{{ March of Dimes }} Story of Elijah Adam

March of Dimes story, told by Brianna Bir

On August 19th 2009 my son, Elijah Adam Carter was born.

Unfortunately he was born 10 weeks early due to placenta previa and Elijah and myself almost lost our lives.  It was the most scariest moment of my life when I woke up from surgery, looking at my fiance' crying at my bedside telling me that Elijah and I almost didn't make it. Elijah spent seven and a half weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit.  We spend counts days and hours in the hospital with him during that time, watching his good times as well as the bad.  There were even times in the NICU that we weren't sure if he was going to make it out.  

About half way through his NICU stay were had hit burn out mode.  I was emotionally and physically overwhelmed by this point and Will and I were losing each other emotionally as well.  After he came home from work we would load up the other 2 kids in the car and head straight to the hospital.  By the time we came home we would bath our other two children and go to bed... then do it again day after day.  Not only that but we were running out of funds.  Our drive to the hospital where our miracle baby stayed was almost 30 miles away and it became a toll on our bank accounts.  

I informed the NICU that due to funds and my emotional state I would need to take a break from coming to see the baby for a few days to get myself back to where I needed to be so that I could be strong for him.  The March of Dimes volunteers were notified of my situation by the NICU staff and came to my rescue.  The made Elijah blankets and hats during his NICU stay...and would hold him and spend time with him when I wasn't able to be there. They also offered to put my family and I in "the treehouse" which was a hotel basically funded by march of dimes which was directly across from the hospital and we could stay there as long as the baby was in the hospital.... COMPLETELY FREE. 

When Elijah finally came home from the NICU on October 2nd 2009, the volunteers had packed a gift bag for him with hand made blankets and hats that were made for him and had left a card asking us to please send updated pictures as Elijah grows up.  March of dimes helped my family and I so much during our miracle baby's 7.5 week stay... not just financially but physically and emotionally as well.