the entire time – we were completely dumbfounded.”
‘This is crazy! We don’t have any pink hats left. This has NEVER happened before.’: Mom realizes signs from her dad in heaven were ‘loud’ throughout pregnancy with son
“Each patient gets a blue and a pink hat. She pulled out a blue one to hand to me. ‘It’s strange. There weren’t any pink ones in there. I don’t know if you believe in signs, but there’s no way the baby you’re carrying is a girl. Absolutely no way!’ I’ve only carried 4 girls. To me, there was no way this baby could be a boy. I wanted nothing more than to give my little brother we adopted a brother.”
