ALEX: The Fathering of a Preemie

Stimpson's memoir of the first seven years of his preemie son Alex's life reads like a diary, often compelling in its immediacy, sometimes mind-numbing in its excruciating detail. Because of a condition called intrauterine growth retardation, in which the fetus's growth is dangerously slow, doctors induced Alex's birth after a six-and-a-half-month pregnancy, hoping he'd "do better outside the womb than inside." With a birth weight of 21 ounces, Alex spent almost all of his first year in the hospital, attached to "[b]lue tubes, green tubes, clear tubes, fat tubes, fine tubes" that kept him alive. Life with a premature infant in the hospital was emotionally wrenching, and Stimpson's descriptions of the grueling routine he and his wife endured are heartrending. When Alex finally came home, there were new problems: getting him off his medications, feeding tube and, finally, his oxygen tank; trying to interest him in eating; dealing with his possible autism and mental retardation; and handling the inevitable health insurance struggles. Stimpson, a journalist currently with Practical Accountant magazine, provides a vivid picture of life in a preemie's family that will surely interest other parents of preemies, as well as anyone planning a family, but his real-time journaling style, exemplified by the listing of all of Alex's toys, or everything he ate on a given day, will test the will of even the most sympathetic reader. (Dec.)