This has been an exciting spring for my oldest son and me. I assembled his first baseball bounce-back. I taught him how to make the alligator with his glove and his hand. Tomorrow I’ll take him to is first baseball practice. Actually it’s tee-ball. He is going to be six years old this summer. And I’ve been having those thoughts that parents have at this point in their child rearing years. “Where did that little baby that I brought home from the hospital go to?”

For me, this thought goes a little deeper. All of my children were born premature. My first one arrived eight weeks early. He spent 28 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. When we brought him home from the hospital we had an apnea monitor and a prescription for caffeine. That was to make sure that his heart was beating and he wouldn’t forget to breathe. That little boy needed to be held and walked around the room for fifteen minutes before he would fall asleep and stay asleep. 

My second child, a girl, arrived three weeks early. She was the short-timer, spending only 1/2 a day in the NICU. She didn’t bring any extras home with her. She would hit me in the chin with her bottle when I fell asleep holding her. Today she is almost four years old. I think she is four years old, she acts likes an inquisitive fourteen year-old. I have some long years ahead of me dealing with her.

My third and final child, another boy, arrived four weeks early and spent 10 days in the NICU. This time my wife and I are old pros. The Pulse-Ox needs to read 95 or higher, the purple light is for the jaundice, turn off your cell phones when you come into the ward. He just turned two years-old. He thinks he’s six. He can eat an entire hamburger. 

We were lucky. Our three children show no signs of being premature. The experiences we had serve as reality checks on a daily basis. There are a great many people who did not get or do not have any healthy premature babies.

Our family is actively involved with the March of Dimes. The mission of this charitable organization is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Today  roughly 12%, or 1 in 8, of babies born in the United States are born premature.

On April 27, the March of Dimes will have their = yearly March For Babies fundraiser. I have provided a couple of links below for you to find out more information on this. I hope that you are moved to support their cause or take part in a March of Dimes event.

This isn’t for my children. My family isn’t involved for our own good. This is for someone else’s unborn children. Today, tomorrow, and after that.
Thanks for your time.

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The March of Dimes Home Page - http://www.marchofdimes.com/

The March For Babies Home Page - http://www.marchforbabies.org/#

Make a contribution to the March For Babies through = our family’s involvement - http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?s= i=&w=201001652&u=team_ey

Check out this video for additional information about = the March For Babies - http://www.youtube.= com/watch?v=iQ1CsZbjY0g

Facts about premature birth from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia= ..org/wiki/Premature_birth