SUPPORT THE MISSION
Every year more than 15 million babies are born prematurely; a million will die before their first birthday as a result. With your gift at Signature Chefs to the March of Dimes, you can help to fund the research, education, and support to ensure more babies celebrate their birthday.
This year we are pleased to have two families serving as our Ambassador Families for our Signatue Chefs Auction. This event pays tribute to and celebrates the culinary excellence of the area’s finest chefs, all while raising money to fight premature birth and give every baby a healthy start.
Our Ambassador families met at Blank Children's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as their children were born around the same time. They experienced some of the hardest days together and built a friendship that remains strong to this day.
Meet the Steinberg Family: After 7 long years of trying, we finally got pregnant with our first little girl, McKyla. We had an uneventful pregnancy, though a rough introduction to the world meant McKyla spending a week in the NICU before we were all able to take her home. It took us so long to get our first little girl we thought we better get going again to give her a sibling and did IVF for our 9th and final round. When we went in for our first ultrasound they saw twins, but when we went back two weeks later, another baby showed up on the radar… we were having triplets!
From the very beginning of the pregnancy we were monitored really closely because of the potential for complications, especially since we had a set of identical twins within the triplets that shared a placenta. For the first 22 weeks everything was pretty normal. Around 23 weeks I knew something was wrong, I was 3 centimeters dilated and was placed on hospitalized bedrest. One of our biggest goals was to make it to 24 weeks and we made it by less than 2 hours. Tinley, Giuliana, and Jasmine were born at 1lb 5oz, 1lb 7oz, and 1lb 2oz respectively. It was very clear from the beginning that there were serious concerns and our little girls were fighting for their lives. One of our girls was born without a heartbeat, all needed breathing support for months, there were surgeries (15 in the first year between them), transfusions, lots of specialists, medications, and numerous procedures that they fought through. The girls spent 5, 5.5 and 6 months in the NICU receiving the best of care. And after 188 days, we finally had all four of our girls home under one roof.
Tinley, Gules, and Jazzy are 2 ½ years old now and are still behind other kids their age developmentally, but they are working to catch up. They still see lots of specialists, go to lots of therapy sessions, get sick a lot, and are smaller than other kids their age as they continue to struggle with gaining weight, but you'd never guess what they have overcome. We never forget how lucky we are. We are all blessed to have an amazing support team including doctors, nurses, friends and family.
Without the medical advancements produced by the March of Dimes, our girls may not be here. We want to help other families who find themselves where we were and let them know they aren’t alone.
Meet the Ehler Family: We discovered our spontaneous triplets on April 15, 2014. We were completely shocked and immediately identified as a high-risk pregnancy. We started seeing our perinatologist soon after and during week 18, problems were found with Baby A (Gabriel). From that point forward, we had increasingly frequent visits. On August 3, I felt increasingly uncomfortable and by midnight Monday morning, I knew something was wrong. After arriving at the hospital the medical staff did everything they could to stop my labor.
Our triplets were born at 12:45PM on August 4 at 24 weeks, 1 day gestation. On the night of August 7 we were called to get to the NICU right away as things with Gabriel were not good. We watched as the NICU team struggled to stabilize Gabriel and after a short time of being stabilized, Dr. Azuero had the terrible job of letting us know there was nothing more they could do for our tiny son. We held him as they unhooked all the machinery and everything in the room quieted.
After I was released from the hospital we decided to go home and get some rest, leaving our three sons behind, especially with one deceased, was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Three days later, Caleb began to struggle as well. The doctors and nurses worked constantly for twelve hours to try and save his life, but in the end we lost him too.
Joshua became ill three days after losing Caleb and was diagnosed with pneumonia and sepsis. Eight days after his diagnosis, we got the call to get to the hospital as quickly as possible because the medical team was sure they were losing him. After a horrendous day of waiting and watching, he stabilized. From August 4 to the middle of October, Joshua had one crisis after another. We finally had a funeral for our two boys on October 18 and it was only after that was finished that Joshua seemed to turn a corner and become more stable. From the end of October through Christmas, we focused primarily on weaning him off oxygen and starting the feeding process. By Christmas, it was clear that we were going to have to place a g-tube so we could start planning to bring him home. He had g-tube surgery on January 7, and we went home on January 14, 2015.
Joshua is now two years old and we consider ourselves extremely blessed by his positive outcomes. He spent 163 days in the Blank NICU. He currently sees various doctors and specialists to help continue in his growth and development. Joshua still uses his g-tube for nutrition and fluids. Overall, however, he is a thriving, beautiful toddler. If you didn’t already know his story, you might not ever guess the complexity of his medical history.
Our experience in the NICU forever changed who we are as individuals and as a family. We are passionate about the work that happens there and we would love to support any organization that is working to help prevent our experience from happening to anyone else.
We thank you in advance for your generous support to this year's Signature Chefs Auction. Our hope is that one day every baby will be born healthy!