THIS IS THE STORY OF A JOURNEY

If you had told me my decision to be a parent would take me on a "road trip" filled with leaving my child in hospital for 137 days (5 months) after her birth, fearing her death constantly, fearing what developmental issues she may have down the road, agonizing over her pain and discomfort, extreme difficulty breastfeeding and getting to know all the 200 staff at Mount Sinai Hospital's NICU by first name (including the sanitation staff), I would have made a very different decision about having a child. 

THIS IS A STORY OF HOPE

And I'm so very grateful not to have had that foresight because this whole event has "fine-tuned" my life and pointed me in a new direction, one less-travelled, to assist others.

Instead, I've been blessed with many gifts, the first which is the most beautiful, caring, bright, funny child you could imagine (of course, I'm biased!). Isla started out worse than most preemies and has overcome her hurdles. Her life is a beacon of hope for those parents who wake up today, shell-shocked and mourning, because they have had taken from them those last few days, weeks or months of pregnancy, and are unable to fathom what lays before them and their child. Being the parent of a premature baby is a vertical learning curve and sometimes you have only minutes to make earth-shaking decisions about your child's care. For those parents with twins, triplets or more, their agony and worry is multiplied.

THIS IS THE STORY OF FAITH

 In order to receive this gift, we had many bumps along the road: delays in crawling, walking, talking, (which meant a weekly schedule of follow up appointments and more therapists coming through our front door than any parent should have), complications with kidney and gall stones at 11 months (that's 8 months corrected!), needing months of wearing/adjusting a helmet and surgery for an inguinal hernia.

These post-NICU issues ensured we "did the rounds" of many (9) departments at Sick Kids. They were a cakewalk, however, compared to what we endured while Isla was in NICU at Mount Sinai. Four and a half years later, all these issues are finally abating.

The gift in all of this has given me the ability to know, firsthand, what parents of premature babies endure and to a lesser degree, to connect on a deeper level with parents of babies with issues unrelated to prematurity.

And my work has just begun.

My (0ur) book began as a blog for family and friends while Isla was in NICU. Typing with one hand daily, while pumping breast milk after 12 hours at the hospital, was so much easier and practical than picking up the phone to relay over and over and over again to family about the agonizing day we'd had.

After we became Parent Buddies, we offered the link to our blog to brand-new parents, for them to access when they were ready. Inevitably, in a few weeks, they would ask us for the link and then.... they'd disappear!  We'd get an email or call when they brought baby home, saying they got everything they needed from our blog.  The light went on and we published Isla's Story to help more parents than we could reach, one-on-one.

It's been 2 years since we published Isla's Story and at long last, I'm emotionally ready to market it. I'm also ready to develop my documentary about pre-term  birth. So, here I am, announcing it publicly for the first time. Thank you, WonderMoms!