Hi everyone, I am Melissa and I blog over at Two Miracles. I first want to say thank you to Kaitlyn for this opportunity. After our adventure back in 2009, I have always been looking for ways to share my story so I can help others that have or will go through the things that we experienced.In January of 2009, Matt and I found out we were going to be parents :). We were so excited, yet nervous at the same time. In February, we went in for our first appointment where we actually heard the heartbeat. They thought I was further along than their original prediction, so they sent me for an ultrasound. This made me happy beyond words because it would have been so long before we would have gotten our first ultrasound and here we were at about week 11 getting to see our baby. We went in for the ultrasound and found out ...... we were expecting TWINS! Matt and I were a little shocked, but not really, because twins runs every other generation in my family and about every generation in Matt's.
My pregnancy was going great, I never had the morning sickness, but was always tired. I worked a 6:30-3 job, so I went in, worked, and then came home and pretty much slept until the next day when I got up for work. I was growing on track and went in for one of my routine doctors visits when they decided it was time to start steroid shots because they knew that I would deliver early since we were having twins. I went to the hospital for the steroid shot on Thursday and wound up getting sick. I was so scared that something was going wrong and the nurse and doctor just assured me that everything was fine - they just wanted to monitor me for precautionary reasons.
Friday morning I woke up having contractions 5 minutes apart. I was hooked up to a monitor and honestly, couldn't even feel the contractions and didn't really start to freak out until all the doctors and nurses did. I was put on medicine and my contractions slowed. Saturday night my mom and MIL were about to leave the hospital and my mom asked me If I wanted her to stay. I started crying and told her that I knew something was wrong, that I just didn't feel right, but told her to go home and get some rest, that I would be fine and if anything happened I would call her right away. That day they took an x-ray and discovered I was developing pneumonia. Once they figured this out, I had to do 2 hours on antibiotics and then 2 hours on the medicine to slow my contractions. When I woke up Sunday morning, I was feeling very hard contractions. I was freaking out and didn't really know what was going on because I was on so many medications that I couldn't really get a grasp on what was happening. That Sunday around 11, I took a short ambulance ride to the next nearest hospital with a NICU. I was only 26 weeks pregnant and at 12:00pm I delivered my first baby girl, Kendall Nicole, who weighed 1 pound 4 ounces and was 12.5 inches long. At 12:01pm Brooklynn Ava was born at 2 pounds 7 ounces and was 13 3/4 inches long.Then came the hard part - I was given a blood thinner that morning, so I had to be put to sleep for my delivery. No one was allowed in the room and I had no clue that I even gave birth. I was a bag full of emotions. I didn't get to scream and squeeze Matt's hand during delivery, I didn't get to put my babies on my chest right when they were born, I didn't get to hear them cry for the first time, and worst of all I didn't even get to hold my babies for 2.5 more months. After the delivery, things got even more crazy because we were going to be spending all of our extra time at the hospital.
Brooke came home 3 months later, on her due date. Kendall was a completely different story. She spent the first 11 months of her life in the NICU between two hospitals. All before the age of 1, Kendall had gone through several blood transfusions, 3 broken bones, and 6 surgeries (2 heart, 3 stomach, and 1 eyes). Kendall spent her first Halloween and Christmas in the hospital. The hardest part was that we were unable to bring Brooke to the hospital with us, so we only got to see Kendall about once a week.
We tried to get up there as much as we could and spend as much time as possible. At this point, I had an entire different set of emotions. I was angry, frustrated, sad, hurt, scared, etc. Every emotion you can think of, I was going through. I wanted my baby girl to be okay and to come home to be with her family. After 11 long months of 2 hour hospital visits, we finally got to bring our baby girl home. We were so excited that she could finally be with her sister. I'll never forget the first day we brought Kendall home and we laid the girls down next to each other and they just turned right to each other and stared. I, of course, cried.
Today, the girls are healthy, happy 4 year olds. They will be 5 in May and starting Kindergarten next year. Brooke has no set backs or delays, and is right on track for normal milestones. Kendall has a few delays, but for the most part, is right on track. She was diagnosed with BPD, which is a long medical term for chronic lung disease. It is something we deal with and no one would even know she has it until winter hits. She usually gets hospitalized for about a week. Other than that, the girls are going strong and crazy as ever.
Thank you all for reading my story and I hope that if any of you have questions or want to share your story that you will. I love hearing stories of people who have been through the same or similar things we have.
