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This story is about me seems I don't think my mom would want to tell it i guess i will. When I was born on June 21st of 87 I weighed 5 pounds and 14 onces the docters thought that i might have been a month early seems it was the middle of june and i couldn't hold my own body temp. When my parents braught me home they had to set me in front of the stove while it was on to give me some heat. well time pasted and i was fine up untill i got a baby sitter.. My parents would come home and they would pick me up but when they would touch my hands i would start to cry and they had questions about this so they questioned the baby siiter and she said that every thing was fine but it wasn't i would still cry and then one day my sister Shannon told my parents that the baby sitter would slap my hands every time i did something "wrong". then when i was about 2 i started having breathing problems and they couldn't find out why. the docters where treating me for asmah for the next year. I didn't get any better i turned blue more then one time and my parents took me to the docters once again, my dad wanted and ex ray but they said that i was to small and that it could harm me. So this kept going and going untill i turned blue in my crib at home and my dad desided that enough was enough the breating treatments wern't working and something had to be done, when we got there they did and ex ray and guess what they found..a dime.They flew me to philly pa to get the dime removed and that had been in me so long that it had eaten a hole from my food passage to my air way and had parolized my vocal cords and left alot of damage.seems i could no longer breath on my own at all the had put an air machine on me however they left no where for the air to exit. My mo walked into that room and she freaked. She said that i looked like a baloon a little purple and blue baloon. She walked over to me and pulled to air thing off and then i was fine. they had also but a trake in me when my mother walked into that room and saw her 2 year old child with a feeding tube and a trake in my neck she pasted out. even after that i couldn't come home yet both of my parents had to take C.P.R classes and had to learn alot of new stuff on how to take care of there infante daughter. I came home but i still had alot of problems. Even now being 17 almost 18 i still have alot of problems like swimming i can't go under water and i can't run very fast. This spring i have another surgery to go to where im getting something begind my vocal cords removed to possibly open up some more air space. I hope it works that way i can get this thing out after 15 years and i won't have to have it for my wedding this augest. Even though my soon to be husband loves me with or without it, it just doesn't need to be a part of my life anymore.

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I am the parent of a beautiful little baby girl who was also born premature; born at 24 weeks and weighed 1 lb 4 oz. She is now 13.5 lbs and almost 10 months old and doing fine. (Although she has just caught her first cold and I'm terrified!) I like reading every one else's postings and also knowing that I'm not alone in the day-to-day worries of raising a preemie. God bless you all and hang in there!!

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I just had an emergency c-section to a 1.5 lb baby. He was at 27 weeks. This is all new to me and I'm so very scared, but reading these posts helps the days go by. The doctors are very optimistic about Graysen's health. He's on a breathing machine and has had blood tranfussions. He's in God's hands right now.

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I'm the mother of 26 wk preemie twins. Hailie and Nicholas were 1lb 11oz & 2lb 1oz respectively. They were in the hospital for 14 wks. They survived all kinds of near death experiences. Surgeries, pneumonias, IVH grade I & III, intubation, home on O2, etc. I was told Hailie would have a 50% chance of retardation, CP, hemiplegia, blindness, deafness, etc. because of her Grade III IVH. Miraculously none of these happened. Nicholas coded in the NICU on two separate occassions. We were all exhausted and traumatized by these events. Nothing seemed it would ever be the same again. Today, both are just 4 years old. In preschool for the last two years and I've been told some of the brightest kids in the class! In fact, I'm actually having to argue that I don't want them to start kindergarten at 4 1/2. Go figure! Some things we've had to grieve over and learn to accept are that Nicholas will always walk with some difficulty from having mild CP. And that Hailie will have to wear glasses to see and have one more surgery. But what's truly amazing to me is how happy and positive they both are. Nicholas is my "Mr. Determined". Whereas I would have never suggested he try climbing, he has let it be known that he is quite capable of climbing to the very top of the playground equipment at the park (with mom spotting him!). And that Hailie is going to be the most articulate tiny little girl you've ever met...with a tiny little voice that melts your heart. They have giving so much to me in so many ways. Truly my little miracle babies! Mary L.