Christene: I remember when Raffi was first born, she was early, so she had to spend four weeks in the NICU. Her early birth came as a surprise, so I didn't have time to have a baby shower (which, if we're being honest here, I was relieved not to have) and collect all the "essentials" I had registered for… or was told to register for. I can distinctly remember a few friends making me feel a bit lousy that I didn't have certain things purchased and ready to go already — not intentionally, I don’t think, but it was hard for them to believe I was that unprepared. I mean, I was so LOST and disoriented. It took everything I had not to cry all day long or drink a bottle of wine every night because I was so traumatised by Raffi being in the hospital. And while we were lucky that she was healthy, there is nothing so gutting as leaving the hospital without your baby, thinking of her alone at night in her incubator. I was pumping around the clock, spending an hour commuting up to the hospital every morning to spend my days with her, only holding her for 15 minutes at a time. And here I’m feeling like I’m already behind before I’ve even started for not having the right onesies? Another woman, who I knew only through our industry, heard my daughter was in the NICU and reached out because she'd been through something similar. It was the first time I felt okay. Like despite my body oozing and aching and my daughter hooked up to a tangle of monitors, everything would be okay. After that, I try very hard not to assume anything about another mother's situation. As far as I'm concerned, it's all really fucking hard, no matter how "easy" you think someone else has it.