I share a lot of posts on my blog about life as a heart family, our heart family journey, how having a CHD affected Jessica with regards to every day activities and useful resources that I have come across. Here is a list of various posts about CHD which I have shared over the last few years on my blog, organised by subject. If you’re a heart family and have found this page, I hope that you find them useful.
Life with a heart child
- What it means to be a heart parent
- Preparing for preschool with a heart child
- The fear that lurks within
- Exercise advice for heart children – what is safe?
- Swimming with my heart child
- Challenging the assumptions about my heart child
- Outdoor fun with my heart child
- I’m a heart mummy but I’m not superhuman
- Preparing for my heart child to start school
- This is our normal
- Winter and my heart child
- Preparing my child for heart surgery
- Re-adjusting to life at home after being in hospital
Diagnosis and raising awareness
Resources
- Congenital heart defects – books for children
- Review: Heart Warriors – Amanda Rose Adams
- Useful organisations and support groups for heart families
Breastfeeding a heart child
Seasonal
- Christmas on the cardiac ward
- How Christmas on the cardiac ward taught me to be thankful
- New Year: a heart mummy’s perspective
Our heart family journey
- Share your story
- Jessica’s handmade heart
- To us on the day we became heart parents
- Friday 13th – a day that changed our lives forever
- In pursuit of a miracle
- An open letter to Dr X
- Taking my heart baby home for the first time
- Finding joy in the tough times
- A hymn of thankfulness
- Being a heart dad: a personal reflection
- Three years on
- Four years of being a heart family
- Trusting the medical team and the uncertainty of change
- Thank you for being a friend: to those who support us on our journey as a heart family
- Five years on – a heart dad’s perspective
- Now you are five
- It’s all in the little moments
- How did being a heart mummy change me?
- Six years on: our journey as a heart family
- Living in limbo
- The loneliness of 3AM
- Journey’s end
- A little girl with a special heart
Guest posts
- Stories from the Heart: Northumberland Mam
- Stories from the Heart: The Hearty Life
- Stories from the Heart: Adventures from the Heart
- Stories from the Heart: Heart Mummy
- Stories from the Heart: Sounding Like My Mother
- Stories from the Heart: Heart Mammi
- Two important ways to give your baby’s heart a better start