Help Premature Babies, Dammit!

This pic is of Emiko a couple days after her birth.

As many of you are aware, Emiko Mae was six weeks premature. No one knows why she was premature -- I didn't have any symptoms or warnings or infections or the like. At any rate, she was pretty small (five pounds, 3 and 1/2 ounces at birth), although that's big for a preemie.

She spent twelve long days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Illinois Masonic Hospital. Having to go home without her was heartbreaking. Hell, delivering her and then not getting to hold her for several hours was agonizing. I was beginning to wonder if maybe all of this had just been at dream.

But she finally got to come home and hasn't looked back yet. You would never guess she was a preemie. She has hit all her milestones with her gestational age, not her corrected age. She is happy, healthy, and adorable.

I never gave the March of Dimes any thought (or premature babies, for that matter) until I had a preemie. All babies need a full nine months in their mother's womb to get the best start in life. So Team Fuji is walking in Chicago's March for Babies. It's April 27th at Grant Park. If you would like to join Team Fuji and walk with us, please let me know! You can also donate to our team and help us reach our fundraising goal of $500.

For more information, check out our page on the March of Dimes website. You can also go straight to my fundraising page from the web banner on the side of my blog!

Thanks for any support you can provide. Chances are that I will have another preemie -- usually one preemie begets another one. So I definitely want to do whatever I can to avoid having Baby Fuji #2 (I'm not pregnant, yet, but working on it!) spend any time at the hospital without me.