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| Mommy and Gunner, 10/13/11 |
Hi, my name is Christi, I am the mother of two amazing boys! Greyson, who has born full term and healthy and Gunner, who is our 33-week miracle. Our son, Gunner was born two months too soon. This was after pPROM at 28 weeks (water breaking way too early). After five weeks, 1 day of hospital bedrest, further complications arose, necessitating an emergency delivery.
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| Gunner, 6/5/09 |
Gunner was a fighter from day one. I remember the scream he let out while trying to breathe with his immature lungs. If it were not for the research funded by the March of Dimes that found a way to make synthetic surfactant, many babies born closer to their due date than he was, wouldn’t make it.
Gunner spent 39 days away from his family, in the NICU. When he was born he couldn’t breathe on his own, couldn’t maintain his temperature, and couldn’t eat like full-term newborns. He lived in an isolette to keep him warm, he ate through a tube, and he had to be monitored 24 hours a day to make sure he remembered to breathe.
The NICU at Bronson took amazing care of our son! It was obvious with his special needs, he wasn’t ready to come home. As he got bigger and stronger, our family learned what we needed to do to keep him healthy once he came home. The March of Dimes provides support for parents while in the NICU and education to help them take their children home safely.
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| Gunner's Go Getters!! |
These emotional experiences have pushed us to get involved with our local March of Dimes. Supported by the most amazing family and friends, we did our first March for Babies in 2010 in honor of our son. I still cannot believe that we raised almost $3000! In 2011, we proudly represented the Kalamazoo Division as the Ambassador Family and raised just shy of $5000. We are doing it again and we can’t wait to help others fight for babies!
This year, Rhonda and I are teaming up to raise money for healthy babies all over the US! Join us for some fun and a chance to win some prizes in the Prematurity Sucks Virtual 5K. You can get the details about the race and prizes here and register to join us and win some by clicking here!
You can learn more by checking out the March of Dimes website at http://www.marchforbabies.org/ If you are in Michigan, we have to local walks on April 29th at Binder Park Zoo and May 6th at Celery Flats Historical Site! I would be more than happy to help you at any step of the way…feel free to email me at clyoungsey@yahoo.com
Thanks for your support!
Christi Young
March of Dimes 2011 Ambassador Family Mom
