It's a bloggy blog world

It's been about 6 months since I started this blog. Before I got pregnant with the twins, I never really read blogs. It's kind of strange since I work in technology for an online social media company. I guess it's fair to say I read Pink Is The New Blog for my celebrity goss. But that was about it. Now I have a whole slew of blogs I read daily, most of them about parenting, parenting twins, and parenting twins with a disability.

I remember finding the first of the blogs I still read now early in my pregnancy when I had first trimester bleeding and was diagnosed with a subchorionic hematoma (SCH). I googled SCH and found Goddess in Progress, Everyday Stranger, and Urban Artifact (who has since moved her site). They were all moms pregnant with twins around the same gestation as mine and I remember being so excited to read their posts and see that I was not alone with my SHC and that everyone was doing fine. We all ended up having boy/girl twins and I still read their blogs today.

Then when Drake was given his PVL diagnosis and the CP term was dropped for the first time, I called my best friend and cried to her about Drake and the long unknown ahead. She did some googling and emailed me a link to Cerebral Palsy Baby. It was right when Darcie was starting to crawl at like 18 months or two years or something and she looked so good and "normal". I remember my friend saying and me thinking, "Okay, this may not be so bad if this is what CP looks like".

Then I googled PVL and found all kinds of horrific things, but also Waiting for the Miracle. I got to know Alice and her amazing mom. Alice has more involvement than Darcie, so that was another example of the disability I put into my "what you could expect" mental bucket.

I remember getting the courage to comment on Alice's mom's blog. It was my first comment on a blog. She wrote me back and I read the email on my phone at a movie theater (I have a really good memory, I could probably tell you what I was wearing, but I'll refrain). I remember reading her reply and bursting in tears. She nailed exactly what I had been thinking and felt. How she started the blog because she felt so alone and searches for PVL only returned medical lawsuits and horror stories. She had so much more personal positivity to bring and progress and love. I still read her blog and wait for her posts. She has written some amazing entries that I feel I could have written myself.

I also really like reading the Galli-ringo Family, though she doesn't post much. Her girls are older than my twins, and her daughter Hannah seems like she is doing great and gives me hope for the future. She wrote an amazing post about taking her girls skiing, which left me in tears. We are so hopeful to have Drake ski or be able to get down a slope somehow as my husband and I grew up skiing, too. Plus, I think she lives in Vermont, which is where I was born and raised.

And recently, I've met Hopeful Mother and About The Small Stuff, more twin mamas, raising one twin with a disability and one without.

I feel like I know these people, though I've never met them. And I can't imagine my life without them and their families and their stories. Thanks for being there.

My last thought of the night is: I don't really know who reads this blog. I have Google Analytics tracking on it, so I know some people find it. I hope they are parents and parents of a young baby who unfortunately has been recently diagnosed with PVL or CP and that they find some hope, courage and encouragement here. And that they meet these people I mentioned above, who have been so inspiring, open and supportive.