If we were sharing a glass of wine, I would tell you I am so very thankful…
I’m thankful that it has been over a year since Bridget’s hospitalization.
I’m thankful for the teachers who continue to be innovative, patient and kind in how they teach both my girls.
I’m thankful for the friends that live through the woods who are up for a last minute dinner (and better yet, provide it!).
I’m thankful for pancake breakfasts and late night texts. Continue reading
I did it! I successfully ran a half-marathon and didn’t need an ambulance at the finish line! The weather was beautiful, not a cloud in sight. The course was so picturesque and the company made the 2 and a half hours feel like time past too quickly. I could not have done it without my running partner, Lauren. She kept me on pace and laughing throughout the entire 13.1 miles.
Since I am thankful for the 13.1 miles (yes, I am counting the 0.1!) I am bending Lizzi’s 10 things of thankful rule and doing 13! Continue reading
To say I have a lot to be thankful this week as obvious as saying a hawk thinks bunnies are a wonderful appetizer.
Our local hawk trying to make our bunnies his free meal
In fact I have so much to be thankful for that I am at a loss for words. Or maybe just the energy to write them. Hence my being MIA this week. Yet here I am wanting to share my week and a half of thanks: Continue reading
Life sometimes sucks the life right out of you. I was thinking when I first wrote my “14” post that being 14 really wasn’t too great. It was hard, life was not a Hallmark moment. Yet once I really thought about 14, I realized it wasn’t always perfect but it wasn’t always torture. In fact, looking back I would say it was 10% hard and 90% blessed. I just didn’t realize it at the time.
Lizzi from Considerings dedicates each Saturday to concentrate on what made life a little easier this week. Her belief is that concentrating on the good stuff of the previous week starts the coming week off right. So let’s concentrate on that 90% blessed for a moment and throw the 10% to the curb where it belongs.
Today I am thankful for…. Continue reading
The year of 2014 was quite frankly amazing. Not in solve world peace amazing. Amazing for being a year where chances were taken, dreams came true, fears were realized, firsts happened, some times I broke but more importantly miracles happened.
In January, I started out with a bunch of goals and Bridget went to her first ever movie. Frozen has become an obsession that we are more than okay with. I also struggled with Bridget’s diagnosis of Autism. I kind of broke. Like hard. I learned something important that month. That friendships are there when you need them most.
February made me thankful that I could give a shout out to my blogging friends. Something I never imagined back in 2012. These friendships have become just as important as my ‘real life’ ones. While I might have felt SMALL I made the conscious effort to end the private mommy-war we all face.
In March I wrote Dear Abby letter, no not the advice columnist! Thanking her for changing my life (in a good way). I also promised the next time I see a parent in a restaurant looking overwhelmed I would buy them a glass of wine instead of looking at them in judgement. I also realized I am not a hero or a martyr, that sometimes I am just done. As in D-O-N-E being a mom with special needs.
April I was beyond thankful for Bridget’s teachers and their encouragement to let her spend one more year (decade?) in pre-K. I put a call out for a real-life Dr. House (and was given a lifeline). To have a stranger reach out, to have Bridget’s team support her, there really isn’t much more to ask.
May I remembered when I was that mom in the elevator. I was so thankful for Bridget’s speech team that brought a happy tear to my eye. I was overwhelmed by the response of the My Challenge Series and the friends that have participated. I hope to have it back up in the New Year so stayed tuned and send me your challenge!
June brought us relief. I had finally conquered my field trip fear and it was worth it to see Bridget engaging with her friends. We traveled to Georgia on the hope that we would find an answer to Bridgetitis.
July I am thankful to see was a lot of fun. Really. I wrote a letter to myself, which was very therapeutic. Eli from Coach Daddy had an idea on how to make yourself feel better. Write a letter to yourself and do not open it for five years. I think I am going to print this letter out and remind myself of where I was in 2014.
August was the month of travel. I am beyond thankful for the friends who include us on their trips. Giving me the most relaxing vacations ever. I struggled with the prompt the most amazing thing my body has done…but am glad I decided to participate.
September found me getting dirty and finding myself in the Mud. I’m already signed up for next year, that is how empowering that race was for me. I’m thankful I could get out of my comfort zone (and safety nets) to find out how strong I can be.
October I took a leap of faith (in myself) and transitioned to this new blog home. What do you think of our new digs? Thankfully I brought my neighbors with me. October also brought me to my knees in joy when I captured Bridget count for the first time to five and beyond (and get most of the numbers in the right place).
November taught me that when a good book ruined my day, my friends would stand with me in keeping the pledge to obliterate the “R” word. November is probably my favorite month, as I am lucky to be thankful for the amount of birthdays that occur. Even if it breaks my bank account.
Learning that there was a name for what Bridget has didn’t hurt either.
December is a month of giving thanks. It is the season of giving, of gratitude and showing you care. I wish I could carry this feeling throughout my day (let alone my blog post). Going to my class reunion, while terrifying, was so uplifting. Reconnecting with old friends, having that connection remade. There is so much to be thankful for this year.
A diagnosis, friendships, love, my girls. The list goes on. I hope as we start the New Year you take a moment to remember how wonderful 2014 really was.
You know when you were little and afraid of the dark? You were sure that night light would stave off any monsters that might be lurking in the closet. Although that night light only covered 3 square inches, you felt safe. Even if it was an illusion.
Continue reading
While I have so much to be thankful for this week, I am only going to focus on one person who made a difference in Boo’s life.
Each and every person who works with Boo becomes a part of our family. I am not sure if it happens with other parents, I hope so. Because you are all so important to a child’s success. This is a special thank you to Emily (or Emmy as Boo calls you) who had to say goodbye this week. She is leaving us for a great new adventure and we wish her nothing but happiness.
Emily you will be missed. You have been an integral part of our “family”. Boo’s gains is due to your being a part of her team. Your patience. Your kindness. Your firmness. And yes, your snuggles. Boo (and we) love you “Emmy”. We will never forget what you have done for us.
We consider Boo lucky to be part of a team of teachers and therapists who work together to make her the best. I know your co-therapists will miss you as much as I will. Workshops won’t be the same. Heck, Fridays won’t be the same.
You have helped us navigate feeding issues, potty training, stairs and Boo finding her voice. She has flourished under your care. I have seen you correct her with love. I have seen you stop when she wants just one more hug. You held me up after that field trip of tears. I have witnessed your patience (more than I could ever hope to have). I have been lucky to have you collaborate with others who work with Boo. You have allayed my fears and offered guidance. You do every task with attention and caring.
Thank you from the bottom of our souls for giving Boo your best.
Without support I would be lost. Today, while I have so much to be thankful for, I am going to focus on the one thing most important.
Today I am thankful for the friendships that have become the rock by which I stand firm.
I am thankful for the friend who meets me at 6am for a trail run, even though it means she does a brisk walk while I try to run to keep up.
I am thankful for the friend who invites me for Chinese but understands the Bruins are on.
I am thankful for the friend who is my mom, the one that lets me show up for Easter Mass because she gets that is how organized I am.
I am thankful for the friends who read my Looking for Dr. House post and not only send me encouragement but names of physicians and others who might help settle my fears.
I am thankful for the friend that is my daughter, who while she will forgive me for not packing her socks she will never forget. Nor will she stop reminding me about the time I forgot to pack her underwear.
I am thankful for the friend who is on vacation but still reads an e-mail from me (that said not to open until she returned) and quickly responded.
I am thankful for all the friends that have supported our Bridget’s Brigade.
I am thankful for the friend who lets me send her a potential blog post and gives me her honest opinion about it.
I am thankful for the friend who made Abby’s day this week by giving her a play date with a known friend and a new one.
I am thankful for the friend who let me guilt her into participating in Mudderella. If you are looking for something to do on Sept 6th and are in the area join our team: We Mud be Crazy.
I am thankful for the friend who understands that it is impossible not to sign along with Sophia the First. And thinks it’s weird that the mom calls the King: Rollie.
I am thankful for the friend that understands I will mess up every tweet (twit?), blog hop and sentence prompt but lets me play anyway.
So thank you, all of you, for giving me what I need to get through this thing we call life.
It’s quite simple. We owe Boo’s life to Boston Children’s Hospital. Those first scary days in the NICU? It was the nurses who saved my sanity. I will never forget the panic on the doctors face when he gave Boo oxygen and said she needs to be transferred. NOW.
We went to Children’s not because we were scared. When Boo was born I told the nurses and the doctors that she was breathing funny. They sent us home, me the over-reactive new mother. A complete 180 from when I had Abby and they wrote in her chart, failure to bond.
We took Boo home. Went to the Pub because she was “fine” and it was David’s birthday. This is back when they gave you a free meal on your birthday. The next day the VNA nurse came to our house to do a well-being check on Boo and asked, why is she breathing so funny. She was breathing at 110 breaths per minute. The average newborn breaths at 30 breaths per minute. Two hours later we were at Children’s Hospital. Sure that this was a fool’s errand and again we would be told that we were overreacting we brought Abby.
And spent the next five hours with Boo hooked up to monitors and her sister seeing first hand that Boo wasn’t safe. David and Abby went home at 11pm when we finally got a room. It was 2am when after an ECHO and found out she had FIVE holes in her heart. Then came that scary moment when Boo lost consciousness and I received my first introduction to the NICU. They asked me to leave so they could do some tests. I will never forget coming back, seeing nurse straddling my 5 day old newborn and screaming at another nurse that I couldn’t be there right now. Not because I was interfering but because she didn’t want that image in my head.
But it is. To this day I see that nurse, Allison, straddling Boo trying to get blood out of dehydrated veins. I see Mary, who when Boo passed out in my arms and I was alone screaming HELP HER and she did. Then she taught me not only where the oxygen was but where the HOLY CRAP button was. I will never forget going home one night to try to sleep but not. Dropping Abby off at Kindergarten and the head of the school offering to drive me back to Children’s because I looked like death warmed over. That morning I went back and Boo wasn’t where I left her. I thought my child had died.
For one moment imagine walking into a hospital and not finding your child where you left her. Imagine how it feels that you left your child for eight hours and she wasn’t there.
But no, she was safe. Just transferred from the scary NICU to the not so scary part of the NICU. The ward that looked like a cattle barn. 3 patients to every nurse. She was getting stable. We were sent home seven days later.
I was terrified. I didn’t want to leave. Boo spent the next two years sleeping on my chest. She ended up with 10 doctors working to keep her stable. Over the next five years she would have surgery on her spine, she would aspirate and be hospitalized over 12 times.
Boo survived. Despite our fears. Because of Boston Children’s Hospital.
The first year of her life we formed Bridget’s Brigade. Our family and friends have walked every year since. Bridget’s Brigade has raised over $20,000 in support of the only hospital we trust. We walk to fund the research that may someday, far in the future, tell us why Boo must suffer. We walk for the other parents who walk into the NICU and think our child will not come home.
Throughout the years we have acquired many specialists. We have held Boo down for sleep studies, lab work, EEGs, surgery and MRIs. We have also watched our child triumph. To do things no one thought she would be able to do. Love her sister, walk and run and jump. She has words. Boo has friends. Boo has more support than I would have ever realized that moment when I thought she was gone from my life.
The morning when my heart broke and was rebuilt in an instant.
We walk for Boo and the thousand other children who bear unspeakable pain. And the parents who bear witness.
We ask you to share our story and support our cause. Last year Boo and Abby kicked off the Walk. We walked with 20 of her friends and this year will walk again. We ask you to please donate to her team:
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Every donation, as little as $10 goes towards helping children like Boo. It helps children who are suffering unspeakable pain. It helps parents who have the utmost faith in a hospital to save their child’s life.
I only have one thing to be thankful for this week: My Boo and the hospital who never stops believing in her.
(Un)Diagnosed and still okay 