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.
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.