March for Babies Wrap Up

This past Saturday was the Kansas City March for Babies. Last year team Three Cuties had 3 walkers (including myself) and we raised just over $1,000. This year our team had 14 walkers and we raised $2,231 as of this morning! If you kept meaning to give but never got around to it, you can still give at this link: http://www.marchforbabies.org/ransom3. The only reason I mention this is because last night I got an e-mail from one of my aunt's asking if she could still give!

Nick and I decided to make a bold move on Saturday. We left the Choo Choo in the van. We figured if we had to we could always run back and get it, but that life would be much easier without it. You know what? The boys did awesome! We arrived downtown at 8:30am for breakfast and we didn't head home until almost noon. They walked the majority of the time so were super tired by the time we got home for naps.

Jackson is wearing blue, Tyler is wearing yellow and Chase is wearing gray

Scones and quiche - the breakfast of champions.

 Part of the team - closest I actually got to a team picture. Next year I'll be sure to get one of all of us!

Chase & Stephanie

My babies marching for other babies!

A HUGE Thank You to all of you who supported us and/or came out to walk! Because of you the March of Dimes is one step closer to giving all babies a healthy start to life!

My, How We've Grown

This past weekend I made a decision. Over the next two weeks I'm going to do some serious decluttering in hopes of having a rather large yard sale soon. Saturday afternoon I tackled the boys' playroom. In 2 hours I managed to find a full bag of stuff to donate, a full bag of stuff to throw out and 4 full laundry baskets of stuff for the yard sale. Wow. The playroom definitely looks better now though!

At the very top of the closet in their playroom I came across something that nearly brought tears to my eyes. I found a preemie outfit. I couldn't get over how tiny it was! I'm quite certain it wouldn't have fit the doll I played with as a child, and yet when the boys came home in that outfit it was a bit baggy on them. Wow.

Simply taking a picture of the outfit on it's own really wouldn't show you just how small it is though. Taking a picture of it next to a pair of the boys' current PJs would though...

Know what else is a good visual reminder of how far the boys' have come? This picture of the boys when they were 3 weeks old followed by a picture of them from this morning - laying on the very same blanket they did 2.5 years ago.

I bet you can guess where this is going. Yup, it's my final plea for donations for this week's March for Babies. I think sometimes we (even myself!) forget just how tiny and fragile the boys were as preemies. That's easy to do considering how big they are now. We've come a long way in the last two and a half years! You know what though? Today another 1,500 babies will be born too early. Not all of them will be as lucky as my boys were. Some parents will have to say goodbye to children they just met and some will spend months in the NICU at the side of a baby who is on a health roller coaster. 

If you haven't donated yet and you have $5, $10, $15 or more to spare, please donate. Babies are counting on you! Donate here.

Random side note - how do you like the extra large pictures? Too big? Just right? 

Winner & Food for Thought

My best laid plans rarely seem to work out.... Anyone else like that? Example: instead of saving up big bucks this month and next for a van, we shelled out $1,400 yesterday for repairs the Neon needed. Ouch. Example number 2: I planned on ending the giveaway at 6pm yesterday so that I could write everyone's name on slips of paper and have the boys draw a winner last night. Instead we took a picnic dinner to the park and didn't get home until the boys' bed time. Whoops!

So I had to rely on good old Random.org to pick my winner.... (drumroll please)

Brossettelewis, who takes care of herself by bathing daily, is our big winner! 

Shoot me an e-mail lady and I'll get you all hooked up :)

I find it appropriate that Brossettelewis won as I was going to refer to her blog this morning anyway! You see, she had twins who had TTTS (Twin to Twin Transfusion syndrome), which is a very dangerous condition. Obviously she has become a big supporter of the March of Dimes as well. Check out her recent March for Babies post HERE.


Here's something for you to think about...

Even if you weren't a preemie, you and your children have benefited from the March of Dimes.

The MOD first goal was to beat Polio, and it was successful.

The APGAR scoring system for infants became standard practice around the world thanks to Dr. Virginia Apgar's work with the March of Dimes.

The MOD funded the very first bone marrow transplant to correct a birth defect (1968)

MOD discovers that alcohol consumption during pregnancy causes birth defects (1973)

MOD funds first in utero treatment of a birth defect (1973)

MOD launched the national campaign urging women to take Folic Acid during pregnancy (1995)

MOD led the effort to have newborn screening (heel prick) for at least 21 of 29 life threatening, but treatable disorders.

Today I made the decision to lower my March for Babies goal. I thought for sure I could hit $1,000 but here we are a week and a half from the walk and I'm not even half way there. So now my goal is $500. I KNOW you all can get me that far at least! Team Three Cuties is rocking the donations this year - we're up to 13 walkers now and have raised $1,155 as a group. Woohoo!

Donate here, please.

Just Mulling

I'm a thinker. And a planner. And a day-dreamer. I probably waste far more time than I should doing those things, but I can't seem to help it. My mind starts to wonder and I start to dream and plan for the future. Doesn't matter if the plan is as mundane as what kind of landscaping I'd like to do around the house in the next 5 years or researching minivans; I seem to be easily entertained by just thinking.

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the March for Babies. Usually I don't have a problem reaching my goal or at least coming close. This year I stretched a bit and tacked on an extra $200 from what I raised last year. I figured more readers, improving economy, no problem. I'm seriously struggling this year though! I'm still $200 away from what I raised 2 years ago and over $400 away from what I raised last year. Huh.

On the other hand, in the last couple of days Team Three Cuties has flourished. There are people signing up to walk with us that I don't know. They know others who have signed up to walk with us, but they don't know me or my boys (unless they stalk the blog and then they sorta "know" my boys). I'm blown away that our team now has 11 walkers. Seriously, I'm in awe.

How about we switch fund-raising goals here for a minute. March of Dimes asks each walker to raise or donate themselves a minimum of $25. $200 is better though (obviously). Nick hasn't gotten around to e-mailing folks or begging on his Facebook page, so he's currently at $0. What do you say we give him a little surprise and help get him to his $25 minimum at least? You can find Nick's donation page HERE.

Oh and don't worry - this isn't the only post you'll get today. The boys and I are out for some morning fun, but after I get the rascals down for a nap I'll get the newest Video Clip of the Week uploaded and posted. I'm positive it'll make you smile and maybe even laugh!

When The Children Are Annoying...

Before I get into how obnoxious my kids were yesterday and how I dealt with them, I wanted to give you a March for Babies update! (Expect to see these a lot in the next 20 days.) Team Three Cuties is now up to 8 walkers! Wow! Two years ago it was just me (and the boys), last year I had my sister and a friend join me bringing us up to 3 walkers and this year we have 8! Woohoo! Even better, we're up to almost $600 raised as a team. My personal goal crept a little higher this weekend up to $335. I still have a long way to go though before I hit my goal of $1,000. Can you spare $5 or $10 to help give babies a healthy shot at life? Today alone 1,500 babies will be born too early! Donate HERE please!

Ok, on to the boys. They were something else yesterday. I knew it was going to be rough when I woke up at 6:39am to a face staring at me. I ordered the boys back to bed, but they didn't listen so well. The morning continued with fighting, biting, button pushing and time outs. I looked at the clock to see if it was almost nap time and was dismayed to see it was only 9:30. GAAAAH!

I finally ordered the boys all outside, where they continued to annoy the crud out of me and each other. I knew my attitude was terrible and growing worse by the minute but I wasn't sure what else to try to bring myself out of the funk and attempt to bring the boys out of their naughty streak.

After looking around my kitchen in desperation my eyes landed on the cabinet I keep my camera in. "Yes!" I thought, "I'll take pictures of the boys. That should cheer me up." After about 10 minutes of shooting (mostly Jackson) I was in a better mood even though the boys weren't.

Really, how could I stay annoyed with faces like these?

Chase, eating "sticky sandwich" (a fluffernutter - marshmallow fluff and peanut butter)

Family Fun

Last weekend Nick sort of had a 4 day weekend. I say sort of only because he did go to one of the Easter services on Saturday afternoon to help out and then he signed one of us up to help in the nursery Easter Sunday and I took that shift. Basically though, he was off from Friday-Monday. It was great having him around!

Monday morning some rain and storms passed through early and then it was supposed to clear off a bit. We took advantage of the impending sunshine and took the boys to the zoo! Even though I had my camera with me the whole time, I refrained from taking it out and snapping shots of every little thing. Towards the end of our time there, I did snap a few shots of the boys waiting for the Tram and then on the Tram.

Chase

Jackson

Tyler

The "Put the camera away, Mom" look

March for Babies update: Bad news! I've lost two of my walkers! Bummer! Any of my KC reader friends want to step up and walk in their place? On the brighter side, thanks for the donations that have been steadily coming in! We're at about 30% of my goal now. I figure if I can raise $30 a day between now and the walk I should be able to hit my goal. Can you give even $5? Remember, if each of my regular readers gives just $5 I'll blow my goal out of the water!
 

Barefoot Fun

Before we get to the slew of photos I have for you, a couple of quick reminders/updates!

1. Don't forget to enter yourself in the giveaways I have going this week! You have until 10pm tomorrow to enter to win treats from my Etsy Shop and to enter to win a jumbo pack of Huggies Pull-Ups.

2. Yesterday I set a rather lofty goal here. By this morning I wanted to have 3 more walkers lined up for Team Three Cuties and I wanted to be at 50% of my fund-raising goal for next month's March for Babies. I did reach my walker goal, thanks to some friends stepping up, but I missed my fund-raising goal by a long shot. Thank you though to those of you who donated yesterday - I'm now $80 closer than I was at this time yesterday morning. If you'd like to walk, there's definitely still room on our team and we'd love to have you. If you've been thinking of donating, please do so! Babies are being born too early as you're reading this blog. Click here for info on walking or donating.

Alright, on to the fun pictures! We've had some gorgeous weather the last few days and I mean GORGEOUS! I even let the boys play outside barefoot a couple of times.

Tyler

Chase - a favorite activity is just walking on the bricks. Who needs toys when you have bricks?

Jackson, who learned the hard way that playing in shorts can be hazardous to your knees.

Tyler, checking out the Lilac buds

Tyler in the foreground and Chase in the background.

They thought these little flowers looked like grapes - I told them not to eat them.

Ahhhh spring, welcome back!

No Joke

Last year I had a little fun with you all on April Fool's Day. This year I'm skipping the jokes and instead going to focus on the fact that the Kansas City March for Babies is exactly one month from today. I was hoping to have 6 walkers this year and so far only have 3. I was hoping by this point I'd have over 50% of my goal raised and so far I only have 15%. Time to hit the ground running here!

Walk With Us! If you live in the Kansas City area and are free on Saturday, May 1st please consider joining us at the walk. The walk happens at the Power & Light District downtown and has tons of stuff for the kids to do! You get lunch afterward and it really is just such a fun, family friendly time. The March starts at 10am and if you plan to get downtown around 9ish that should give you plenty of time to find parking and the rest of our group. The walk is an easy mile and strollers and wagons are definitely welcome. Whether you have your own cuties who were preemies, were a preemie yourself or are just friends of ours we would love to have you join us on the walk. Click HERE if you'd like to join our team!

Donate! When I first walked 2 years ago I set my goal at $200 and then raised it several times because I kept hitting my goal. I think that first year I ended up raising about $500. Last year I set my goal a bit higher ($750) and I ended up raising $760. Our team (I had 2 other walkers last year!) raised $1040 together. This year I figured I could set my goal even higher considering I have more readers now than I did then and the economy seems to be looking up for a lot of people. $1,000 seems like a huge goal but let's look at the numbers here...

• In the last month, Three Times the Giggles has had 1,427 different visitors (the number of visits in the last month is 5,483). Whoa! 
• On the average day we have 200 hits.
• If each of my regular visitors donated just $5 each I would exceed my goal!

Do you have $5? What about $10 or $20? I know not every one of my visitors will be able to donate $5, and it's likely a lot of people will intend to donate but will forget. If you can give more than $5 it will help pick up some of the slack. 

If you've read my blog at all in the last couple of months, you already know why March of Dimes and the March for Babies is important to this family. We have 3 preemies and I had a "high-risk" pregnancy. Know why else we march? Because at the March for Babies every year I see far too many people walking for babies who didn't survive their prematurity. Far too many. The March of Dimes has made significant strides against prematurity and researching new treatments for preemies, but there is still a long way to go.

Please, donate today. 

Let's get to 50% of my goal by tomorrow morning and find a few more walkers to join us!

(After last year's walk)

St. Eve Kids Giveaway!

What a fun month this has been for giveaways! Hopefully I can get some more giveaways lined up so we can do this again soon. Now, it's time to kick off our final giveaway this month!

When the folks at St. Eve Kids contacted me about doing a review and giveaway of one of their newest kid's lounge items I said sure! The only problem was the item they were offering was pink. Hmmm... maybe that wouldn't work so well. St. Eve Kids compromised with me and sent us a preview item that releases to stores late this spring. That item was much more boy friendly...

 

The Travel Bud is a pillow that zips open and you can store the super soft blanket inside of it! I've been told those will be hitting stores in late spring. If we end up traveling this summer, I definitely will be buying two more of these. The boys LOVE this one!

Jackson and then Tyler "modeling" it for me.

  

So what's the pink item we're giving away? The St. Eve Kids Cozy! Think Snuggy, but less annoying name and made for kids. Oh, and can I just say the Cozy is so soft that I almost want to unroll it and see if it fits me! It says "One size fits all" but I'm pretty sure they mean all kids, not all moms who still look pregnant even though they're not.

 

St. Eve Kids stuff can be found at Bon Ton, Von Maur, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Nordstrom, Belk, Kohls, Sears and JC Penney. The Cozy can also be purchased on QVC.com, and bonus - it's on sale there! The Cozy is recommended for ages 4 and up and does come in boy colors and prints too (look at the QVC link).

Know what's really fun about St. Eve Kids? They have their own website: DramaU.com where your kids can watch little animated clips featuring the characters found on St. Eve Kids clothes! Even better than animated clips? The chance to win a year supply of pajamas! You can enter that contest at DramaU.com also.

While you wait to see if you've been chosen in the DramaU PJs for a Year contest, you can try to win a pink Cozy for the little girl in your life! Here's how to win...

1. Tell me who you want to win the Cozy for.

2. Become a follower or subscriber (or tell me if you already are)

3. Tweet and/or Facebook about this

4. Make a donation of any size to my March for Babies walk. If you've already donated, just let me know.

Don't forget to leave separate comments for each item you complete!

Contest will end at 10pm Thursday and winner will be announced Friday morning. Contest only open to US Residents. Winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize before an alternate winner is drawn.

$750,000

My boys weren't in the NICU all that long when compared to other preemies. Just a couple of weeks. They didn't need any expensive surgeries or medications. They didn't even need oxygen. They just lay in their little isolettes and gained weight. Those two weeks, for three little "feeders and growers", resulted in our insurance being billed nearly $750,000. Wow. Could you imagine the cost if even just one of the boys had needed a life saving surgery?

The boys' NICU stay really wasn't avoidable. After all, there were three little boys vying for the space only one baby should occupy. However, I did make it a tad bit longer than most moms carrying triplets do. Every precaution was taken to make sure those babies stayed inside just as long as possible in order to reduce their NICU time.

Could you imagine if every single pregnancy was watched closely for signs of pre-term labor or trouble? Imagine the reduction in NICU time for hundreds of thousands of babies! Sometimes a premature birth just happens; there's nothing the mom or doctors could have done to prevent it. But often times it could have been prevented with some research, knowledge, medicines and education on the mom's part.

The March For Babies helps fund such research and education that is so desperately needed to reduce the number of preemie births. We need to reduce the number of parents spending hours next to the crib of their tiny baby. We need to reduce the anxiety, fear and helplessness these parents feel when looking at their teeny tiny newborn. We need to reduce the number of times a parent has to bury a child they barely knew.

Yep, it's that time of year again. Time to see the purple banner on my blog (and thousands of other blogs!) asking for you to donate. Time for me to mention prematurity several times a month on my blog. Time for me to recruit locals to walk with my family. The Kansas City March For Babies is 3 months from today. How will you help?

Kansas City Residents: Will you consider joining Team Three Cuties this year? All we ask is that you raise (or donate yourself) a minimum of $25. I bet you could easily raise 10 times that though with a quick e-mail or a few Facebook status updates. The date for the Kansas City walk is Saturday, May 1st. What better way to spend my birthday than walking with Nick, me and the boys? (yep, the walk is on my birthday this year!) There's tons of stuff for the kids to do before and after the walk, so make it a family event! You can find more info about the walk and joining our team by clicking HERE. Last year our team had 3 members besides me. Can we double that this year?

Donations: If you don't live locally or you do but can't walk with us, please consider donating. I've set a high goal for myself ($1,000) and will need a lot of help to reach it! You can donate by clicking HERE or by clicking on the banner you see on the upper left-hand side of the blog.

Thank you for helping us give all babies the chance to be born healthy! One day we'll get there.

Today begins a new Cans For Comments week! Each comment left on my blog between now and Saturday at 10pm will result in one non-perishable item being donated to our church's Souper Bowl Food Drive. Comment away on old and new posts! If you have a blog, join us by clicking HERE!