Hand to Hold's official blog
Keira Sorrells (MS) is the mother of triplets, Avery, Lily, and Zoe, born at 25 weeks. Avery and Lily spent four months in the NICU and Zoe was there for 9.5 months. After coming home, Zoe was rehospitalized at 14 months and died suddenly from a secondary infection. As a result of those many experiences, Keira founded the Zoe Rose Memorial Foundation which offers support to parents of premature infants and those who have lost an infant; as well as the Preemie Parent Alliance, which connects parent-led, preemie support organizations across the country. Her faith and connecting with preemie and bereaved parents has given her hope when it was hard to find. You can follow Keira on Twitter, Facebook or on her personal blog.
Like many parents of preemies, I have remained hyper-vigilant about the care and development of my surviving micropreemie triplets. Early on we are taught how important Early Intervention is to ensure our babies hit their milestones as infants and toddlers. My husband and I felt our girls started life with so much stacked against them [...]
In the book, Before the World Intruded, the reader is taken through a medical trauma author Michele Rosenthal survived when she was thirteen years old. She describes feeling like a zebra, an anomaly, an isolated mystery case that no one seemed to understand or be able to cure. She details the twenty-four years she then [...]
If you are familiar with the preemie world, you have most likely heard the NICU experience referred to as a roller coaster. With all the baby steps forward and the major and minor setbacks along the way, parents often feel as if they are on a hair- raising carnival ride; and much like riding on [...]
In my state of irrational thinking, I knew it was my fault. There was no other logical explanation. I scolded myself for doing fertility treatments. I told myself I should have accepted that I wasn’t meant to have children. I was convinced this was punishment, through the suffering of my 25-weeker triplets, for my past wrongs. Guilt and self-deprecating thoughts weighed me down like a sodden blanket. And then, tragedy struck again when one of our daughters died suddenly at just 14 months. [Read more]
One of my greatest struggles as a mother who has lost a child is how to honor my daughter’s memory in a way that seems good enough The problem is, no matter what I do, no matter what I think of, it never seems grand enough or poignant enough to properly show the depth of [...]
A friend of mine once told me: “Worrying is like paying interest on a debt you may not owe.” Which is true! It is a hard concept to put into practice as parents of babies whose lives are in jeopardy, but if we can allow ourselves to let go of the worry and the “what ifs”, even for a few hours, we create an opportunity for ourselves and our partners to focus on the day at hand. We should ask ourselves: What can we do today to be involved in our baby’s care? How can we show our baby we love him/her? What can we celebrate today? [Read more]
“Oh, twins! They’re so cute!” exclaims the lady in the checkout line at the grocery store. In a nanosecond, I have the following conversation with myself: “No, they’re not twins, they’re triplets you just can’t see the third one. Does this lady care that one of my girls died? Am I just going to depress [...]
Avery and Lily are my surviving 25 weeker triplets, now 5 ½ years old. Their sister Zoe lived for 14 months before succumbing to a secondary infection after being hospitalized with flu and pneumonia. Lately, they’ve been asking a lot of questions. “Mommy, is Zoe a baby or a big girl in Heaven?” “I’m going [...]
Hand to Hold is a nonprofit 501(c)3 parent support organization and information and resources provided here do not intend to take the place of the relationship between a patient and personal physician.