At only 21 weeks along I started having awful stomach pains, which landed me in the hospital. It was there that they told me I was suffering from an infection and was dilated to a 1. Terrified doesn’t begin to describe how I felt in that moment. Luckily, they were able to stop the contractions, and I went home under strict bed rest. I am extremely stubborn and do not like resting, so this was a major challenge for me, but I did my best. Just before week 23 I started experiencing the same awful pains so back to the hospital I went. This time I did not get to leave. I was dilated to a 2, so they started me on magnesium for several days in an effort to stop my labor. On October 1, 2013, after 9 days in labor and hearing over and over that my baby’s chance of survival was slim to none, Talyon Lee Smith was born at 24 weeks (keep in mind that 39-40 weeks is full-term). He weighed only 1 lb. 12 oz. and was the most fragile human being I had ever seen. At the same time, he was beyond perfect and beautiful. He was too delicate to handle beyond what the nurses and doctors had to do to care for him, so it was eleven days into his NICU stay before I was finally allowed to hold my precious baby. This is an indescribable feeling to a new momma,especially under these circumstances. Our biggest problem was his lungs so we did lots of surfactant therapy. We are grateful to the March of Dimes for the availability of a NICU in the first place and for the surfactant therapy that allowed little Talyon’s premature lungs to function. He had several heart murmurs, but the holes were able to close on their own. After a long and exhausting 122 days in the NICU we got to bring our boy home. We were fortunate that he didn’t have more long-term issues. He came home on a breathing monitor because he would “forget” to breathe while he slept for the first couple of months, and due to him being in the NICU for so long and the way he was positioned he was very bowlegged. We did a full year of outpatient physical therapy at BSA to get it corrected. He is now a happy, healthy, and beyond rotten big boy. He is obsessed with dirt bikes, monster trucks, and anything else that goes fast. You can only imagine how spoiled he is. We fully support the March of Dimes and their continued efforts to prevent preterm labor and develop life-saving interventions for mothers and babies so that other families will not have to go through what we did. If it were not for their knowledge, research, and critical interventions Talyon would not be the healthy child he is today.