Preemie:Lessons in Love, Life, & Motherhood

In the last 36 hours I have devoured this exquisitely penned book, by author and preemie mom, Kasey Mathews.  In the book, "Preemie: Lessons in Love, Life, & Motherhood", Kasey takes us through her journey as a preemie mom, wife, and woman complete with all the nitty gritty details so many of us try to hide.  She is open and honest in a way that caught me off guard at times, yet offered so much comfort in knowing that I was not alone in some of my deepest fears as a mother of preemies myself.  She does not hide behind a facade of having it all together; and when her life is turned on its head, she carries us along her path with eloquence and a sense of honesty that leapt off the page and nestled in my heart.

On Tuesday, I eagerly ripped opened the package Kasey sent me as I stood in my kitchen about to prepare dinner.  My girls were in the living room at their usual post, seated at the coffee table with a stack of construction paper and an enormous box of crayons.  I was mesmerized from the first page and didn't move for a good 15 minutes as I dove head first into Kasey's life.  The detail with which she recalls such poignant moments in her life painted such a clear picture, I felt as if I was standing in the hospital room with her, or pushing her in her wheel chair to visit Andie (her 25 weeker daughter) for the first time.  I could hear the scratching of the doctor's pen on her paper and all the beeps and bings of the machines in the NICU.

While Kasey's story is uniquely hers...it is not unique.  Hundreds of thousands of parents go through the NICU experience every day in our country.  My own story, though different, had such amazing similarities I had two shows running simultaneously - Kasey's and my own.  A slide show of images flashed through my mind of each moment I shared with Kasey along my own path.  

I am so thankful to Kasey for having the courage to bare her soul to the world, to be brave enough to put in writing her raw emotions.  This book will offer hope to new preemie parents currently in the NICU.  Likewise for parents like me who are a few years past the traumatic events of giving birth months to soon, it reminds me that I am not alone.  That even my deepest held fears and guilt are not unique and as I continue to push forward in my own life, I can do so with tenacity and grace, as Kasey has so clearly exhibited.

I highly recommend that parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, caregivers, and healthcare providers purchase and read this book, cover to cover.  It will give you a peek inside the thoughts and emotions of us preemie parents who often are so wrapped up in surviving we have difficulty expressing all that lives inside of us, even for years past the NICU.

Thank you Kasey...for sitting on the end of my bed these last two days!