My Preemie! Parent's of premature infants.

My family and I are planning to participate in the May 2009 March for Babies walk and our goal is a simple $100. Would you consider donating even just $5 or $1 to help us reach our goal? This will be the first walk we have participated in and I have a page set up for us at the March of Dimes website for online donations. You can visit it at http://www.marchforbabies.org/tzdelar (Just copy/paste that website into your browser or click on the "Link" below in the list.

And I thank you so much!

Just in a nut shell, I had the misfortune to have preeclampsia with both of my pregnancies. All was fine...except for the normal nausea, etc...until somewhere towards my third trimester. My blood pressure elevated to a dangerous level, among other problems that surfaced...differing from each pregnancy and almost to the day...of 6 wks till due date I had to have emergency c-sections. My boys are almost two years apart in age.

I never got to do the "normal" thing when you have a baby...hold them right away, feed them, keep them in your room, take them home when I was discharged. For our family...it meant alot of waiting and praying. Apart from a peek above the surgery curtain I didn't get to see my firstborn for about another 28 hours or so maybe. Didn't get to hold him till he was 2 days old. My husband did get to hold our second son in the delivery room. I did get wheeled into the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) soon after to see him also. They both had similar issues but our #2 escaped several of the unwanted extras that our #1 couldn't. They both spent at least 3 wks each in the NICU dealing with their preemie problems...the most frustrating for me was the eating! They had to LEARN to eat ENOUGH...its enough to drive a mom crazy. You feel like they'll never "get it". The hospital staff called it "wimpy white boy syndrome". Preemie boys are slower to conquor some issues than girls. My boys weren't super tiny or micro preemie but they were preemie and had their challenges. They both weighed close to 4.5#s.

When I had #1, there was no support group for us parent's...at least not at the hospital that I am aware of. Today however, Aultman Hospital does have a support group for parent's like us. Aultman Hospital is located in Canton, Ohio and if you are in the area and would like more info on this support group, please contact me.

In grand style Aultman Hospital of Canton, Ohio held a wonderful First Annual Reunion Picnic for its recent NICU graduates. Lots of food, fun and some "furry" friends greeted the parents and NICU graduate- children for this event. As the mother of two NICU preemie graduates and a parent-partner servicing this support group our family was there to enjoy this celebration as well. To read more in detail about this event, follow the link (in the link section on this page) to the story in the Canton Repository. To see some of my own pictures from the event visit my myspace link also in the link section.

Aultman Hospital provides a support group for their preemie parents currently...the Preemie Parent Connection (PPC).