Author Archives: Michelle

Michelle is a stay-at-home mom, wife to her wonderful husband, and mother of their two adorable and much-loved children. Through her blog, In The Life of a Child, Michelle has grown a passion for supporting families who are parenting children through extreme medical challenges. Her oldest child was born with a rare birth defect known as a lymphatic malformation and was also diagnosed with cyclic vomiting syndrome. Michelle and her husband share a common goal as parents: To treasure every moment and raise their children to be extraordinary individuals.

The Things We Do For Our Children…

Once upon a time, there were certain things I never would have seen myself doing. Some of them were typical parenting things that I was yet blissfully unaware of. You know what I mean. Fishing peas out of nostrils, scrubbing Desitin out of cat fur, wiping peanut butter finger paintings off of walls — that…

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Planning a Camping Trip With Reflux, a G-Tube and Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome…

Why, you ask? Because I woke up one morning and said to myself, “Self — Your life is disturbingly deficient in chaos at the moment… I know! Let’s plan a summer camping trip! You know — hours upon hours of gluten-free menu planning, tube-feeds without running water, barf bags, taking that ten-mile drive back into…

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Preparing For A Medical Emergency With A Medically Fragile Child…

A very wise NICU nurse once told me, “Sometimes the difference between life and death is in being prepared.” I took those words to heart and they saved my daughters life. More than once. When you have a medically fragile child, it can feel like you barely have time to catch your breath before the…

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Transforming PT into Play Time…

The “to do” list during the day when you parent a child with medical challenges can be overwhelming. And long. Such a list can include everything from specialty feedings, to medications, to dressing changes, to management of medical equipment. And then of course there are all of those physical therapy and occupational therapy exercises that…

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Magic Marker Monday — Looks Like Six More Weeks of Winter…

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” ~Pablo Picasso Welcome to Magic Marker Monday! If you haven’t heard about Magic Marker Monday yet, click here and then hurry right back… We had a little Groundhog Day fun at our place this week and made this…

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The Truth About Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome

January is National Migraine awareness month. And while most people have some level of familiarity with migraines, relatively few have ever even heard of cyclic vomiting syndrome, or CVS even though it shares many similarities with migraines. At our home, we know CVS so well that we’re on a first-name basis. It’s a relatively rare…

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Why Doesn’t She Just…?

See her? That mom over there? Why doesn’t she just… …Leave her baby in the nursery at church? …Give it a rest with the hand sanitizer? …Breastfeed? Or that one — right over there — why doesn’t she just… …Make her child behave? …Stay home? …Get a sitter? What about that one — why doesn’t…

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Magic Marker Monday — One Too Cute Toucan…

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” ~Pablo Picasso Welcome to Magic Marker Monday! If you haven’t heard about Magic Marker Monday yet, click here and then hurry right back… This little guy is my favorite doodle for the week. It has been so fun…

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Me Time — Christmas Edition

“It was the day before Christmas and it had been snowing hard all day. They began in the early morning, shortly after seven, large feathery flakes sliding down as if they were only playing. They soon grew larger, swirling fantastically, like children taking hold of hands, chasing one another through a fairy world, now this…

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Choosing To See Beauty…

Parenthood. It all started out so simply. A blank canvas of wonderful plans, hopes and dreams. Nothing but a future full of potential — potential that I had filled with my own ideas of how it would be. But then something happened. And then something more. Shadows on my crisp white sheet of parenting plans….

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