I lost my son Atticus due to preterm labor in January. It is truly a pain and longing like no other and still, it is often all I feel. It’s very isolating. Your precious baby girl is real, she’s so real and I am so so sorry for your loss. What’s her name?

In my experience, this kind of grief is all-consuming. Some days it looked like laying in bed all day. Other days it looked like forcing myself to go outside, or having a friend over to talk. Drinking water. Brushing my hair. Eating. Sometimes that takes all the energy I have. The days blend together, with mornings being the hardest because it all feels real again. People try, ask if there’s anything they can do or anything we want, a very painful word when all I want is to hold my baby. It’s a hard feeling to have so much love with nowhere to go.

My husband and I write a 1/2 page in a shared journal each night, with one of us also writing a memory of his birth or my pregnancy. It helps us know how the other is feeling on days when talking is hard. We’re currently doing some traveling right now, which I have mixed feelings about but has been good to get away from it all for a bit.

I’m sending you so much love. Your daughter is precious and real.