Happy Mother's Day

On May 9th, 2011, I received a life changing phone call. It was the Monday after Mother's Day last year.

Well, today is Mother's Day, and I am reminded of that day last year. Then, I thought a gastroschisis diagnosis was devastating. A year later with a beautiful daughter to call my own, I still feel overwhelmed- but I do not feel devastated. I feel relief instead of devastation simply because my daughter is here.

Mother's of gastroschisis children, in my opinion, are some of the strongest you'll ever meet. I am not just talking about myself- trust me, I do feel the need to toot my horn at the things I've endured as a mother- but I am certainly not the only one who fits into the "strong mother" category.


We are mothers, who even before giving birth, fight claws out to get answers and appropriate prenatal care.

We are mothers, that once our children are born, argue and fight with medical staff as necessary (I am pretty sure my pediatrician has caller ID, and refuses to answer some days... Yet, I do not give up), and never take the easy road simply because it is easy.

We are mothers, who not all have medical training and experience, but can answer questions more thoroughly than most medical professionals simply because we are always on the quest for those answers ourselves.







We are mothers, who become home-care nurses for our little ones- changing surgical dressings, placing NG-tubes after our children have ripped the old ones out, administering medications that even adults would gag and throw up from, and many, many other things that other moms may not be able to handle so well.



We are mothers, who unfortunately do not always get to bring our children home. Those of us who did bring our children home raise the mothers of Angels up on their shoulders, because they are even stronger than the rest of us who's children survived and deserve to be celebrated.

As mothers of gastroschisis children, we do things that the ordinary mother does not do. We wait (im)patiently to hold our children for weeks. We wait even longer to nurse them- if it is even possible. We wait to be able to put their first outfit on, and even then it is hard to do. We wait for their little bodies to heal so that we can let them be free of monitors and tubes. We wait.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mommies out there- especially the mothers of gastroschisis children.

~Tiffany