Swappin' Spoons: The Birth of our Twins (Born at 32 Weeks!)

Early Friday morning my husband left for work and I returned to bed. I looked over at the clock and the time was 5:15; I rolled over in bed to try to get my 7 month pregnant self comfortable. I took my husband's pillow and pulled it next to myself, closed my eyes and then it happened--I had to go to the bathroom! I rolled over to get out of bed and realized I was in labor.

Panic immediately set in because it was not anywhere close to the twins' due date---I was two months early. I sat on the bed crying and praying, "Please Lord let my babies be OK." I composed my self and went and checked on our 19 month old, whom was sound asleep, called my husband, called the doctor, called my best friend at the time {Mary P}, called my in laws {aka Mammaw and Pappaw}.

I wasn't really in any pain yet, only my water had broke up to this point-- so I jumped into the shower, my husband made it home while I was in the shower and immediately wanted to know what I was doing! I thought it was kinda obvious, but I went ahead and answered him, "I'm taking a shower." He was in a panic and told me there was no time for a shower and lets go. So I got dressed and we left for the hospital.

As we were getting signed into the hospital, labor came on fast--I was hurting. Trying to sign my name on the dotted line was hard to do during a contraction! We finally got to our room and the doctor was able to run a test on one of the babies' lungs to see is they were developed and thankfully they were. The twins were in two different sacs, and my water had only broken with one of the babies; so the doctor could not tell if the other baby's lungs were developed or not. So they gave me some medicine to stop labor and shot me full of steroids hoping that this would help developed the other baby's lungs if they were not developed.

This was at 7:30AM on Friday morning.

My labor did stop and I actually felt fine other than the worry that loomed in my head.

I could not eat, I could only have water and ice chips or hard candy to suck on---I wasn't really too hungry, or so I thought until our friends Frank and Candy R. came to visit us and brought a gift bag full of butter scotch and peppermints. Best 'food' I have ever eaten!

The hours were passing slowly, we had a lot of visitors and received several phone calls. I felt like I needed to be doing something for my babies { I realize now, I was doing a lot for them by resting and staying off my feet and letting the medicine do its job}.

From 3PM on Friday, we didn't see the doctor again until Sunday at NOON--the nurses would still come in and check on us and change out the IV bag, and the machines that I was hooked up too.

At NOON on Sunday, two doctors came in and things started to move very fast, I was hearing everything that they were saying, but my brain was stuck on their words, "Let's get you ready to meet your Babies!" I'm thinking I am not ready, my babies are not ready IT IS TOO EARLY!

Scared to death for my babies, praying that they would be OK, they wheeled me off to labor and delivery, did a spinal block, preformed a C-Section and at 1:03PM Seth Michael was born and at 1:04 PM Hannah Marie was born.

They both came out crying--joy to my ears!

Because they were early I didn't get to see them right away, the nurses and NICU doctor and nurses were checking them out, so I told my husband to go take their pictures and after a few minutes of him being gone, my husband comes back with a big smile on his face saying that both babies are going to be fine, shortly after that the doctors told me the same thing---MY BABIES ARE OK!"

To me, they were so tiny, but for 2 months early they both weigh a little over 4 pounds each! The doctor was very pleased with their weight.

Even though Seth and and Hannah were born two months early they were healthy for the most part. They had to stay in the NICU for 6 days, just so the doctors could monitor their weight and body temperature. They were a little jaundice and had to be given a little sugar---but they were healthy, they were here, they were ours!