Plans. Everyone makes them. Life rarely follows them. After years of infertility and multiple miscarriages, Melissa Harris is dismayed to find herself about to give birth at just twenty-three weeks pregnant—but she discovers a fierceness in herself and in her micropreemie son, Sam, as he proves that even the tiniest of us can put up one hell of a fight.
Melissa Harris’s dream of being a mother again shatters when a fertility doctor tells her she may never have another child due to a physical anomaly in her uterus. Determined to persevere, she undergoes nine surgeries and a year of fertility treatments until she finally gets a positive pregnancy test—only to miscarry both twins within the first fifteen weeks.
When what she’s decided will be her last attempt results in her finally becoming pregnant, she’s told that this baby, Sam, is also at risk. While lying in a hospital bed for six days, trying to get to the golden standard twenty-four-week gestation mark, Melissa makes a decision—she will give this baby every chance to live, no matter what it takes.
One Pound, Twelve Ounces is the journey of one mother’s determination to give her micro-preemie a fighting chance, and the story of that baby’s remarkable battle to survive.