Deb and I want to give a shout out to fellow author Nicole Zimmerman and her book, “The NICU Rollercoaster” – please support this Preemie Mom of twins and her efforts to help families great online blogs to update family and friends. Its a gem!

www.NICURollercoaster.com

Living in the sound mix studio for the past few days I have been sorely missing my little man and daughter, Gabrielle. When I straggled in the other night, Zel, the nurse who has been with Nicholas since he came home from the hospital told me exciting news. Apparently at school they have given Nicholas a light box for reading letters and such.They asked him to spell the colors, just to see what he would do. He proceeded to spell red, green, blue and purple. I was just stunned. He lets us know every day, all the ways in which he sees and knows the world. Only it is on his time schedule. It still makes me smile during the long hours in the studio.

Also, wanting to thank everyone who has been writing in and making such lovely comments about Nicholas and the movie. Poor Deb has been holding down the fort on her own as I have been in never-ending post production on Elena Undone. She is amazing!!

Deb and I are on the look-out for all sorts of cool preemie parent sites and are eager to share them with you! Man, it would have been nice for us to have these sites handy when our kids were in the NICU and going through all of that preemie chaos!

This site was developed by Drager and NICU University, and appears to have information for both preemie parents and preemie professionals:

http://babyfirst.com/

We would love to hear what you think about this site!

Deb and I are super excited to announce that our new parenting book for parents of preemies with babies in the NICU The Preemie Parent’s Survival Guide to the NICU is out and officially on sale. Please feel free to check it out as well as our other products in our online store.

Also out on the market are our brand new “Baby Safe Packs” of thermal thermometers – a must-have for all parents of preemies as well as parents of non-preemies. These are also on sale in our online store here. This is a great gift for new parents from friends, family and more!

Just found this site for parents to help their kids with special needs do social networking in a safe environment. Is anyone using this site? If so I’d love to hear about your experience on there.

www.parlerai.com

Nicole

Never have I missed my “little man” more nor the rest of all our kids than being away from them for nearly 20 days of shooting for my latest feature, “Elena Undone.” While I’ve been set-bound (and having a glorious time, I might add) — Deb, my dear biz partner, has been keeping www.PreemieWorld.com running smoothly and preparing for the launch of our new book as well as our Baby Safe Pack which I’m very excited about. Since Nicholas uses Hallcrest’s Thermostrips I’m really thrilled about getting a special PreemieWorld version of these into the hands of other parents who simply want to keep their children safe from spiking temps and more.

Probably one of the greatest comments I got during shooting, is that for the most part I look like a haggard graying mess – (2-3 hours of sleep a night will do that to a girl!) — And I came out of Nicholas’s room one afternoon (we shot at our home the first 8 days — never again!) and my producer, Jane Clark, commented, “My God, what just happened to you? You’re radiant — there’s a softness in your face and it’s the first time I’ve seen you look stress free this entire shoot.” I remarked, “I just saw Nicholas.”

If there ever was a tonic, it is truly my “little man” — He simply fills me up, rejuvenates me and makes me always, ALWAYS realize what’s important.

Now off to editing!! Hope everyone’s keeping warm this crazy winter season.

xo CoCo

Deb and I are excited to share the great news: We have new products coming in-house here very soon.

First off is our “Preemie Parent’s Survival Guide to the NICU” – a book that we both poured our hearts into to help other parents literally “survive” the preemie and NICU experience. Full of information, wisdom and humor, we give parents what they really need in the NICU – a guidebook. Our goal is to sell single copies but also to do bulk sales to appropriate organizations.

We’re also excited to announce that our PreemieWorld “Baby Safe Pack” is imminent as well. In our special partnership with Hallcrest, makers of thermal thermometers, we have created a special pack full of items for parents to use with their child to keep them safe from fever, U-V rays, too hot baths and more. This is a great tool for parents as they leave the NICU and take the baby home. Again we’ll be selling packs separately and in bulk to appropriate organizations.

Interested in learning more? Sign up for our mailing list on the front page of our website: www.PreemieWorld.com While you are at it, also sign up for our free print newsletters as well.

Nicholas is so very used to wearing his little Fever Scan strip as you can see from the pic below:  But now the whole family has taken to using them as a very easy and painless way to take temperatures.  Our other son David had a Fever Scan made by Hallcrest on for 2 and a half days because he had a nasty fever.  Then Alexandra, our second oldest at 15, wore one when she got sick.  They really do save parents a lot of trouble trying to get kids to take their temperature…makes life easier for everyone!  Preemieworld’s Safety Thermal-Pak will be ready within a few short weeks so you can all have that peace of mind as well — especially important in this terrible swine flu season.

Nicholas with omni-present Temp Strip

This is one of those spine tingling moments that I wouldn’t have actually believed if Nicholas’ nurse Dan-Dan and his oldest sister Daisha hadn’t been standing right there watching it happen with me!  We we’re yattering on and on about home refinancing for like 20 minutes and suddenly we realized on the floor in pristine order was HOME from Nicholas’ magnetic alphabet letters.  Daisha thought Dan-Dan had spelled it.  And then we realized Nicholas had spelled it.  We just couldn’t believe it.  Then we all stood around him stunned as he spelled SHELF and then OVER.  We were all clapping and cheering and asked him to spell dog.  He calmly picked out the letters DOG.  Then he said “jet” and spelled JET and then changed out the J for W and spelled WET.  We literally all screamed in unison — If I could figure out how to download my video cam stuff we’d show you all the whole thing! — Nicholas never ceases to amaze me!  Thank you, thank you…little man for being so amazing!

Nicholas had his first day of school last week – well, that is, after all the fires in La Canada settled down!  The schools kept pushing out the “first day” due to all the smoke fall-out.  Nicholas’s nurses were very kind and kept him off-site – away from the area while the smoke cleared out.   Oh…But that first day of school, even, when it’s his 4^th time around, I still get all misty-eyed.  There he is, sitting in his little plaid rolled up shirt (ala the 50’s) all cleaned up and eager.  He sat down in his little wooden chair and sang the “Good Morning” song and I just turn to mush!  Here’s the thing.  If I put him in all special needs school, Nicholas would be one of the higher functioning kids, and in this class-room he probably falls at the end of that range.  But I will do anything and everything I can to make “integration” a reality.  It’s because he was integrated last year, as well as having his Springboard Speaking Device, that Nicholas has finally learned to communicate purposefully.  I have great hopes for his school year!  He’s in first grade and I am one proud Mama!