Parenting “firsts” get all the fanfare. Baby’s first steps. The first day of school. The first time your teenager drives the family car. Etc. Right now Josiah is at the age where the firsts are happening almost daily. Look, mom, I figured out how to help you rearrange those books you just neatly stacked up. […]
How to get your 3 year old to take her “nasty medicine”
I have officially named this year (or so – it began last October with my son’s extremely early birth) The Year of the Medical Event. Looking back on my calendar for the past several months, I’ve had 6-8 or more medical events or doctor’s appointments each month. Have a mentioned that going to the doctor/dentist […]
My premonition came true, sort of
Last week I feared that my preemie’s sickness would land us back in the hospital, but it was my 5 year old daughter that ended up hospitalized. Saturday, as we were just about to walk out the door to go to a local foodie festival, Ruby ran out the door early, as usual. A minute […]
Be careful what you wish for
It’s a terrible thing to wish that time would speed up. I don’t normally fall prey to this trap. I know it’s difficult to be happy when you aren’t present. But I would venture to guess that many mothers of extremely premature babies feel the same. Josiah decided to make all my anxieties about his […]
Nap, interrupted
In view of my last post about my chronic sleep deprivation of the past year, some may ask, “Why doesn’t she try to make up the lack of sleep with a daily nap?” Great question. To illustrate why this isn’t happening, here’s a little thing I like to call What Happens When Mom Tries To […]
How to paint a 5 year old’s fingernails
People who know me well often tell me I need to write a book. (Note: if you didn’t know, I have written several short ebooks, but they’re talking about Real Books that are sold in bookstores.) Upon further inquiry, they sometimes suggest that the book be based on funny anecdotes about life with several children, […]
The Things That Don’t Kill Us
I’ve been thinking a lot about adversity lately. This week I read the book Unbroken (likely, I’m the last person in America who didn’t know it was a true story until the movie came out.) Calling it un-put-down-able is an understatement. I read it in an afternoon. I found an interview with Angelina Jolie, who […]
Pumping For Your Preemie: increasing supply and pumping output
Pumping for your preemie isn’t for the faint of heart. I started off this series on breastfeeding a preemie in NICU by talking about why doing so is crucial to the health of the premature baby. And the many barriers having a preemie presents to starting off breastfeeding. Yet after spending many hours reading preemie parenting […]
Breastfeeding a preemie in NICU: this thing sucks
This is the start a series on breastfeeding a preemie in NICU. If this is your first time here, here’s the short story. I gave birth to a 27-weeker preemie. Somewhere around 18-21 weeks, my water broke. The little guy survived all that time with little-to-no amniotic fluid. His story is here. Breastfeeding a preemie […]
Josiah Update
I’ve been wanting to update on our little preemie for awhile now, but between nursing him constantly and/or holding him while he sleeps, it’s tough to have time for much else. Mostly I’ve wanted to write a series about breastfeeding a preemie, only it would have about a dozen chapters because there isn’t just the […]