This is a story about my precious son. After two years of trying to conceive, my husband and I finally found out we were pregnant last August. I was so overjoyed that I was finally going to become a mom. The pregnancy was a little rough, but my little guy hung on and I soared through my trimesters. I thought once I hit my third trimester it was smooth sailing and I couldn't have been more wrong. I had developed high blood pressure in my second trimester and by the time I hit 28 weeks, I was hospitalized with severe toxemia. Doctors gave me steroids to strengthen the baby's lungs and other vital organs and hoped I would hang on just a little bit longer. On Monday, January 27, 2003 at 5:38pm my son entered the world by emergency c-section at 30 weeks. Reilly Joseph weighed 1lb, 13oz and was 13 1/2 inches long. He had strawberry blond curly hair and the pinkest skin. Like every mother says, he was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen.

Reilly was a fighter, and there was no way I was going to lose this little guy after everything we had gone through. Even though Reilly was breathing on his own, he was struggling, so doctors inserted a breathing tube and gave him surfactant. By the next morning the doctors pulled the tubes and put him on C-Pap. Reilly was surpassing everyone's expectations and was doing exceptionally well. Later that week Reilly came off the C-Pap and was on regular oxygen. We began feeding him 10 cc's of breast milk every three hours, and he tolerated the milk great. By day 13, Reilly was up to 2.4 lbs, was breathing on his own and all his scans came back normal. My son was going to make it!

On February 9th after we had given Reilly his 5:30 pm feeding, Reilly started screaming. He kept lifting his little legs like he had gas. We called the NICU nurse over because we couldn't calm him down, and she immediately called the doctor. After a series of tests and x-rays we were told that Reilly had developed NEC(necrotizing entercolitis). Doctors told my husband and I that they thought they had caught it in time. They started antibiotics and said that Reilly should come through this, but they wanted to transfer him to a more advanced NICU. At 1:30 am on February 10th Reilly was transferred to Yale - New Haven Children's Hospital. The next time we saw Reilly was at 3:30 am, and he was taking a turn for the worse. Surgeons decided to operate on Reilly, and later that morning we were kissing him goodbye as they wheeled him into the OR. They removed 90% of his bowel and told us it didn't look good. We knew at this point that we were losing our little boy. On Monday February 10th 2003 at 1:18 pm Reilly took his last breath in my arms. My husband and I buried him on Valentine's Day.

Although this has been the toughest thing my husband and I ever had to go through, we are trying to pull good things out of his death. We and 22 other people walked in Reilly's honor during March of Dimes WalkAmerica and raised over $1000. We are such strong supporters of the March of Dimes and without the advancements they have made, I would not have had the best two weeks of my life!

Karen and Joe of Connecticut