March for Babies!

It's that time of year again....the March of Dimes March for Babies!  Our family (Paul, me, and all three kids) will be walking this walk April 28th.  I loved doing this last year.  Going to and participating in this event sure was a reminder for how lucky we are to have two healthy girls.

As a recap, our identical twin girls were born at 30 weeks gestation, after me being on bedrest for 6 weeks (3 at home and 3 in the hospital).  They had TTTS (twin to twin transfusion syndrome) and we really had no idea what their outcome would be.  Hailee spent 6 weeks in the hospital and Hannah spent 8 before they were ready to come home.  As we realize how blessed we are today, we still constantly pray for their growth and development as they get older. I can only hope that our girls and their story will be an encouragement to other moms with preemies!

I have attached a couple photos of the girls from two years ago and today.  I have also attached the link to our personal page if you would like to help support the research and development for other families with premature babies. 

http://www.marchforbabies.org/HHClark

Hailee, at about 3 days old.

Hannah, at about 3 days old.

Hannah, a little over a week old.  Take a look at her diaper.  This was a preemie size (smaller than newborn) and was still huge on her!

Hailee, a little over a week old.

Hannah, about 4 weeks old.

Hailee, about 3 weeks old (right around Valentine's Day).

Finally home together!  Hailee had already been home for 2 weeks while Hannah was still in the hospital.  This was the first day they were home together.

Finally snuggling together again!

Hailee and Hannah today!  Two years old!  Babies, you have come a long way and continue to amaze me every day!

A big day for Hailee and Hannah!

This past Friday was Hailee and Hannah's 18 month (adjusted age) developmental assessment at Children's Hospital.  We have been doing these once every 6 months since they were born because of their prematurity.  The therapists and doctors like to keep up with them and make sure they are on track and don't need any type of therapy or assistance to help keep their development where it should be.  I had been anxiously nervous for the past few weeks about this appointment.  As I know they are moving along nicely, I was expecting some sort of speech therapy or some other area that they wouldn't be completely caught up with. 

The appointment was over two hours long.  The girls each worked with a therapist and did lots of different learning activities, fine motor skill work, and other testing to see where exactly they fall on the development scale.  Both girls ended up doing fabulous and both of them graduated from the program!  I was SO HAPPY, to say the least!  When we got their scores from the therapist and doctor, they were all outstanding.  They wanted them to be at the 21 month mark, which is their actual age versus their adjusted age at 18.5 months.  Both professionals agreed that they don't see a reason to have either girl come back for a follow up.  We have some things to watch for at they continue to grow, such as starting to put words together within the next 4 months or so, and that they start to read by about age 5.  As for now though, they are on track.  They have come so far in the past year and a half and they are just amazing!

Spending a morning at Children's really puts things into perspective.  When our baby girls were born, we didn't know where we'd be today.  I am so proud of our two little preemies!  We are so thankful and blessed for the life we have been given and for our beautiful, healthy girls. 

High five in the waiting room!

Ok, that was enough.  Get me out of here!

The girl's graduation certificates :)

March for Babies

This morning was the March of Dimes March for Babies walk.  Thank you so much to everyone that donated to such a great cause!  We did reach our goal set of $500, by raising $525.  There were SO many people at Easton for the walk.  It was a three mile walk.  There must have been some 50,000 people and pretty much everyone had a stroller, wagon, or some other child-carrying device.  There were posters and signs around everywhere with success stories of babies born prematurely.  It was so heart touching to see and read them.  Stories and photos of babies all the way from 23 weeks, weighing only 1lb or even less.  Seriously amazing.  I teared up a couple times, but held it together since we were with some friends of ours most of the time :)  Our girls are truly amazing and we are so incredibly blessed.  I realized that even more today! 

Walking for Hailee and Hannah!

The babies were in the stroller sitting behind Ella, you just can't see them :)

Ella was pretty excited about all the snacks they had for kids!  Oh, and she loved the balloons too!

H&H liked the snacks too!

Just an idea of all the crowds...

Hailee was ready to start walking already!

Everyone let their balloons go at once before the walk.  Well, not Ella.  She held on to hers for a while ;)

March for Babies

Paul, me, and the girls will all be walking the March of Dimes March for Babies this year.  We are very excited to raise money for a great cause and to do the actual walk.  It's on April 29th here in Columbus.  With Hannah and Hailee being born at 30 weeks gestation, I feel like there is no better cause that we can be contributing to.  The mission of the March of Dimes really touches close to all of our hearts.

This little blurb is taken directly from the March of Dimes website:

Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small and often very sick.
The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

Your gift will support March of Dimes research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. And it will be used to bring comfort and information to families with a baby in newborn intensive care.

We know that we are extremely blessed with the outcome of our premature twin babies.  I consider us one of the fortunate families.  Some families are not so fortunate and have to deal with much harder circumstances than I can ever imagine.  Without the March of Dimes charity, I do not know if our girls would have the same outcome that they have. 

I have set the bar high for us with a goal of raising $500 and we are already over half way there!  Click on the link below and you can donate directly online.  Even a small amount helps!  Of every dollar donated, $.97 goes directly to the cause. Thank you so much to everyone that has already donated! 

http://www.marchforbabies.org/HHClark