“I spent the first two weeks of the pregnancy in tears over the fear of miscarrying for the third time. I had some bleeding and it completely crippled me. I was up all night, in tears over the thought of something terrible happening. I felt like my body didn’t work or that, somehow, I was broken.”
‘What if my body becomes toxic?’ I didn’t trust my ability to carry a life. For so long, I felt broken.’: Woman struggles with anxiety after miscarriages, ‘We feel so lucky to have our rainbow baby’
‘Unless you have a sick kid, you don’t understand. I wish I only had normal fears. I know any breath could be her last.’: Mom of CHD baby worries during Covid 19, ‘Your fears for your child’s health are NOT bigger than my fears.’
“Her appointment was flat out canceled, and her developmental checks were rescheduled and then canceled. For a normal child, that would be no big deal. For a child who just had major surgery that did not fix everything, those appointments are everything. I wish I could be ignorant like you.”
‘I’m on the floor, asking a friend to break isolation, putting her kids in danger, to come get the lentils from my fridge.’: Woman suffers from ARFID eating disorder
“It means you are happy to eat as many chicken nuggets as your belly can contain, but they must be from Wendy’s, they must be room temperature, and they must be dipped in a 50/50 mixture of ketchup and bbq sauce. If anything in that ritual is changed, then you cannot eat a single bite. Not will not, can not. You would literally rather starve to death then let that food pass over your lips.”
‘We see abnormalities.’ An exciting morning turned into a nightmare. I silently prayed.’: Baby diagnosed with Thanatophoric Dysplasia, ‘We wanted to enjoy the time with our baby in my womb’
“Lethal. No cure. The geneticist tried to make us feel better by telling us it was not our fault, it wasn’t anything we had done, or could have done to prevent this. Of course, that didn’t make us feel better.”
‘Your birth daughter would like to meet you.’ I stood in disbelief. I was terrified she wouldn’t love me.’: Woman overcomes fear, ‘I wasted too many sleepless nights’
“There was the answer I had been praying for. ‘Is this Raquel?’ It left me frozen.”
‘My daughter was trying to break everything. She’s NEVER like that. We’re all feeling the burn.’: Mom sets new ground rules during quarantine, ‘While nothing is perfect, perfection is not what I am going for’
“My daughter had been running away from me for the last 15 minutes. My son was screaming to get my attention. Somebody rang the doorbell. My work call was about to start in 10 minutes and my husband was already on a work call. It has been some version of this every day.”
‘I dated a guy who said, ‘You look so good when you lose weight. Otherwise, I feel like cheating.’: Woman urges us to love our bodies. ‘Kick him to the curb and embrace your curves’
“I had an ex who held me from behind and said, ‘You look so thin!’ Like it was an amazing compliment. This guy was not a fitness fanatic. He never worked out, was extremely unhealthy, and triple my size.”
‘I could’ve delivered a dead baby. It could’ve been worse.’ STOP. Stop comparing tragedies.’: Woman faces miscarriage, divorce, and adoption scam, ‘I wouldn’t change a thing’
“Staying out till 2 a.m. is what he did. Multiple times a week. Which left me home alone. At first it didn’t really bother me. I would have a glass of wine, watch my favorite crime show or a documentary he’d hate, and head to bed by 10 p.m. But after a while it became lonely. And loneliness in a marriage is a recipe for disaster.”
‘Driving up to the school, I was overcome with emotions. It’s finally over. What now?’: Mom reminds us to ‘salute our children for their hard work. This hasn’t been easy on them either’
“Strangely enough, I felt a bit of grief this thing we had between the two of us was gone. I looked at my sweet, tender-hearted daughter and I felt so very proud of her. She had been through so much. She did it.”
‘I watched as my mom was zipped up in a body bag and carried away. This is the end of us.’: Woman loses mom to Stage 4 colon cancer, ‘My mom would be angry if I didn’t make a beautiful life for myself’
“Instead of celebrating with pizza and cake on my 17th birthday, we sat in the hospital. My addict brother would steal my mom’s medication. A switch flipped in my brain. Suddenly, my wants and needs didn’t matter.”