March of Dimes

I have two children who were born premature, Nathan, who was born 9 1/2 weeks early at 3 lbs. 14 oz. and 17 in. long.


He was in the NICU for 5 1/2 weeks and on oxygen and an apnea monitor for another month after he came home.




He received great care at the hospital he was in, and now...you can't even tell he was born premature! He eats as much as a grown man most of the time and is VERY active!

----------------------------------------------------------------

Isabel arrived a little over 5 weeks early at 5 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 in. long. She was obviously at a better place developmentally than Nathan was and luckily only needed a tiny bit of help breathing shortly after birth and was good to go from there. I was allowed to stay an extra day in the hospital with her and then we went home together.











However, you can't tell she was a preemie either! Just today she weighed in at 18 lbs. 6 oz. and 26 in.! She's my chunky monkey. : )

I now walk for the March of Dimes to help raise money for research to help prevent premature birth as well as for the care of preemie babies and their mother's. It's a wonderful organization and I feel privileged to be a part of it.
I thank God every day that I have two GOOD stories to tell in support of the March of Dimes, many families do not. Both of my preemies are very healthy and have NO preemie-related complications. I attribute this to the excellent care they had in the hospital and most importantly God's grace!
In 2010 I walked as a team, Team Tater Tomater (one of Nathan's nicknames). I did two different walks in my area in the same weekend and had a blast. There were 9 of us walking the first day and 8 of us the second day! It felt great to know that my family and friends supported the cause along with me, in turn, supporting my kids!

(This was right after I had lost 40 lbs.)

This year however, I feel like the enthusiasm is missing. Some of my friends are not able to walk because they are having another child of there own just a couple of days before, so I obviously don't expect them to be walking, but I haven't had much response from anyone else who I have asked to walk or even just to donate. I'm hoping that as the walk gets closer I will get more involvement.
This time around we will be Team BellaNater since I now have two preemies to walk for. : ) I'm really looking forward to the walk itself, but also raising more than I did last time. Our team goal is $1,000 and my personal goal is to get half of that myself ($500). So my team only needs to make a cumulative $500 between them (however many that turns out to be) to reach that goal.
I'm hoping to do some kind of fund raiser. I may make some crocheted or knitted items to sell for donations and/or maybe some kind of baked sale. I received my first donation today of $100 from our realtor and old neighbor! I was so touched by her generosity! I hope I can find more like her. ; )

As I've been writing this I have been debating with myself as to whether or not I should include the link to my team page. I don't want those of you reading my blog to think that I'm just trying to get money out of you. However, my final decision is to go ahead and include the link because the money that someone may donate isn't for me...its for the March of Dimes...so I shouldn't feel guilty about it, therefore I won't! : )

http://www.marchforbabies.org/erinvb_7

----------------------------------------------------------------

I had also debated on whether or not to include the photos of my kids and ultimately decided that there are probably some of their photos out there in cyber space already and I'll just keep how many I post of them to a minimum. That being said...I also don't like favoring one child over another so I'm going to share a couple photos of my first born as well. Jacob was NOT a preemie. I was induced three days before my due date (my doctor was going on a two week vacation). He was 8 lbs. 6 oz. and 20.5 in. long.






----------------------------------------------------------------

Another awesome thing about participating in the March of Dimes walks is that I get some EXERCISE! : ) The walk on Saturday is 5 miles and the walk on Sunday is 6 miles! Maybe that's when I'll kick start my regular exercise program. : )

I'm thinking my weight loss isn't going to be very good this week...my 29th birthday is Saturday and my in-laws are taking me out to a pizza dinner on Friday and I always get a Dairy Queen ice cream cake for my birthday because I'm not a big fan of regular cake. Hopefully I'll still see a loss.