A Day of Awareness

Three years ago, my little guys were in the NICU due to their very early arrival at 28 weeks and 3 days.

Three years ago, at this point in their lives we had only held the boys two times--two times even though they were nearly a month old.

Three years ago, our boys had just barely made it to the 3 pound mark.

Three years ago, Jason had just come of the ventilator, without which he would not have survived.

Three years ago, it was common to watch our boys forget to breathe.

Three years ago, we spent countless hours staring at beeping monitors while we anxiously waited for our nurses to come help.

Three years ago today, our hearts tore just a little bit more each day we had to leave our little warriors at the hospital instead of taking them home with us.

Three years ago, Isaac and I were living in a world that fluctuated back and forth between excitement over our two new little miracles and complete and utter fear.

I tell you this because yesterday, November 17th, was Prematurity Awareness Day. November is Prematurity Awareness Month. And as you all know, prematurity is a cause that we hold close to our hearts.

Currently, one out of every 8 babies is born too early, and every year, more than half a million babies are born prematurely in the United States. That is far too many babies born premature!

We must find a way to fight against prematurity. We need to do fighting--because no baby should ever have to on his or her own. Sadly, some babies are not strong enough to fight, which is why premature birth is the leading cause of newborn death worldwide. Even babies born just a few weeks too soon can face serious health challenges and are at risk of lifelong disabilities.

In our case, we were lucky. Even though my water broke at 26 weeks, we managed to hold off labor for another 17 precious days. Had they been born at 26 weeks, there is a very real possibility that neither of our boys would have survived.

We owe the boys' lives to the work of the March of Dimes. Please remember to support the March of Dimes. For Shawn and Jason. For all the children born too soon.

Thank you.

We're Having A...

Boy!

I had a perinatologist appointment on Friday with Dr. Doom. For those of you who don't know who Dr. Doom is, he's the man that continued to give me bad news after bad news while I was pregnant with the boys. Anyway, the appointment went well.

• First trimester screening results: Trisomy 21 - risk of 1 in 1900. Trisomy 18 - risk of 1 in 4100. Results = screen negative. That means that the baby has a very low risk of Down's Syndrome! Yay.
• The baby looked great! He/she is growing ahead of his/her gestational age by up to a week and a half in most areas. His/her length measured in as 20 weeks! (I am only 18 weeks pregnant today.) What can I say? We make 'em big.
• The baby's heart, brain, and other organs looked good.
• The baby was sucking a thumb when we first started the ultrasound. (Awww...) After a bit, the baby put both arms on its little chest and let the ultrasound tech do her thing. :-) It was too cute!

The doctor said that everything looked good with the baby! Those are such great words to hear!

Oh! We also learned the gender of the baby-to-be. :-) Rather than coming right out and telling you, we thought we'd take a poll and see what you all think baby #3 is going to be.

So which one? Boy? or Girl?

Poll Results as of 7:00pm:

What is the gender of Baby-to-be?

Boy (33) 46%

Girl (39) 54%

Total Votes: 72


I'll be back Monday night to spill the beans on what we're having! Vote and check back then!

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I just wanted to add that this little blog turned 3 yesterday! I have posted 387 posts over the years. Pretty cool, huh? Someday soon I need to covert this thing into a baby book...

Halloween 2010

This year's Halloween went better than we could have ever expected! I am so happy to be able to say that...

...because I've got to tell you things didn't start off all that great. The boys were NOT into wearing their costumes.

In fact, when we finally got them into said costumes, both of the boys looked like this:

It's a bird...it's a plane...No, it's SuperShawn!

Shawn is not enjoying his cape. "Take it off, mommy!"

By the time I snapped this shot of Jason, the tears had stopped. Just know it wasn't pretty with him just a few minutes before this.

It's Captain America himself -- with all of his muscles!

In case you can't tell, he's also trying to take off his costume.

The tears stopped when we told them we were going to go to the store. As you can see, Jason ans Shawn are up for the adventure!

All ready to hit the mall...and the candy! Let's roll!

The boys had a lot of fun, too! The both said, "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you," as we went from store to store.

"Wow! They're giving us candy!??! Awesome!"

"Trick or Treat!"

All done trick or treating. We had a great time!

Once again, the boys were their rock star selves. :-)

After the mall, we headed off to grandma's house so the boys could visit in their costumes.

Here is Shawn showing off his costume to grandma...

Jason wanted to show off his costume to grandma, too!

Shawn didn't want any of his candy last night. Jason, on the other hand, was in his own little heaven!

"Mmmm...a sucker..."

We finished the night with a surprise visit from family (yay!) and a nice little family picture...




I can't tell you how impossible it is to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time. My mom managed to make it happen with the first shot. It is almost like the Halloween miracle! :-)

Our Halloween was a raging success. We hope you all had a fun-filled Halloween, too!