MartyAnne asked Melissa Marr:

If you don't mind me asking about it, has something in particular made the last year so hard for your family, as you mention in the acknowledgements?

Melissa Marr I don't mind anyone asking anything :) I'm assuming you mean the acks for MADE FOR YOU (a book I dedicated to the Eastern Maine Medical Center Pediatrics team). Both the dedi & the acks reference the same thing: my family adopted an amazing little boy. He is the center of the family, and we all adore him. Unfortunately, his start in the world was a rough one. He stopped breathing at birth, and he (and I) lived at EMMC for the first 40+ days of his life. He was born exposed to drugs, and he went into extremely harsh withdrawal within hours of birth. He was on methadone, clonezapam, phenobarbital to wean him from exposure & keep him stable, as well as both prevacid and ranitidine for side effects. The longest he's ever slept (even at 22months old) is 4hrs. For the first months, it was a trial to get 45-60min sleep.

He was on medication for the first year, and at 22months, he still has residual issues. In the long run, he'll be fine--and right now, he's mostly okay. . . but yeah, it's been a little challenging. WELL WORTH it, but still hard.

flag