For those of you who don't know the story of my little one Cagen, let me give you the Reader's Digest version ~ I was diagnosed with complete placenta previa at 20 weeks. At that time my doctor, the nurses and my AMAZING best friend MS (who also happens to be a labor and delivery nurse) all assured me that so many women have it and it often corrects itself well before term. They also assured me that even if it didn't correct, that everything would be ok. I and Cagen would be well taken care of. Unfortunately, I was not one of those cases that corrected and I went in to the hospital with complications at 29 weeks. By the Grace of God and His guidance of my wonderful doctors and nurses I was able to make it to 35 weeks (with time in the hospital and bedrest at home) before the decision was made that we needed to go ahead and deliver. On October 14, 2008, exactly 5 weeks earlier than planned, Cagen made his debut. He appeared fantastic immediately following the delivery but started having some breathing complications shortly after arriving in the NICU and was on a vent for a short time. All-in-all we were VERY fortunate. He only spent 8 days in the NICU and other than some apnea issues (that scared the daylights out of us) a couple months later, has been relatively healthy! OK - the reason I wanted to share that
very brief summary of Cagen's beginnings is that we are 25 days away from the March for Babies!
Like I said in a previous post,
Motivation and Determination, even though we've never had any direct contact with the March of Dimes, the fact that they're dedicated to improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects, infant mortality and that issue that hits close to home for us, prematurity, makes me want to be involved in some way.
And the more I thought about it over time, the more stories that came to mind of people
that we actually know who have been personally affected by these very issues that the March of Dimes fights against.
Too many of our family and friends have had premature babies. Some of them who survived and are now thriving, others who only got to sit with families on earth for a moment before becoming angels in Heaven waiting for the day the rest of us can join them.
Too many of our family and friends have had
perfect babies challenged daily by physical imperfections.
Too many of our family and friends have never been able to physically hold their child, but will keep their memories in their hearts forever.
And for all of these
too many's we are only a small fraction of the families facing these challenges.
That's why Cagen's Crew is Marching for Babies. And that's why I'm going to ask each of you (those that I know personally and even those that I don't) to help however you can.
It doesn't have to be by sponsoring Cagen's Crew (
although I would love for you to ~ there's even a link to the right that you can click on to do so). It could be by walking in your local March for Babies, buying brownies at a local bake sale for a March for Babies team, or even just by donating a dollar at the grocery store checkout when they ask if you want to support the March of Dimes.
I know that times are tough economically. I know that you're all watching your pennies, we're doing it here too. But if we all do
just a little bit it can add up to
so much!
