Family Team Standings

There's nothing like a little friendly competition to get things going, so I'm going to give you a weekly report of the top five family teams, based on revenue collected and inputted into their www.marchforbabies.org team page.  So, with 7 weeks to go, here are your 

Top 5 Family Teams:

1.  Team KP - $925

2.  Itty Bitty Becca's Team - $865

3.  Vivi Lee - $610

4.  Butler Baby Boys - $570

5.  Skip Dee Doo Dah - $555

What are you doing to jump start your team?  Leave a comment with your fundraising strategies and techniques so we can learn from each other!  With a few e-mails and phone calls, maybe you can get your team in the top 5 this week!  

Don't forget that our blog contest is still running.  Comment on this post, repost it to Facebook and Twitter or "follow" the blog for more entries!  (If you repost, make sure you leave a comment saying that you did so that I can give you credit.)

                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                          Family Teams Specialist

Why We Walk: Logan Wyatt

Meet Logan, as introduced by his mother, April:

In July 2006, I found out I was pregnant - 6 weeks and 3 days according to ultrasound.  I was overjoyed and ready to face being a single mom.  What I did not know was what was really in store for me. 

At 20 weeks I started experiencing cramps and back pain. I – and my doctor – should have seen the signs. It wasn’t until 23 weeks 6 days that I went to the emergency room.

In the ER we discovered that I was dilated to 3 cm and that Logan was head down.  They determined that I was in active labor by a fetal fibronectin test.  Because I was in active labor I was not a candidate for a cerclage.  We were lucky though; so far my water had not broken. 

I was admitted to Centennial Women’s Hospital on Nov. 16^th 2006, and it became my home for the next seven weeks.  I was placed in the Trendelenburg position, where my body was at an angle with my feet elevated above my head.  I would remain in this position until Logan was born, no getting up at all, on complete bedrest.

Thanks to the research of the March of Dimes, the combination of the Trendelenburg position and medicine calmed the contractions and allowed Logan to get several more weeks to develop.  I was on magnesium sulfate, Procardia, Indocine, Terbutaline and an antibiotic (just  for good measure).  I also received two doses of steroid shots to help Logan’s lungs develop.  I was lucky that I never developed high blood pressure but actually was on the low side due to the medicines. 

My water did not break until just before Christmas, and still I waited. I remember having a calm feeling just knowing everything would be ok.  On New Year’s Eve, the medicine quit working and I continued to have contractions. It was a little touch and go during delivery, but I was able to deliver vaginally instead of via c-section.

Logan was born on January 1^st 2007 at 3 pounds, 3 ounces and 14 inches long.  Thanks to the steroids, he was able to let out a small scream and never had to be intubated.  He only had CPAP for a couple of days.  Other than being small and slightly jaundiced he was healthy for a 31-weeker. 


Logan's birthay

He spent the next 4 weeks in the NICU.  That whole month was a whirlwind blur for me.  My favorite memory is being able to hold him for the first time about a week after he was born. It was your typical NICU stay if there is such a thing.

 On February 1^st 2007 I was able to bring him home weighing about 5 lbs.  The next year was not easy, as he had several hospital stays due to asthma complications. I lost many jobs due to my absences. 

Today Logan is 4 years old with no major health problems. He has slight asthma, but so do I, so he could have inherited that anyway.    He loves Scooby Doo, dragons and his Daddy. We were lucky enough to meet Jason when Logan was 9 months old and he has not left our side. 

Looking back, those 7 weeks in the hospital could have very well saved my son’s life. It’s amazing to consider that years ago he would not have made it. Without the research of The March of Dimes, we would not have my baby boy.      

Logan's 4th birthday

 Every day in Tennessee, 236 families find themselves in a similar position, facing the premature birth of the baby.  Sign up to walk today at http://www.marchforbabies.org/ and help these children's stories have happy endings like Logan's.           

p.s. Don't forget to comment on and share this post so that you are entered to win the $50 gift card!

                          

   

Family Teams Specialist

Our First Blog Contest!

March for Babies is only 8 weeks away, so it's time to get down to business with our fundraising efforts - and what better way to get to work than to have a contest?  Thanks to the fine folks at the Cool Springs Wal Mart, I've got a $50 gift card to give away to one of you fabulous readers.  To enter, simply leave a comment on any post on this blog.  Each comment gets you one entry.  Share a post on Facebook or Twitter and comment saying that you did so, and you'll get another entry.  Publicly follow the blog (by clicking on the "follow" button on the right), and you'll get a bonus entry!  Any comment posted in the next two weeks will count toward your total number of entries.


I'll be back this week with fundraising tips and an introduction to one of our VIP's (that's Very Important Preemie, of course) - baby Logan!
          

                                                                                                             

Family Teams Specialist

From Your Host: Meet Becca

I've been a fan of the March of Dimes for quite some time (who doesn't like babies, after all?) and always considered it a good cause. In 2008, though, it got personal. When my pregnancy went all kinds of wrong and my daughter was born 3 months early, what was once a good cause became my cause.

I was 15 weeks pregnant when I heard (for the first of many times), "I think we need to be prepared to lose this baby." Easy enough for the doctor to say, right? How could I ever be prepared for my child to die? My baby (my daughter, I also learned this visit) was measuring only 15 weeks instead of the 17 weeks that she ought to have been. Babies who are that far behind that early in a pregnancy generally don't survive to be born alive. 


That was a pretty crappy day.

The next weeks and months were no picnic either, but we went on with our day to day lives. And while I knew that there was a good chance that my daughter would die, I certainly didn't prepare myself for it. I couldn't give up on our Itty Bitty, as my husband and I started calling her. If her own mother didn't believe she could live, what chance did she have? We had an amniocentesis (no prolems!). I gave myself shots. I went to appointment after appointmet. And I hoped and prayed and sang to my baby girl every day.


Amazingly, I was still pregnant at 27 weeks when we moved from Kentucky to Tennessee. I hadn't even met my new doctors yet when I was admitted to the hospital and officially diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. (My doctors now think that this was the root of the problem - the pre-e set in early and messed up the placenta, keeping Itty Bitty from getting the nutrients she needed to grow.) I would be there for the duration of the pregnancy...which we hoped would be a very long time.


It wasn't. By Saturday, I had developed H.E.L.L.P. syndrome - an even more dangerous form of pre-eclampsia. We now had to deliver, even though at almost 28 weeks and 370 grams, my daughter -- now named Becca -- was too small to survive. I refused to be put under general anesthesia because if Becca only lived for 2 or 3 minutes, I was going to be awake for those minutes, darn it!


But Becca was stonger than we gave her credit for! She was able to be intubated (a surprise to the docs, as she was so small), but only needed to be on the ventilator for a total of 2 days, thanks to a dose of surfactant, a treatment for preemies' lungs developed by March of Dimes researchers. She spent 123 days (17 1/2 weeks, or 4 months and 1 day) in the NICU at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. She received 26 blood transfusions. She broke all kinds of records - though not necessarily the kindsof records that you'd like your child to break! When we finally got to take her home, 5 1/2 weeks after her due date, she weighed about 4 1/2 pounds.


Since then, my life has been all about helping Becca reach her full potential. We went under "house arrest" for her first two winters to protect her against the potentially deadly respiratory illness, RSV. We followed up with specialists from 8 different areas and her regular pediatrician. She's been in physical, occupational and feeding therapies for over a year. She's got a feeding tube and takes growth hormone injections to help her grow (she's still about the size of a child 1/2 her age), but she's doing great. She's strong and happy and generally healthy and fun. And the love I felt for her they day the doctor told me that she would die has never been stronger.

The March of Dimes made my daughter's survival possible, particulary through their work in etablishing a regional NICU system and, as I mentioned, the use of surfactant therapy. Not every March of Dimes family story has a happy ending. But I work with them now so that there can be many, many happy days for families like ours.

Becca at birth: 13 ounces, 9.5 inches.
And no, that nurse doesn't have giant hands.

Becca coloring on (!) a table over Christmas - 2.5 years later.

                                                                                                                            

p.s. I'm hoping to highlight some of your family stories.  If you'd like to participate, please e-mail me at nspeas@marchofdimes.com.  Thanks!

Welcome!

We are excited about the 2011 March for Babies season! Visit www.marchforbabies.org to register your team today - and check back here often for event information, fundraising tips, stories of families touched by the mission of the March of Dimes and even a contest or two!

We have four marches in middle Tennessee this year:

Lewisburg
April 9, 2011
Lewisburg Recreation Center
1551 Mooresville Highway
Registration: 8 am
Walk: 9 am


Lebanon
April 16, 2011
James E. Ward Agricultural Ctr.
945 Baddour Parkway
Registration: 8 am
Walk: 9 am


Nashville

April 17, 2011

Centennial Park

2500 West End Avenue

Registration: 12:30 pm

Walk: 2 pm


Murfreesboro
May 1, 2011
Middle Tennessee Medical Center Campus
DePaul Physician's Building Area
Registration: 1 pm
Walk: 2 pm

And don't forget our Family Teams Kick Off event on Saturday, February 19th at David Lipscomb! Join us at 5:15 for information and family fun, and stay for the DLU vs. ETSU basketball game!