Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Why We Heart March of Dimes

As you all know, we are the proud family of a preemie who was born 2 months early and spent his first 6 weeks in intensive care. We had no warning, no known risk factors or health problems. After 32 weeks of uneventful, blissful pregnancy, I felt a little "off," unable to get comfortable and sick at my stomach. Just to be safe, our midwife sent us to the hospital for some tests. Suddenly, we were hearing that my life was in certain danger with HELLP Syndrome, a failing liver and kidneys with the possibility of massive internal bleeding at any moment. Without any preparation, we were rushed into an emergency C-section and the bewildering odyssey that is parenting a hospitalized child with an uncertain future.

 

Thankfully, our family’s story has a very happy ending. After a harrowing few days, I returned to perfect health, and our son is thriving today at age 4 ½.

Though we are now fine, living through that experience and meeting so many other families with tiny infants struggling to survive has had a profound impact on our lives.

Our
March for Babies Family Team hopes to raise $1100 this year to fund more March of Dimes Nobel Prize-winning research offering hope for preventions and solutions for babies born too soon or with birth defects. Won’t you help us reach our goal to help all moms have full-term pregnancies and healthy babies?
 
Please visit our team page at
marchforbabies.org/SamsonsLeftyMama for more information, or give me a call if you have any questions and would like to donate.

Any support that you can provide will be greatly appreciated and put to very good use.

Friday, February 04, 2011

Sledding in Austin, TX

It happened again.


We had enough snow on the ground in Austin to not only make a quite respectable snow man,



... and snow angels,



...but also to try out sledding for the first time on the side of the hill that covers our underground home. Here's Samson's 3rd run.



After that, the neighbor kids came over to join the fun and we whooped it up until the sun came out about 11 am. Cocoa on the back porch rounded out a quite lovely morning.