Prematurity Awareness Month

Published by Kerry | Filed under Causes

November is Prematurity Awareness Month

Did any of you know this???  I didn’t until just a few months ago when I received an invitation to the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction (which is tomorrow here in Denver).  I would have LOVED the opportunity to attend this amazing fundraising event, but an individual seat was $150, and we just couldn’t afford for both Jeff and I to go.  =(

Had Max and Wes not been born 10 weeks early, I probably never would have known that 543,000 babies are born prematurely each year in our country.  That’s one in eight babies.  Isn’t that insane?

There are so many things to say about preemies – the whole concept of a “preemie” is hard for a lot of people to grasp.  Hell, it is still hard for me to grasp sometimes, and I’ve had almost nine months of experience with our children.  I’m not saying people are ignorant or stupid, but I’ve heard the most bizarre things when I tell people that Max and Wes were born early.  From “oh, you’re so lucky you didn’t have to be pregnant the whole nine months” (which REALLY pisses me off, by the way) to “is there anything wrong with them?”.  

We were among the lucky ones – Max and Wes, although a little bit behind developmentally and size-wise, are happy and healthy little dudes.  For each “happy and healthy” preemie, there is a preemie out there who is struggling with even the most seemingly insignificant stages of growing older.  For each “happy and healthy” preemie, there is one who wasn’t as lucky.  One who was born too early, too frail, too sick…and taken too soon.

I say it all the time, and I’ll say it again…we are so incredibly blessed.  There are sooooo many things that could have gone wrong when we first discovered that Max’s water sac was protruding from my cervix.  The fact that I was able to keep our precious boys inside me for six weeks after my cerclage was nothing short of a miracle.  I’ll be forever in debt to Dr. Heybourne and the perinatology staff at Pediatrix for helping me do so – as well as my amazing husband, Mom, and friends who cared for me while I was on bed rest.

And the Swedish nurses, neonatologists, and NICU staff are our heroes as well.  I’ll never forget the amazing care that our boys received during their 43 and 51-day stints in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  I’ll never forget the compassion and love Jeff and I were shown while Max and Wes were there.  Those first few months were probably the most stressful, sad, confusing, and worry-filled times in Jeff and I’s lives - but - with the support of the NICU staff, our family, our friends, our respective online communities, and our blog followers – we made it through.  I can’t thank you all enough for that.

Most parents (of full-term or healthy babies) get to bring their newborn children home several days after they are born.  They get that time to bond with their newest family members…to get to know them in a way that only parents can know…and Jeff and I will never know what that’s like.  We got to know our boys through holes cut in the plexi-glass of an isolette (and the 30-40 minutes a day we were “allowed” to actually hold them).  There was almost constantly someone in the room with us, so we never really got any quality family time together until after Max and Wes came home – when they were almost two months old.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be over the “unfairness” of it all.  Being cheated out of my maternity leave (since I spent it all at the hospital), having to be so careful with regards to Max and Wes’s health (especially since being denied for Synagis), and actually being jealous of my friends – and even random strangers – who make it to full-term (yes, this happens…I don’t know why, but it does).  

That said, we are so very lucky.  More to come (in the coming weeks) on prematurity awareness, but for now I’ll leave you with some of the first pictures that were taken of our sweet, sweet little boys.  Look at how far they’ve come…

Maxwell Allen – 8 days old

 Max – 8 months old

Weston Skinner – 8 days old

Wes – 8 months old

Kerry