The Purple Blanket Isn’t Yours–A Letter To My Baby Born After Stillbirth

The purple blanket isn't yours. Even though it's the blanket that covered your car seat when you left the hospital. Even though it lay in the background of so many of your baby photos, Even though you sleep with it every night now that you're old enough. It's not yours. The purple blanket is your…

Read An Unexpected Family Outing’s 10 Most-Read Pieces of 2019

Here I sit at the end of another year. Another year of putting myself out there and sharing pieces of my story in the hopes of helping someone else cope with the pieces of their own. Another year of sitting in front of a keyboard trying to find words to capture the thoughts and feelings…

No parent should have to choose between grieving the child who died and parenting the child who lived.

Please Don’t Make Me Choose Between My Child Who Died And My Child Who Lives

I always imagined myself the mother of multiple children. It seemed like a simple enough task. If I wanted two or more children in my family, then all I needed to do was get pregnant, have a baby and repeat the process as desired. As it turns out, getting pregnant has very little to do…

10 Instagram Accounts To Follow During Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month

When your baby dies all you want is someone who gets it. Someone who says what you've been thinking, feeling, struggling to find the words for. If you've experienced pregnancy and infant loss, you know finding that person can feel impossible. In the real world you can't exactly walk up to someone at the grocery…

Congrats On Keeping The Kids Alive–I’m The Mom Who Couldn’t

I hear it at least once a week--usually from a meme on social media. Someone joking that "at least I kept the kids alive." While other moms might scroll by with a giggle and barely a second thought--I cringe. I could go my whole life without ever having to hear or read those words again.…

My Advice To The Person Who Is Pregnant–Take Your Picture

I'm not one to issue advice, especially when no one's asking. I am especially hesitant to offer advice to a person when they are a pregnant, but I do have something I need to say. If you are pregnant, I want you to take the picture. No matter how far into your pregnancy you may…

I Don’t Need Help Finding The Bright Side Of Baby Loss–There Isn’t One

When my daughter died, everyone wanted to know what could they do. How could they help me feel better? What would make this easier? Their questions confused me. During the darkest days of my life, it seemed impossible to feel better. I could think of nothing that would cheer me up. It took some time…

I’ll Always Be Jealous When I Hear Someone’s Pregnant

Does everyone get pregnant at the same time? That's the way it seems. It's like the saying "Good things come in threes." Well, pregnancy announcements seem to come in nines and tens. It feels like they're everywhere and to be honest, I don't cope with that very well. Why, you ask, is it so difficult…