Hand to Hold's official blog
When Caitlyn passed away at twelve-days-old our world shattered. Lost, alone, angry, broken and a feeling of being hollow was all I felt. My husband and I were sharing the grieving so it was unbearable to share our sadness with each other, it was so raw and too deep. I did go to therapy, once. [...]
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]
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]
Alexia Pearce delivered her little boy at 23-weeks and says now, “If I’d known then what I do now, I’d have wanted him to die in my arms.” Take a moment to read her incredible story of now 3-year old Nathan and his inevitable premature death. Alexia wishes to raise awareness of the important decisions [...]
When we left the hospital with Roxy, we were informed we would have an appointment card mailed to us with a date and time for her NICU Graduate Clinic checkup. Roxy’s first checkup was in March of this year and I was a little scared of what to expect, but I really just knew that [...]
When my son, Haylen, was born at 27wks 5days (2 lbs 13oz, 15.5 inches), we were much like other parents of preemies and we were caught completely unaware and off guard. From my own experience, I realized that though most people know that some babies are born prematurely, they really don’t understand the extent of [...]
Roxy came home on November 11, 2009. Two weeks before Thanksgiving. Our hospital had placed strict rules on visitors to the NICU and Neonatal Nursery during Roxy’s last two months because the flu epidemic had gotten so bad in our area. Only parents and biological grandparents were allowed to visit during October and the beginning [...]
In 2008, our 26 week preemie was released from the NICU a week before Halloween. We had been so consumed by her issues (weight gain and bottle-feeding) in the hospital, we hadn’t given the holiday any thought. Since Addie was quarantined during RSV season, we had no place to take her for Halloween, but I [...]
The moment our daughter was born 14 weeks early, we were thrust into a flurry of decisions to be made. Who would travel with her to the children’s hospital, who would stay with me in the maternity ward, who would contact our bosses and HR departments, and so on. Immediately, the news started to be [...]
Our NICU experience came with a lot of “Boy, I wish I had known that earlier…” moments. Music therapy falls into that category! We were told about our hospital’s music therapy program a few months after our daughter was born. The therapy team was a group of musicians who traveled around the hospital, playing music [...]
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.