Miracles Can Happen: March of Dimes

02 March 2011

March for Babies 2011

It is that time of year again - March for Babies 2011 is on April 17th!
1 in 8 babies are born too soon.

Walk Distance: 6 miles
Registration Time: 8:00 AM
Start Time: 9:00 AM
Location: Sawyer Point

Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small and often very sick. Our team is walking in March for Babies because we want to do something about this. We walk in honor of Cohen and Bryce, for what they have been through and what they will go through. I would hope that no other family would have to experience what prematurity can do. Let's walk to try to lower this number!

If you can't walk with us, please help by donating to our team. No donation is too small. We will also be announcing some additional fundraisers in the coming week. Thank you for helping us give all babies a healthy start!

To find our team page go to http://www.marchforbabies.org/ and search for Team Croley Twins.

The mission of the March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

17 November 2010

Prematurity Awareness Day!

Looking back now it is so hard to believe everything that our family has went through. I thank God every day that we are all together. We somehow had the strength to make it through some extremely hard times. Prematurity is something that I didn't know much about until it brought us to our knees.

My two little boys are growing more and more every day. Both of them have been given different paths to follow and through it all have shown us how to love beyond words. I think we have seen both sides of what prematurity can do to a family. How unpredictable the future can be. I used to hate to hear that no one can tell you what the future is going to be - strange how I find comfort in those words now. Bryce has shown us that you can't listen to those predictions- he has already proved them wrong on numerous levels.... and Cohen- you would never be able to tell that he was born just over 2 pounds.

I hope to help raise awareness... I would never want a family to go through anything close to what we have gone through. The sad thing is - another family will. Please help us raise awareness, we will be walking in March for Babies (April 2011). We invite you to walk with us or make a small donation to the March of Dimes.

From the beginning...

On January 5, 2009 we found out we were having twins!!! We were so excited and never dreamed that we would have any problems getting them here. All we could think about was how special it would be to bring two little ones into this world at one time.

It was a few weeks later that we found out there were issues with the pregnancy. It appeared that the twins had Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS), but after several tests it was found that there was a growth discordance in the twins. Baby A (Cohen) had more placental share that Baby B (Bryce). After finding this out I was put on full bed rest at home. We had ultrasounds every other week to check the babies growth. It was a constant worry whether the babies would make it.

At 20 weeks I would be admitted into Good Sam Hospital with pre-term labor complications. Those complications would turn into cervical length problems and from there a one night stay turned into 54 days of trying not to go absolutely insane. Each week we would have a new scare. I became very ill with blood poisoning and there was a fear that the infection got to the babies, luckily it did not. I also had daily contractions, some days more than others and began dialating. I developed gestational diabetes, only after passing the glucose test a week before.

At 28 weeks (and one day) real labor set in and I gave birth to two very small but very beautiful boys - Cohen Matthew and Bryce Anthony. This is their story...