"One day, I want to write a book"

I am an only child and while I loved to play with my friends and neighbors, I was also a kid who always had my nose stuck in a book (still am!) and was constantly writing. Diaries, journals, short stories, plays. I even finished my first novel around age twelve. It was a journal-length mystery starring myself and three of my cousins as we searched (and found!) a missing girl. The book was aptly titled Missing, and I decided that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.

I got older and entered the world of junior high, homework, and sports. I continued to keep a journal, but time and distraction led to decreased time for writing stories. Life went on to high school and college during which time all writing time was spent on essays and projects. I moved on to graduate school where I earned a degree in physical therapy and beyond that, the real world, forty-hour-a-week life began. I no longer had homework so I was able to return to sticking my nose in books for pleasure, but I didn't write at all. I worked toward a specialization in pelvic floor physical therapy, got married, and after four years, became pregnant with twins.

The twins were born at 24 weeks, 1 day. PLOT TWIST.

All the details of our journey can be found in my book or in future blog posts, but today, I want to focus on the writing.

During our time in the NICU, I jumped on Amazon and scrambled for information. Where were the books out there telling stories about micropreemies (ideally, ones who overcame the obstacles and were living happy, health lives)? There are books about EVERYTHING on Amazon - but oddly enough, there were very few on micropreemies. (Note - in the past six years, there have been about four additional books come out that I would have loved to have at the time that are now available for people going through this). I began to keep a journal, not intending at the time to later write a book. I wanted to keep track of the details, I wanted to remember everything so I could share the details with the twins as they got older. I wanted even the tiniest fact ingrained in my memory. The blood pressure cuffs that were the size of an ipod shuffle. The scalp IV's. The first baths. The sounds. The smells. The seasons.

When the twins were about three years old, an idea began to form. Between meal times, diapers, therapies, and playing, I began to think "what if?" And "is it possible?" I glanced through my NICU journal and tried to type pieces of our story on the computer. Nope, not going to happen. I bought a trusty journal, just like the ones I used to write in when I was twelve, got a pen, and began to hand write what came in to mind, and sure enough, the words began to come. I hand wrote the initial draft of Learning to Breathe in that journal, waking up before the kids to write and furiously recording every event I could remember during naps. I then began the process of typing the story, printing, editing, sharing with friends who gave ideas, running the whole thing by a NICU nurse to check for accuracy, and around a year later, Learning to Breathe was officially finished and available online. It's been two years and because of, well, life with two six-year-olds, I haven't marketed as much as I would like, but now is the time! As of this year, our book is now available in paperback AND ebook on Amazon with future plans to come.

I want to share our story. It's the real thing - the highs but also the lows, nothing sugarcoated, but ultimately, with a happy ending, and I want it to be out in the world to help others. The twelve-year-old me always wanted to be an author and now, thanks to our unique journey, I have the chance.