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I first signed this guest book on 13/05/03, when my son, Dmytri was 19 months old. Today, he is three years and three months old. He is doing great!!! Dmytri weighes about 32 pounds(still a little on the skinny side), but is tall. He talks a mile a minute. The only problems we have had with him is countless ear infections, which resulted in T-tubes in May, 2004. He did develop allergies to the medications to clear his ears, but we did find one drug that he could keep down. Thank GOD for this!!! Recently, we noticed his eyes were not straight. Next month, we will travel to Winnipeg and back to Ronald McDonald House, to see the Opthamologist and get him some glasses to correct his vision. Dmytri loves going back to RMH - we have been there at least 4-5 times since his birth. Dmytri loves hockey, or any sport for that matter. He is a real go-getter and not afraid to try anything. I should have known that right from conception that there was no stopping Dmytri, as he has proven that time after time. He is a very stubborn boy who always gets his way. I have been told that we spoil him, but my answer to that is that he is very well loved. As I stated before, his sister and brother love him to death, although Antonina(5) does get annoyed with him more than often. I often think about all the troubles and fears that we went through when Dmytri was born and thank GOD for all the support that we had.

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Our story is too lengthy to post here, but I would like to offer our website address to those parents who are trying to read all that they can about being a parent to a NICU baby. www.karsen-noell.com is our story, we hope that it touches others.

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I am the grandmother of 12 grandchildren. Two of them were born premature. I had never had to face this with my own little babies, so this was all very new and scary! The first one was born at 23 weeks and was one pound four ounces and not given much chance to live. He was a fighter, let me tell you! He came to us in March and wasn't supposed to come to us until July. It was July when he was finally able to leave ICU and come home. His first year he had 8 operations in his first year alone. Before he was two he started wearing glasses. He has worn braces and uses a walker on his legs because of CP. He is starting to walk on his own but will never be like his other cousins. Don't tell him that, because he just won't give up. He wants to do what they do and tries to keep up with them. He will be turning five this coming March. He weighs 29 pounds and doing fine heslth wize. His baby sister was also born premature arriving two months early and weighed 4 pounds. She had a much better start on life than he. It has been the most amazing 5 years of this Granny's life wactching these tiny little babies develop and get stronger every day. They have so much fortitude and so much love. The strength and love I get from them every day makes my world so much happier. I could not ask for anything else. I just wanted to share this with you.

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my baby was born 6 and a half weeks early and spent a month in the special care nursery

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my son, Dakota Jacob, was born at 29 weeks weighting 2lbs. and 10oz. that was 2 weeks and 2 days ago he is now 3lbs. and 1oz. and feeding in his tube 16cc every three hours. his o2 dips and he has 10 to 12 brady's everyday. he is on oxygen but we are hopeful that he will be ok. everyday is a new day and we just hope when we wake up that this day will be a good one for our little guy. he is a fighter and we know no matter what happens he has changed our lives for the better. I am forever grateful for everthing he does and every goal he makes. I have noticed that it is easier for me to make little goals in my head for him to accomplish such as getting off the c-pap and gaining 2 oz. the goals help me through and yes the doctors have bigger goals for him but i need to take one day at a time and this is how i can do that. The ups and downs are crazy but i know in my heart these babies are here to remind us of God and all his "little" miracles.