My Preemie Girl

Today is Prematurity Awareness Day and I thought it would be a good day for me to share with you our expereince with prematurity and the March of Dimes.

When I was pregnant with Cassie I was loving every new change and so excited to have my baby here that the morning my water broke as I called the doctor and was told to come right in it never dawned on me that I wouldn't go up have the baby and be home with her in two days. The problem was I was only 33 weeks pregnant at the time. So off we headed to the hospital calling everyone on our list that it was time, baby was coming. When we arrived at the hospital it began to sink in that this wasn't the happy occasion I was picturing in my mind. There were words like, Premature, Development, Lungs, Medication, BedRest, Infection, and NICU rolling around between the staff and instead of my sweet baby I got a few shots, some IV medication and a sentence for 6 weeks in the hospital bed! But the saving grace was the knowledge that my body would continue to recreate water for my baby and I was dialated at all!

Over the course of the next two days I experienced contractions, took drugs to stop them and filled up on steroids for my baby's lungs. On Sunday June 19th I was having SUPER Painful contractions that weren't registering on the monitor well so no one really believed they were strong. I was on the phone with my mom who was at the airport on her way to see me, and I had to stop and breath to get through the contractions. At that point I called my husband to get on up here. I was figuring I was looking at 6 more weeks of this pain of the "NOT REAL" contractions the nurses told me I was having.

My dr stopped in for a visit, listened to what I was saying, talked to the nurse for their opinion and decided to do an exam. To this day I will never forget, or fail to well up with tears when I recall his HUGE eyes and the whisper to the nurse to call NICU STAT we were @ 9 almost 10. From there mass hysteria ensued. Things were thrown on my bed as I was being moved down the hall to a room I could deliver in. My husband was making calls left and right and I was asking when I got an epideral( o late) Within 3 hours I got to spend 1 minute holding the sweetest 5 lbs, 6 week early baby I had ever seen before she was wisked off to her NICU home.

Cassie spent 6 days in that home being cared for by some of the best professionals I have ever seen. She didn't need alot of medical intervention and was by far the biggest baby in the NICU. But I spent every moment I could in there, I saw the tiniest baby I had ever seen come in via helicopter, I saw quads who snoozed together in one room, I saw parents and loved ones in tears and smiles. I knew that things in some rooms were far worse then in ours but I also knew there was alot that could be done thanks to medical intervention and things like the March of Dimes. and we feel blessed daily to have this little angel in our lives!

As you think about prematurity today, I don't care if you are the mom of a preemie, pregnant for the first time or a good friend to someone who has been in that situation, consider what you can do to assist! Each year we walk in the March of Dimes, March for Babies.   You can also help out by supporting Friends of Maddie one of the greatest new causes I know of http://friendsofmaddie.org/index.php/about/family-support-packs/

or you can learn more about Prematurity and the fight for every baby to be born healthy here: marchofdimes.com/fightforpreemies