Savannah's 1st Birthday!

Happy Birthday my Sweet Girl!!!  This is Savannah Bear that we made at Build a Bear today for our sweet girl!!! I hope she loves it!

Our Random Act of Kindness today in honor of Savannah is we bought a 10 dollar gift card at Build a Bear to be used for the next customer that came into the store!  What was yours??
I want to thank everyone for all the wonderful gifts, flowers, cards, donations and kind words in the last few days for Savannah's birthday! We are so blessed to have so many great people in our life. Although it is still hard that she is not here with us it helps so much that we have such great support. You all make Savannah so proud!

Happy 1st Birthday Savannah 2/27

Happy 1st Birthday Savannah!!! Mommy and Daddy love you!!!

 

In Honor of Savannah today we ask everyone to do a Random Act of Kindness! We will have Savannah smiling ear to ear if we do!

 

My First Birthday in Heaven

Calling all the angels--
It's a special day today!
For Savannah is turning one year old!
Here's what she has to say:

"Mommy, please dry all your tears;
I know you miss me so.
And if it had been up to me,
I'd never have chosen to go."

"For I knew that you would miss me
And the things that we could do,
And I wish I could have stayed on earth
And lived down there with you."

"But, Mommy, now I'm well and whole;
I sing and play all day
With all the angel boys and girls
Who've come to heaven to stay."

"Lord Jesus holds us in His arms
And tells us of His love;
He knew that we were hurting--
That's why we came above."


"I love you, Mommy, every day;
I send you kisses, too.
And some day you will join me here
And I'll always be with you."

"I've got to go--the party's on!
We'll sing and dance and play.
But I am always in your heart
And never far away."

"Please find a way to celebrate,
Even if you cry;
Perhaps you'll send me some balloons
Soaring to the sky."

"And I will know they came from you,
And I'll be flying near.
I send you love and kisses, too.
I love you, Mommy, dear."
(Saralyn McAfee Smith)

 

 

 

 

 

Savannah's First Birthday Party!

We had Savannah's first birthday party yesterday!

 Even though her actual birthday is not until Wednesday I wanted to get our immediate family over to celebrate with us! Although Savannah is in Heaven I still love doing things for her that we would have been doing if she were here with us.  She deserves a first birthday party too.  Happy birthday my sweet girl. I love you!

 

Savannah's Memorial Table

 

 

Pretty cupcakes for my pretty girl

 

We also had a balloon launch!  12 balloons this time- one for each month!  Just like at 6 months I put one of my Sweet Savannah Knits cards and wrote a message on each balloon in hopes someone would find one and contact us.  Wellllll someone did!!! I received an email last night from a lady who found one of the balloons floating in her front yard. Savannah has touched another person! This family lives near the Indiana/Ohio border so that balloon traveled far and fast.  The amazing part of this is that the lady who found the balloon's name is Faith and her daughter's name is Eaven (Heaven spelled without the H). Amazing! I truly believe that Savannah carefully picks who she drops her balloons to. Not only has she touched this family but she has given me a message. To have FAITH and that she is in HEAVEN! Thank you Savannah! You make your mommy so happy and help so much with my grieving.    Thank you Faith for sending me a message. I hope my girl brings good to you and your family!

 

~I hope you had fun with your birthday balloons Savannah~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such a loved baby girl

 

 I was very saddened on Saturday as I received the sad news that one of the beautiful baby boys that I sent a hat/bootie set to has grown his angel wings. After I received the email I had to take a few minutes to grieve for him. I feel so heart broken for his parents and family because I remember so well how much the raw pain hurts. I still, of course, am grieving over Savannah but the pain is not as bad as it was.  I pray this family can find peace.  I know it sounds silly but for some reason I feel like with sending the parents of the NICU babies a gift I'm protecting these babies.  This was a reminder to me that I can not save the tiny babies just like I could not save Savannah. It is all in God's hands. My heart is heavy for them and I hope they know  that so many people are thinking and praying for them.

 

Today I completed a little pink and white pom hat for a 2lbs 13oz baby girl from California!!! They were shipped today so she should expect to see them on Wednesday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful Preemie Twins In Their Hats/Booties!!

This past week has been great for Sweet Savannah Knits! I completed and mailed out 3 preemie hat orders!! The first one was for the twin boys that I wrote about in my last post- their Mommy received them yesterday! The second one was for a cute little boy weighing about 2 pounds. I sent him a little brown bear hat!  And the third one was for a precious little girl Lily who was born weighing less then a pound and is now over 7 pounds! Amazing.  Since going public with my website I have received 9 preemie hat and bootie requests!! Two of which were sets of twins so that is 11 tiny babies who will have warm heads and toes!!   This week coming up I will have 3 more sets mailed out!!  Here is a bunny set ready to be mailed out:

I'm so excited because I got to see two beautiful twin girls wearing their hats and booties!! Their Mommy made a facebook page for them to keep everyone posted and so everyone can pray for them. She posts the most adorable pictures of them. They are just so cute and so perfect. Everyone please say a prayer for them!! Here is a picture of these tiny miracles wearing their Sweet Savannah Knits hats and booties. They are still a little big but they will grow into them  = )  I hope these brought a smile to their parents faces and reminds them that others are thinking about them!

 

 I AGAIN want to thank EVERYONE who has donated and helped with Sweet Savannah Knits! Like I've said before I was not sure where it would go but I've gotten so many requests and people have been sharing my page. I'm thrilled to know that Savannah is touching so many lives.  I love and miss you so much sweet girl. There isn't a moment that I don't think about you...

 

The big excitement in the Dussman household is that our new couches came on Tuesday!!! Yes, many of you are saying finally because it feels like forever that we ordered them. Well they are finally here and we love them! Whatcha think??

 

 

Of course Dakota had to be in the picture = )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hoppin down the bunny trail.....

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! I know I did! Scottie boy got me flowers and cooked me an amazing dinner. Steak! Yum! Just staying home and spending time with him is all I need. I'm one lucky lady!

This past week I have been working on two Bunny hat and bootie sets for a set of boy preemie twins in Washington!!! These little cuties were born at 31 weeks weighing in at around 3 pounds each!!! Their Mommy wanted the bunny hats for Easter this year. They will look so cute!!  I had to giggle at myself because this morning I went to the post office, first thing, to get this package in the mail. I was excited!  I actually stood in line (by myself) waiting for the post office to open. It was about 8:27am (they open at 8:30am). I was wondering why I was the only one in there when it dawned on me. It's Presidents day and they are closed. DARN!!! So these little cuties will have to wait one more day but that's OK as their Mommy wants them to wear them at Easter which is still a few weeks away! Check them out:

 

This morning I woke up to 7 emails in my Sweet Savannah Knits account! I received 4 more hat/bootie requests for special preemies. Awesome! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I feel so blessed and happy that so many people are finding my site. I've gotten such great feed back and response and I'm loving it! I love that Savannah's story is touching others. I've received many emails from people who just want to tell me how touched they were by reading her story. It melts my heart!!  I've also received a few emails from Mommies who also had babies with Triploidy. It is such a rare disorder that it's actually amazing to connect with others who went through the same experience. We are not alone in this! Thank you to those who have contacted me!

 

This past week I also finished knitting up a sweater and head band for my fellow SHARE friend who is expecting a little girl in May!! I'm so happy for them as they have been though a lot just like Scott and I.   I just think the sweater is adorable, if I do say so myself haha!!

 

 

 

 

I want to thank those of you who have donated to Team Sweet Savannah Rae for the March for Babies walk! I'm so touched and know that your money is going to a fantastic cause!!!

 

Well that is all for now!  Talk to you all soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March for Babies

Hello there!!  Yesterday while I was sitting at work with Scott I decided to browse around on the March of Dimes website.  As I was browsing around I noticed that the March for Babies is going to be on April 28th at the River Walk in Naperville!! I immediately registered and started our team.  Team Sweet Savannah Rae!!!! You can join our team or donate by going to http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t2028139 . March of Dimes is an incredible foundation that was started 75 years ago!  They are truly amazing all the work and research they have done.  I am now so passionate about them because they focus a lot on premature birth and birth defects. Both of which Savannah had.  Also, my big, tall, handsome hubby was a preemie himself weighing only around 3 pounds when he was born!! I'm sure all the research March of Dimes has done has played a part in Scott being so healthy today!  Check out this video for some background info on the March of Dimes:

 

I received another preemie hat request on Monday!! This baby girl was born in December weighing in a 1 pound and 11 ounces. She currently weighs 3 pounds and 1 ounce!!! Way to go little cutie! Such a fighter! I sent her one of the pink and white stripe double pom pom hats with pink booties. = )

 

I also added an EASTER hat option to my website for the preemies!! I decided that a few holidays a year I would offer a special hat.  I made these super cute soft baby bunny hats. I just love them!   Everyone please spread the word on my website whether it be through facebook, twitter or just telling people about it!! Thanks!!

 

Hop Hop Hop!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Couple Helping Hands

Had a great weekend!!! On Saturday I went to my Mom's house and we went out to lunch for my birthday. Then, when we got back we worked on the Teeny Tear DIAPERS!!!  We traced and cut and cut and cut and cut and cut and cut and then cut some more. Lots and Lots of fabric!!! I have a lot of sewing to do. Thank you so much to my sis and my Mom for helping. It means a lot to me! It has helped so much and I will be able to get this donation out quicker. Here we are cutting away:

 

 

 

 

Look at all this fabric we cut. Holy Moly!

 

 

 

Today was Anna's baby shower!!! So happy for you Anna and Chris and I hope you love all your knitted goodies from me! Here she is holding up the baby sweater I made for Baby Stroh:

 

 

And a BIG congrats to my friends Katie and Andre on their new baby boy Colton! He was born yesterday and is so adorable!!! He even wore a couple of my hats for his first photo shoot. I can't wait to see them!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hats For Three Special Preemies

I'm so thrilled to announce that I received two more preemie hat and bootie set requests this week!! The first request came from a Mommy in Louisiana who had twin girls at 25 weeks gestation. They were born 3 weeks ago and  weigh 1 pound 7 ounces and the other is 1 pound 8 ounces. What tiny beautiful miracles!! They are the same size as Savannah when she was born.  I can't wait for them to put on their little hats and booties!!! The pictures don't do these tiny hats justice. They are super cute!  Here they are:

 

 

All wrapped up and ready to ship 

 

The second preemie hat request comes from a Mommy in Kentucky!  She had her little bundle of joy at 31 weeks and 1 day gestation in January. He weighed 2 pounds and 14 ounces at birth and  he currently is 3 pounds and 11 ounces! Way to go baby boy!!! He is doing great and they expect to be able to bring him home in March, his due date month.  She wanted the little brown bear hat with booties. Here they are:

 

 

 

I can not wait until these babies receive their packages in the mail! They should both receive them on Monday.  When making Sweet Savannah Knits website I really had no idea what would come of it. I am so thrilled that NICU Mommies and Daddies are finding my website and ordering hats. It's a small thing but I hope it brings moments of joy seeing their tiny babies looking so cute. The Mommy from Louisiana with the twins stated that she could not find anything at the stores to fit her babies. I hope the tiny hats fit perfect!!

 

I, again, want to thank those who donated in the past week.  Your donations are helping tremendously.  Without you guys I would not be able to support doing this. I feel so blessed to be able to send these babies a gift in the mail at no charge to their parents.  I also want to thank one of my best friends Lisa for helping spread the word about my website and ways others can help the tiny babies. It means a lot Lisa- Thank You!

 

And an update on the Easter/Spring donation to The Preemie Project-  7 hats and counting. If anyone has any cute Easter/Spring knit hat patterns please send them my way!

 

 

This past year Scott and I attended A Walk To Remember through SHARE. Sooo many of our family and friends came to support us. It was amazing (despite the rain)!!  A couple of the ladies who have been helping run the walk for many years, since it started, have decided it's time to step down. They are looking for new people to help run the walk this and the following years.  Well.... Scott and I volunteered! I'm very excited as I decided since last years walk that I wanted to help out the following years.  So I'm happy to announce that we will be on the Walk committee! Yaa!! It's just another way I can honor my sweet baby and all the babies gone too soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Savannah's First Gift!

One of my main purposes of making the Sweet Savannah Knits website was to be able to reach out to others and provide tiny hats for the NICU babies. Well I got my first request last night!  This tiny miracle was born 3 1/2 months early and weighed only 1 pound and 12 ounces. Only a few hours later she dropped down to 1 pound and 4 ounces. Super tiny!  That is almost exactly how small Savannah was when she was born. Savannah was 1 pound and 9 ounces. So I can completely relate and know how it feels to meet your baby for the first time as a micro preemie.  This little sweetie is coming home from the hospital in just a few days weighing almost 15 pounds! Way to go baby girl!!! What a little fighter you are!!!  These tiny babies are most definitely the strongest of us all.  They are born into this world immediately having to fight for their life. Some of them don't make it and some of them do but they are ALL my heroes! They are so tiny and fragile but so strong. 

A friend of a friend requested the little hat and stated that the parents never got a hat for their tiny baby and said it would mean so much to them to have one. I'm hoping to get the name of the hospital. It sounds like they need a hat donation!   Since the baby girl is now 15 pounds and going home soon I decided I would make her two hats exactly the same. Only one will be made to fit the baby when she was 1 pound 4 ounces and another one that will fit her now (look at the difference in size! Wow did she grow!!).  This way her Mommy and Daddy can look back at it in the future and remember how tiny their little girl was at one time.  It can be used as a reminder, well they probably don't need to be reminded but maybe just as a reflection, of how far their baby girl has come. I want them to look back at the tiny hat and feel blessed and know how much of a miracle their baby truly is.  So to the parents of this baby girl, if you are reading this, I want you to know that your baby has been touched by an angel and those hats were made for you with the most love!!

 

 

Thanks for the cute teddy bear Lisa!

 

                                     

 

We are a few days into February now , Savannah's birth month, and I've been thinking a lot. I have been thinking about how February is always going to be a month of reflection and reminders. It will be a month that will remind me to be thankful for what I do have- family, friends, my husband. It will also be a month that reminds me that not all lives are long. Some end way before they are supposed to. This reminds me to enjoy the days I do have and cherish what I have.  This month reminds me that there is so much sadness and heartbreak in life but there is also a lot of happiness and joy. You can't have one without the other.  Grief and sadness can strengthen you but it can also crumble you.  This month I will always reflect on the lessons Savannah has taught me and how she has changed my perspective. I'm sure as the years go on I will react or handle situations differently because of her. I will continue to find other lessons she has taught me that I don't even realize now.  Although I'm able to see the positives, I most definitely am still in pain. I still have moments when I want to scream, "why my baby, why me?"  Why did God think that I was strong enough for this?  Why was my little girl deprived of a long happy life? Unfortunately, I will never know these answers.  This will always be a month that I miss my sweet Savannah so much.

 

But all I can do is keep moving forward.....

 

 

 

 

 

Snow Day and Dakota!

I was excited when I woke up this morning to see we had more snow! Enough to bring Dakota out to play in it. She LOVES the snow! I know I usually write about knitting and sewing on this blog but I got some really cute shots of crazy Dakota that I had to share.  Poor little Dakota was at the vet yesterday because of her horrible allergies so we wanted to take her out for some fun. No worries though because the doc put her on steroids. Hopefully this cures her itchiness.  Enjoy her cuteness!!

Best Friends

 

                                                
                                                                           Footprints

 

Playing Frisbee

 

Smile

 

Good Catch

 

I hope everyone has a fun and safe super bowl today!!!

 

 

 

 

                      

 

 

Savannah's birth month

February is here.  I can't believe that it is Savannah's birth month today. In 27 days it will be one year since my sweet angel was born. I've been starting to have a hard time thinking about what I was doing at this time last year. I was so oblivious to anything being wrong. I was that blissful pregnant lady walking around and all I could think about was meeting my baby in a few months. Little did I know I'd meet her just a few weeks later.  Last year Scott and I went to White Castle for Valentine's Day (it was actually fun haha) and I keep replaying that night in my head. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's that I want to feel how I felt that day again, so excited for the baby.  Or it's just that I keep thinking about what it felt like to have not experienced losing a baby. When I see pictures of Scott and I before Savannah was born it's hard to imagine what life was like then. My life is so completely different now.  For Savannah's birthday we are having a little birthday party for her. It's just going to be our immediate family and a couple days before her actually birthday. I want to do another balloon launch (maybe another person will find one of her balloons- speaking of that I still write back and forth with the family that found her 6 month balloon. Such a great family!)  Her actual birthday Scott and I will do something with just the three of us. I'm not sure what yet but something special. 

Lately I have been going to work with Scott on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's been good to get out of the house a couple days and week and help out good old Reliable Wire. On Tuesday we brought in Chinese food for dinner (to lazy to cook when we got home) and here is the fortune Scott got in his fortune cookie. It's a little hard to read in the picture so what it said is " The current year will bring you much happiness.  Learn chinese: Child"

I couldn't believe it!! The "learn chinese" word is CHILD!!!  I hope and pray that this little fortune cookie fortune is telling the truth. I pray that God will give Scott and I another healthy child everyday. This has to be our year right?

This past week I have been very busy with all my knitting and sewing!  I want to thank the two people who requested little hats for that special baby in their life. Your donations will go a long way!!! And to everyone else if you or you know someone who has or is going to have a baby please request  a knit from me!!! I do charge a donation for them which covers the cost of yarn and shipping but all proceeds goes directly back to purchasing yarn/fabric for donations to the NICUs. So not only are you getting a cute knit you are also donating to a great cause!  And of course THANK YOU again to all that have donated on the website!!!!   Here are my first two orders ready to ship out:

 

 

I also mailed out a blanket and hat to my Mom's good friend in Texas. The set is for her new granddaughter.  I was very excited as after receiving the blanket she checked out my website, read Savannah's story and was inspired to start helping babies too!!! This is one of the main reasons as to why I'm doing this! Thank you Marianne!!!

 

 

 

Another project I completed this week is a baby sweater!!! I have been wanting to give this a try for a while now but for some reason was scared  thinking it was going to be  hard. It really wasn't! I made this super cute sweater for my friend Anna's baby shower in a week. Anna hopefully you have not discovered this blog yet as I've kept it from you so you didn't see all the stuff I've made you haha! You'll know about it after the shower I promise! Here is the little sweater:

 

 

 

The Preemie Project wrote on their facebook page the other day that they are in need of blankets for the NICUs asap. She stated that the demand is so high for blankets that they simply can not keep up.  So what did I do?? I went straight to the fabric store and bought fabric (with your generous donations!) and whipped up a couple blankets!!! This is my VERY first time sewing a blanket but I think I did a pretty good job. This was a pretty simple pattern as I just sewed the right sides together and flipped it inside out and then sewed the seam. As I get better sewing I'll be able to make more and faster. Per the Preemie Project they request blankets to be at least 30 in by 30 in as they use them to cover the isolettes to block the light for babies under 34 weeks. If anyone knows how to knit/crochet/sew they are always looking for blankets. And not just The Preemie Project but other hospitals as well. When Savannah was in the NICU they gave us a light pink knitted blanket. This blanket was used to wrap her up when we finally got to holder her so we will cherish it always. Thank you so much to whoever made this VERY special blanket!!! I'm sure these will go to a family who will cherish them as well.  And here they are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And they are packaged and shipped out. They will receive them on Monday!!

 

 

And like always I'm working on the Easter/Spring donation and the tiny diapers. I'm making a little progress (6 hats, 22 diapers):

 

Another Easter Hat

 

Stack of diapers so far

 

And that's all for now!! Keep checking back!