As many of you know, Cameron made quite the entrance being born at only 24 weeks gestation. He weighed one pound ten ounces and was intubated immediately after birth and  taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit before I could even really process that I had delivered a baby. My husband and I sat in a silent hospital room for 4 hours before he was stable enough for us to go into the NICU and see him. When we got there there were at least 4 incredible nurses working harder than ever to keep him alive.

We couldn’t stay long. Those 5 minutes seemed like 5 seconds before we were sent back to the room to wait for any updates. This was the hardest part. Waiting to hear if he was going to be okay or not. Waiting to hear if those 5 minutes were the only 5 minutes we would ever be able to spend with our son. Waiting to hear if we were one of the lucky ones who would have a “24 weeker” who was strong enough to survive being so small.

When we were able to go back, things had calmed down and there weren’t as many people in the room. Those people were all replaced by machines so that those people could go help other tiny baby’s in the NICU. His ventilator was breathing for him, the bed that he was in regulated his temperature so that it could simulate him still being in my belly. His bed also had walls that surrounded him with tiny little doors so that he wasn’t exposed to all the germs outside of it. He had a sticker on his chest that monitored his temperature, a sticker on his foot that monitored his oxygen level in his body, and stickers on his arms monitoring his heart rate. (His skin was so fragile that those stickers actually left scars on his arms and chest) he had already had a number of x-rays to confirm the placement of the IV lines placed in him.

We say all the time how lucky we are that medical knowledge has grown so much over the years. If it weren’t for the amazing nurses, doctors, and technology at Saint Vincent, we might have been telling a different story. Donating to Children’s Miracle Network helps St. Vincent afford all of the life saving medical equipment that Cameron needed. We were able to keep him in Erie and close to home because of this!

We were blessed with an incredible boy who continues to amaze us, and We would love for you to donate in his name!

Because Cameron is always good for a laugh, for every 200 dollars donated we will let Cameron do something silly and tape it for everyone to see.

200: cam gets to spray us with silly string

400: cam gets to paint himself instead of paper

600: cam gets to hit a parent of choice with water balloons

800: Cam gets to draw on the parent of his choice’s face

1200: cam gets to hit us in the face with a pie

1400: cam gets to shoot us with a water bead gun (if you don’t know what this is, look at them on Amazon) and he gets to go somewhere fun!

**if we hit our goal. I will let cam pick a color and we will temporarily dye his hair that color