Will's Story

Today, it turns out, is national Prematurity Awareness Day. It also happens to be the UN International Day for Tolerance, Admission Day in Oklahoma (after a few minutes of Googling I gave up on trying to figure out what that one is about) and in Estonia the locals are celebrating their Day of National Rebirth. But those are for another day and another blogger to ponder.

Prematurity is rarely a good thing. There is premature baldness. Premature graying for those who manage to keep their hair. And in the boudoir too many premature performances can lead to the early demise of a relationship.

Today’s national awareness day, however, is about the birth of babies before they are due. According to the March of Dimes, which began the campaign last year, one in eight babies born in the United States each day arrives too soon – sometimes way, way too soon.

Such is the case with my friends Mary and John. Their baby was due in February 2005. But after hearing that President Bush was planning another round of tax cuts for the middle class, Will decided he wanted in on the deal and came into the world on Oct. 26, at the not-quite-ripe age of 24 weeks. He weighed less than a pound when he was delivered and measured just over 10 inches long.

It is difficult to imagine a human being that small outside of the womb. One incredible photograph taken by John shows Will’s footprint alongside a quarter. The quarter is only slightly smaller than the foot. To put things in even greater perspective, a website about the developmental stages of the fetus says that at 24 weeks a baby’s eyes have just fully developed, it can demonstrate both hand and startle reflexes, it is beginning to form footprints and fingerprints and it is forming alveoli in the lungs. It still has to look forward to controlling some body functions and developing eyelids that open and close (26 to 28 weeks) and rhythmic breathing and partial control of body temperature (30 to 32 weeks).

In other words, John, Mary and Will have a long road ahead of them. But I’m hopeful. Will couldn’t have asked for better parents. They are salt of the earth kind of people: kind-hearted, bright, funny, generous to a fault. They give Midwesterners a good name. And they’ve been blessed with a wonderful family and lots of friends who care a great deal about them. A number of these friends spent a recent Saturday morning raking the autumn leaves from their yard. Others have been stocking their freezer with enough home-cooked meals to last them until Will finishes graduate school. As for the hospital where Will is going to spend Thanksgiving, and Christmas and New Year’s Day and possibly next Ground Hog Day and Valentines Day? It’s got one of the country’s premiere premature infant units and some of the world’s top doctors.

So while the Estonians get mad drunk on grog and dance their crazy Estonian dances in celebration of National Rebirth Day, Mary and John will be spending today beside Will’s hospital bassinette, watching his tiny inhalations and exhalations, the flicker of eyes beneath paper-thin eyelids, and trying their best to ignore the beeps and hum of the machinery in the background and the tubes snaking to and from Will’s delicate body. That’s how they’ll spend the next day, too. And the day after that. And the day after that. Until the day comes, at long last, when they can finally bring Will home and celebrate a kind of rebirth, too, when Will sheds the label of premature infant and simply becomes John and Mary’s son.

John has started his own blog about Will, and I don’t think they’d mind if I shared it here: www.willkenyon.blogspot.com/ John’s an incredible writer, and his updates on Will’s progress make for some gripping reading.

And if you’re interested in learning more about premature babies, the March of Dimes website is a great starting point: http://marchofdimes.com/prematurity/prematurity.asp/ In addition to information about Prematurity Awareness Day, the organization has created a way to donate to the cause through a “bandingtogether” campaign.