Claire Oduya

Claire Oduya, 29, is a former NICU family liaison and stay-at-home parent in Columbus, Ohio. Nigerian-British background; moved to the US five years ago with her husband Emeka. Twin girls Adaeze and Chisom were born at 34 weeks.

She spent the first six weeks visiting the NICU every day while recovering from an emergency C-section. She came to Kidz Under Construction at three months adjusted age, convinced she was the problem. She was not the problem — premature babies have immature sleep architecture and no one had explained what that meant for expectations.

Claire writes about the adjusted-age gap nobody explains, parenting two at once, and the moment she stopped waiting for something to go wrong.