Jon found me on the couch reading. “Wow. Are you reading a real book?”

And indeed I was. It was a paperback, not my standard digital iAppendage. A Pound of Hope – the story of miracle micropreemie twin boys by Jennifer Kemper Sinconis.  Read more

This Thursday, U.S. News & World Report, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and March of Dimes are hosting a live Twitter chat about premature births in the United States. Read more

To hell with statistics.

The number one question I hear from those familiar with our journey from prematurity through where we are today is, “What are the odds?”

But the truth is – statistics do not matter when you’re living them. All you want is for your child to be ok – whether a 90 percent survival rate or 9.  Read more

I thought getting pregnant was going to be the hard part.

Turns out that bright idea merely prompted the universe to remind me that children are life’s way of reminding us that we have no control. Bitch.

What were supposed to be the blissfully ignorant glowing months before motherhood were instead counted down by my own milestone markings. Read more

“Mr. Stream? Do you have a moment to chat with me in my office?” the preschool principal began as she approached Jon after drop-off on Monday.

Because that’s not even remotely foreboding to get called to the principal’s office that way. Oh god – the muppets were getting expelled. (Please never underestimate my ability to jump to the worst possible conclusion. Every. Time. It’s a gift.) Read more

Wait – what? Who the hell is Jack?

It was April 2010. I was in the Mom/Baby unit. Room 39 I think (I was the guest of many variations of whatever number it was).

I was lying semi-upright in my newly prescribed bedrest position. Jon was with me. We were waiting for the doctor. I didn’t know when I’d get to go home. I’d been on that hospital third floor for four days and counting – ever since my “routine” checkup revealed that something was amiss, contractions were not Braxton-Hicks, and the muppets were in danger of making a very early arrival. Read more

75 years ago today, President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis – himself a polio survivor.

Today it’s the March of Dimes. That name was coined in the late 1930s (a play on the contemporary newsreel series “The March of Time”)as the org encouraged children to donate a dime for their annual fundraiser.  Read more

There have been murmurings that “A Year Without Santa Claus” is the best Christmas cartoon out there. Fear not, good people, I am here to reassure you such a ridiculous claim is patently false.

Obviously such accolades belong to the one true story of Christmas. “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Read more

Today is World Prematurity Day. Read more

There is a scar on Destroy’s forehead.

It is the lasting result of a WATCH THIS experiment gone awry. (Or at least that’s the story they’re telling us. It very well could have been a curse rebounding upon the evil out to get him. I can assure you, Lilly Potter had nothing on my fierce determination to protect my million dollar miracle muppets. Miracles? Magic? Same thing.) Read more