Happy Birthday, Matt

Just a quick post to wish  a happy thirty-second birthday to my youngest, my son Matt.  His birthday is officially 11:07 AM on Valentine's Day!  He was my preemie so the fact that he is hale and hearty is a double blessing.  Time to go to bed but wanted to post this early.  From preemie baby to little boy to handsome man!  In the first photo he is at the Philadelphia Zoo and his older brother, Ronnie, is keeping him from climbing in the enclosure.  In the second photo, Matt tried to copy the facial expression on the bronze status of Massa, one of the long-term gorillas at the Zoo.  In the third photo, all grown up and his Mom is proud.  Of course, I am proud of all three of my children but it's Matt's BD.  Matt spent the first nine days of life at the Neonatal ICU at a Philadelphia Hospital, about 10 miles from where I had delivered him.  Since I had had a C-section, I spent 5 days in one hospital with him in another.  So hard and I was so scared.  It was on my birthday on the 16th, that the neonatologist called me to tell me Matt was going to be okay.  He had hyaline membrane disease which affects many preemies because their lungs have not matured.  Aside from a touch of asthma, which all three have, he is strong and healthy and this Mom is grateful.  The sad part of all of this is that his early delivery was due to an error on the physician's part but he was a friend and I also knew he was only human.  Matt did well, so all was forgiven.

When Matt was a teenager, I heard of a wonderful organization called "Carewear" which provides for babies in NICUs.  I knew I had to form a Carewear group to provide for the NICU babies at one of the poorest hospitals in the Philadelphia area - Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ.  Should you ever want to help, go to yahoo groups and look for Caring for Cooper or use this link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CaringforCooper/?yguid=68887751.   We have patterns on our website but there are also many on the Carewear website: http://carewear.org/.  Of course, you can always help one of your own local hospitals and I believe there are lists of hospitals with needs on the Carewear website.  If you are interested, you can ask for a pattern booklet and to be signed up for the quarterly newsletter on the Carewear website.  It is a wonderful organization that does so much good. Good night!