Fundraising Walks

Our family spent some time these last two weekends participating in fundraising walks for causes that have become near and dear to our hearts - prematurity and preeclampsia.  We did the March for Babies to support March of Dimes on April 27, and the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia to support the Preeclampsia Foundation on May 4.  (We only have pictures from March for Babies, but we looked pretty much the same!) We had t-shirts made for March for Babies. They're purple (for prematurity awareness) and have Ezra's birth stats and his actual-size footprints on them.

Our team: Ross, Vern, Colin, Kate, Ezra, Allison.

Ross and I invited some friends to do the March for Babies with us, and three of them decided to walk. It was a lovely day for a walk! We had a lot of financial support from a lot of people as well. I set our fundraising goal at $330, which was $5 for each day Ezra spent in the NICU. We ended up raising $535. It was touching to see so many people make donations to this cause. 

Marching for babies

Before this year, I didn't really understand what March of Dimes did, exactly. But their history is pretty amazing. Ezra benefited from March of Dimes funded research when he received pulmonary surfactant therapy at just 3 hours old. Without it, the chances of him dying would have been much higher. Based on his gestational age, he wasn't expected to need surfactant (his lungs should have been making it already), and didn't receive it until NICU staff realized he just wasn't stabilizing the way he should. Nurses later told us the surfactant made a big difference almost immediately. 

Ezra showing off his t-shirt

Storm Troopers!

I wish these two fundraisers weren't just a week apart, because I felt weird about asking for donations for both events at the same time. So I picked March of Dimes, and next year I will put more effort into raising money for the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia. This is a smaller event and a smaller foundation, but it, too, is important to me. 

I knew that swelling and rapid weight gain were signs of preeclampsia last summer. When I needed to find out more, the Preeclampsia Foundation website - preeclampsia.org - was really helpful. It helped me put the pieces together and raise the issue with my healthcare provider, even though my blood pressure was normal until several weeks after other symptoms developed. As many as 1 in 13 pregnancies is complicated by preeclampsia, so having good information out there for expectant mothers is really important. The Preeclampsia Foundation also provides small research grants to investigators who study preeclampsia - also super important, as it is really well understood at all for such a common disease.

Strolling.