Happy 11th Birthday, Hanna!!

It's been 11 years since the day you were born. Into this world you came, 3 months too soon. I remember it like it was yesterday. I wished I could have held you or heard you cry. The delicate skin covering your tiny body was almost purplish and transparent. Your eyes weren't open yet and your feet weren't even as big as my thumb. Your head was almost completely covered in a knitted cap and tape from the ventilator hid your face. When I saw you for the first time in the NICU, the severity of your prematurity really hit me. I was immediately overcome with immense fear. Seeing you hooked up to those machines, wires and tubes everywhere, was the scariest thing I'd ever experienced. These machines were keeping you alive! Knowing you couldn't survive without them was horrible. And I had to trust all these strangers, doctors and nurses, to protect you and to keep you alive and well. We were told of all the possible problems you could encounter during these first fragile weeks and also what might happen as a result in the years to come.

Just read these words and imagine all of them thrown at you as possible future scenarios your newborn could experience:
Apnea (pauses in breathing), Anemia (low red blood cells), Respitory Distress Syndrome (difficulty breathing), Bradycardia (slow heart rate), Bronchopulmonay Dysplasia (lung disease), infections, sepsis, Retinopathy of Prematurity (abnormal growth of blood vessels in the eye), Hyrocephalus "water on the brain", Intraventricular Hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain), Necrotizing Enterocolitis (intestinal condition)......to name a few. Talk about scary, huh?

It was an emotional roller coaster. You had good days and not so good days but you managed to come home sooner than expected. You had no major setbacks and you continued to grow and develop so smoothly, we were very VERY lucky. So many children born at your weight (1 lb. 8 oz) experience heartbreaking problems and have to endure many surgeries. You had surgery on one eye to prevent a detached retina (common among preemies) but that was it. What a miracle baby you were! Today, other than being a little on the short side, you look and act like any other 11 year old girl. It's an amazing thing. I am so grateful to the NICU staff at Merit Care in Fargo. They are truly gifted individuals and I will be indebted to them forever.

You are my first born, my miracle, my very special girl. I love you so much and I'm so lucky to have a loving, funny sweet girl like you for a daughter. Happy birthday, Hamster!!

March of Dimes - dedicated to improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

Click on the link below to donate, they help save the lives of children like Hanna.

https://www.marchofdimes.com/howtohelp/donate_online.asp