Happy 8th Birthday, Grace and Sarah!!

Tuesday, March 26, 2002
My sleep was fitful, to say the least. I had a very hard time getting any z's, couldn't get comfortable or breathe well, was woken up every couple of hours by nurses drawing blood, and to top it off, I have a doctoral degree in worrying. The day was uneventful, but I was grateful to have my girls still in my belly for another day. Little did I know that later that evening, they would be born, ten weeks too soon.
5:00 pm....Carey arrived from work to be with us. Around that time, my 24-hour urine collection was turned into the lab for testing. All evening, Carey and I hung out, and he gave his best effort into calming my nerves.
10:00 pm...Carey was getting ready to go home for the night. Before he left, he asked the doctors if he would have time to get to the hospital from home or work if the babies were going to be born. The doctors reassured him that yes, he would have time to get there if need be.
10:30 pm...Just as Carey was about to leave, two OB doctors came into my room with very serious looks on their faces. They told Carey to stay because my pre-eclampsia was getting worse, and the safest thing to do "is to deliver the babies now." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I immediately burst into tears, afraid that my girls were not going to survive such a premature birth.
10:45 pm...The anesthesiologist entered and gave me an epidural, and the nurses prepped me for surgery. Next, one of the OB docs brought an ultrasound machine into my room to check the position of both babies.
11:00 pm...I was wheeled into the operating room. I kept my eyes closed the whole time, afraid to look around at all the mass of doctors, both OB and Neonatal, nurses, and who knows who else. I remember telling the doctor that I was very scared of getting cut open....scared that I would feel the knife. He assured me that all would be fine.
11:10 pm....Before the c-section began, everyone was watching my blood pressure increase on the monitor. At one point, it was 220/140. Poor Carey was watching this happen, watching the doctors' concerned looks on their faces, scared that I was going to die on the table along with our girls. He was so tough and remained strong even though he was so fearful on the inside.
11:16 pm...They cut me open, told Carey to stand up so he could see the doctors pull "Baby A" (Grace) out first. Grace made not a whimper, and was rushed off to the NICU and placed on a ventilator.
11:17 pm..."Baby B", Sarah, was pulled out second, and I remember being overjoyed to hear her tiny little cry. The nurses quickly wrapped her up, brought her to me and showed me her tiny face before being taken to her and her sister's temporary home, the NICU, for the following few weeks.

Grace weighed in at a whopping 2 pounds, 14 ounces. A couple of days later, her weight dropped down to 2 pounds, 7 ounces.
Sarah weighed in at a staggering 2 pounds, 15 ounces and dropped to 2 pounds 8 ounces.

Eight years later, you'd never know that Grace and Sarah had such a rough start to life. They are the smartest, healthiest girls, and we are so blessed and lucky to have them in our lives!