Twitterature: Preemie Edition

As you can imagine, most of my reading this past month has revolved around premature babies.

Half Baked: The Story of My Nerves, My Newborn, and How We Both Learned to Breathe by Alexa Stevenson.  This book chronicles Alexa’s struggle with infertility, miscarriages, and finally her high-risk pregnancy with twins. Sadly, her son didn’t survive his ordeal with pPROM and other complications she had during pregnancy. Her daughter, born at 25 weeks, is now a thriving 6 year old. Alexa’s sense of humor had me laughing out loud throughout this book, which was a welcome relief considering the serious subject matter. I loved Alexa’s honest, quirky outlook.

Keeping Up With Kenna by Nicole Andrews Moore. At the time she wrote this book, Nicole had given birth to the world’s 4th smallest surviving preemie. Nicole’s indefatigable positive attitude guided her as she navigated the constant ups and downs of the NICU and her baby’s precious situation. Kenna spent over 6 months in the NICU. This book is about more than a preemie, it’s about maintaining healthy relationships and optimism despite life’s hardships.

The Premature Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Premature Baby from Birth to Age One by Drs and Mrs. Sears. In typical Sears style, this book reads like a chat with a good friend. Dr Sears’ books served me well in my first years as a mom. I left this one at home with hubby, with many pages dog-eared and underlined.

Preemies – Second Edition: The Essential Guide for Parents of Premature Babies – This book was published in 2013. If you’re reading medical reference books about premature babies, that’s important since things change so quickly in this branch of medicine. Neonatology improves by leaps and bounds every few years. I took this one with me to the hospital.

Preemie: Lessons in Love, Life, and Motherhood by Kasey Matthews. I admire Kasey. Her story was brutally honest as she describes her experience mothering a desperately tiny preemie. I highlighted a lot of passages in this book to refer to later, as Kasey used a lot of alternative therapies to help heal her daughter physically … and herself, emotionally.

Miracle Child by James Wilcox – this book was unique as it was the only one I read that spoke from the father’s perspective. His son was born at 24 weeks, the very edge of viability.

From Hope to Joy: A Memoir of a Mother’s Determination and Her Micro Preemie’s Struggle to Beat the Odds by Jennifer Degl – Jennifer’s baby was born at only 23 weeks gestation. This book came about as a result of her journal entries during her daughter’s NICU stay.

I did read some other books last month.

7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker – this book had been on my Amazon wish list for ages, and I couldn’t think of a better excuse to buy it than to treat myself while enduring my weeks of bed rest! I loved this book, although being unfamiliar with Hatmaker as a blogger, I was unprepared for its extremely religious tone. 7 is about Jen’s experiments with minimalism in 7 areas (food, clothes, spending, media, possessions, waste, and stress). Loved it.

Protecting The Gift by Gavin DeBecker – The Gift of Fear, also by DeBecker, is a book I consider to be required reading for all women. And this book is de rigeuer for parents.

(Linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Twitterature)