Memory Lane

Last Thursday I had the chance to participate in the March of Dimes Days of Gratitude. I was there representing the families who have personal experience with a premature baby. There 2 were March of Dimes staff members and myself and we went to Providence Tarzana Medical Center. I baked a few batches of cookies for the nurses and staff of the Maternity, Labor and Delivery and NICU units.

Purple for March of Dimes, naturally.

Since I can't be in Pennsylvania to constantly drown the doctors, nurses and staff who took care of my little ones with cookies and treats, I figured I'd spread the love on the West Coast.

I brought the twins with me and everyone was so excited to see the little NICU grads.

We went to each unit and chit chatted with the nurses. The March of Dimes provided them with pamphlets, books, lots of info about their "Healthy Babies are Worth The Wait" campaign, and some free CEU's for some of the nurses....and of course they got lots of cookies, hot chocolate, teas and other goodies ;)

So that's the logistics of what I did, but I didn't think it would be as hard as it was. We got to go into the NICU, which was so nice of them to let us take a peak in to the unit. This was the first time I'd been in a NICU since we brought the twins home, which feels like forever ago! It was a lot more emotional than I thought it'd be. They have a Level III NICU, so they care for the tiniest of babies. There were several babies there who couldn't have been much bigger than 2lbs. The nurses immediately handed me a box of tissues. I told them my story and about the twins and they were all so excited to hear how well they are doing.

A lot of them talked to me about breastfeeding which I was surprised about. I told them I was still nursing and pumping, I'd gone the first 3 months or so exclusively pumping until Amelia got the hang of nursing. They were really impressed and encouraging which was nice to hear. I say all the time I'm going to quit, then I get little boosts of motivation (other than seeing the price of formula when we have to buy it) that keep me going.

It was a bit surreal seeing all of the equipment and tubes and wires and machines that looked oh so familiar. It was definitely a trip down memory lane. It was nice to go there, see the nurses and tell them thank you for all of their work, but I definitely don't miss going to the NICU every day. 

I'm hoping I get to do a lot of similar things with the March of Dimes in the future. It was a really great time and I'm glad I could give back, even just a little bit, to the people who save preemies lives every day. Our next March of Dimes event is next weekend, it's the big kickoff for the March for Babies! If you live in the area and want to attend the kick-off, please let me know! :)