March for Babies

You may notice the new widget on the left - we're shamelessly soliciting money for the March of Dimes. On May 2, Jeff, Jake, and I will do a 3.1 mile walk newly renamed the March for Babies. The March of Dimes does so much good work for premature babies. If you can afford it, we would really appreciate your sponsorship - even just $1 would help!

My sister started a tradition last year of doing a charity walk with her daughter every year around my niece's birthday, and I think we're going to steal that idea, so look for this to become a family tradition (and a yearly solicitation). Back when we were in the hospital, so many people did wonderful things for us and offered to do more, often asking what we needed. People still ask, and I can honestly say that we are doing quite well, but we know that other families are not so lucky and every day more babies are born far too early. Some things you could do to help -

• Donate blood, particularly if you're O-. Babies in the NICU receive universal donor blood (O-) to minimize any chance of a bad reaction. Most babies in the NICU will have a few blood transfusions (Jake had 3) before they go home because they simply cannot make enough new blood to keep up with all the blood that is taken for tests.
• Volunteer for the Ronald McDonald House. We never stayed there but we frequently went to the Ronald McDonald room within Duke Hospital. Volunteers staff the rooms and houses, as well as donate books and other items. We also frequently enjoyed homemade baked goods that people would drop off.
  
• Volunteer at your local NICU. Jeff and I were very lucky because we were able to spend 12 or more hours a day at the NICU with Jake. Many other families cannot do this - they live too far away, they have other children to care for, they have jobs that aren't flexible. Wonderful volunteers come in to hold those babies who didn't have such frequent visitors.

Spring is just around the corner. It's truly March in North Carolina, with more snow at the beginning of the month, 80s last weekend, and cold rain in the 40s this weekend. We walked to the park one night after work last week and Jake experienced the swings (with lots of holding on by mom and dad). He seems to be a fan!