"Our daughter, Hayley, was born almost three months premature at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster. She weighed just 775 grams - 1 pound 11.5 ounces. She was on a ventilator for almost a month, then a continous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine for three weeks, then low flow nose prongs for four days.
In her first month of life she had three blood transfusions and numerous blood gases, usually two per day. It was very difficult to see her poked and prodded constantly. It was hard for her to gain weight since she was also very anemic. At her lowest weight, she was 665 grams.
At 33 weeks, Hayley was no longer in need for a Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) so we were transferred to Surrey Memorial Hospital. After a couple of days there, Hayley had a backslide. She started requiring oxygen again and eventually needed a fourth transfusion. After that last transfusion she did great. She started bottle feeding and gaining weight.
On Mother's Day, after 93 days in the hospital, Hayley came home. We are very lucky to have such amazing hospitals so close to us. We met so many parents that were so far from home and we saw how hard it was. Both of the NICU's were equipped with funds from Variety - The Children's Charity.
For Hayley's first birthday party we wanted to do a fundraiser for Variety. In lieu of gifts from our guests, we asked for donations and held a silent auction. We wanted to teach Hayley how lucky she was to have the care she did and to pay it forward.
I am pleased to say that our fundraiser was a huge success! We had over 100 attendees and raised more than $4,000 for Variety!"
