I suppose there are many ways people think about the day their child was supposed to be born as opposed to the day they were actually born. This is something only a preemie parent could think about! Some do not do anything for that day others celebrate it in different ways. For this first year we incidentally are walking with March of Dimes on the day of his due date.
Samuel's due date was supposed to be April 28th, so being born any time close to that would have been fine, however he was born on January 27th. He joined the ranks of preemies and on April 2nd last year he became a NICU grad! He had a pretty uneventful stay in the NICU, there mainly as a grower and a feeder.
During the first (almost) 15 months of Samuel's life we have had lots of things to rejoice about! He is not as far developmentally as his actual age peers, but he is advancing at an appropriate rate for his prematurity. Many people had commented in the earlier months that all preemies catch up within 1 year. These people were not very experienced with preemies and it is sometimes true. Our son, is not caught up within a year, but he is doing very well. What the professionals told us is to expect him pretty much caught up in 2 years. It is my personal belief that he will remain small compared to his peers for even longer.
All that said, what does this have to do with walking with March of Dimes on April 28th? March of Dimes is an organization committed to reducing premature births in our country. They provide many helpful resources to families going through the NICU. These resources educate families on preemies and provide preemie specific baby materials such as a NICU baby book.
If you would like to donate to help the cause please click on this link: Michelle's Page. I'm looking forward to the walk and can't wait to show you photos of us walking with his nurses and other NICU grads. :-)
