Hand to Hold's official blog
This question echoed in my mind. In the days after my daughter’s premature birth, I often wondered if I could call myself a mother. It sounds a little silly now, but back then it was a very real question. I was unable to do motherly things like breast feed and snuggle my newborn or even [...]
I pushed the elevator button for the 7th floor. The doors opened, we stepped off and started the familiar walk past the waiting area of balloons and flowers. We didn’t need to stop at the receptionist desk, they knew us. We stopped giving our parent code two months ago. We did not have to show our hospital bracelets. The [...]
Kelli Kelley describes upcoming initiatives to support older siblings who have a brother or sister in the NICU, including a Sibling Sundaes program, educational articles, downloadable activity pages, and an upcoming NICU Video Tour. [Read more]
A Pound of Hope is the story of 24-weeker twins, Aidan and Ethan, as told by Michele Munro Kemper (Nana) and Jennifer Kemper Sinconis (Mama). Michele and Jennifer tell the story as it was noted and journaled during the twins’ NICU stay and after. Michele began the journal with only paper towels and a pen [...]
I recently had to come to terms with the fact that my 24-week preemie will no longer be able to continue with the same therapy regimen he’s followed for the last three years, since coming home from a five-month NICU stint. We’ve relied heavily on therapy, from Early Childhood Intervention before Bryce turned three, as [...]
When my first child rolled over for the first time, her daddy and I cheered. We applauded her when she sat and later when she crawled. We laughed when she said her first word, “duck”, and laughed more when she began calling everything “duck”. Like all new parents, we thought everything she did was exceptional. [...]
Having a baby in the NICU is an emotional time for any parent. As a NICU parent, you are thrown into a completely new world. You are overwhelmed with medical information, insurance claims, emotional stress, and more, all while trying to somehow maintain your life outside of the hospital – other children, work, bills, etc. I have been asked by [...]
You can spot them from afar. The NICU moms are the ones with bags under their eyes gazing enviously upon the moms being wheeled out of the hospital holding their big, healthy babies in their laps balloons floating all around them congratulating them on the birth of their baby. The NICU moms are the ones with no congratulatory balloons in hand. Instead, they tote their little coolers back and forth to the NICU daily supplying breast milk to their sick babies. [Read more]
Over the last couple of years people have asked me time and again if we’d have another. As an only child myself, I’d always promised my unborn child that they would have a sibling. But after everything we’d been though with Bryce, and continue to struggle with, I couldn’t bring myself to commit to that as-of-yet unkept promise. But as serendipity would have it, the decision was made for us and here I sit almost 36 weeks pregnant with Bryce’s little brother. [Read more]
My two children were preemies and spent time in the NICU. My son was born at 24 weeks and my daughter was born at 34 weeks. I never intended to be an over-protective mom. I have always wanted my kids to be strong, independent, free thinkers who are confident in their abilities and able to make smart decisions. But, I think their preterm births predestined me to obsess over germs and acquiesce to cut their meat at the dinner table. I worry way too much about their social affairs, grades in school and extra-curricular activities. Have I become a helicopter mom or is this typical behavior for the mother of preemies? [Read more]
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.