November 5th, 2007...

started out like any other day last year. I got up and got ready for work. Waited for Justin to get ready for work and we headed out the door together. We were sharing a car and everyday he dropped me off at work and picked me up after he got off work. I was 27 weeks pregnant and was very uncomfortable and tired- yet I was still working 10 hour days at the preschool. Justin dropped me off that morning and everything was normal. He said he might be a little late picking me up that night, but I was used to him picking me up after everyone at my work had already gone home. All day at work, nothing out of the ordinary happened and when 6 o'clock rolled around, I was tired and ready to go home. Another co-worker offered to stay with me until Justin came to get me, but I told her I was fine and to go ahead and go home. I knew there was no telling what time Justin would be there. After sitting at the receptionist's desk for a while, I decided that I should go and use the restroom. As soon as I sat down, there was a big rush of blood. I was absoulutly terrified. I sat there, panicked. No one else but the janitor was in the whole building and I was stuck in the bathroom, on the bottom floor. I sat there a minute, trying to think of the best thing to do. I grabbed my cell phone (which luckily I had taken my purse in the bathroom with me) and tried to call Justin at work. He didn't have a cell phone and no one was answering at his work number. He must have left already. I hung up and decided to call my mom. She had Mondays off and I knew she was home. I called and she didn't really know what to do either. She told me to call an ambulance. I was so scared, and she said that she and my dad would come and get me and take me to the hospital. They only lived about 7 minutes away from where I worked. I sat in the bathroom a little while longer, praying for the bleeding to stop. It slowed down, but didn't stop. I decided that I would go outside and wait for my mom and dad to get there. When I got outside, it was starting to get dark. It was probably getting close to 7 o'clock by then and there was not one car in sight. Time seems to creep by so slowly when you are in desperate need for it to go by quickly. Finally, my mom and dad pull up and they help me climb into the back seat. Right as my parents are climbing into the truck themselves, Justin pulls up behind them. My mom gets out and ran over to him to tell him to follow us to the hospital.
The ride there didn't go very well either. The hospital I was going to was downtown. There was a lot of construction along the way and let me tell you- my dad is a crazy driver when he is determined to get somewhere! He was going in and out of traffic and as I was laying down in the back seat with my head against the window, I could see orange cones and signs flash by. Oh geeze, all we needed was to get in a wreck! He made it to the hospital in record time, and got there quite a bit before Justin could make it there. We pulled up to the emergency room and my mom helped me out of the car and into a wheelchair that was by the door. As soon as we got inside a security officer wheeled me like crazy down the hall and screamed "HOLD THE DOOR!" at the people in the elevator. My mom, the security guard and I all piled into the already crowded elevator, where we all just sat quietly and listened to the elevator music. It had gone to panicked and frantic, to sitting quietly, listening to the elevator music. Everyone in the elevator looked at me and they all must have thought that I was just going into labor with one baby. I had a big enough belly and we were pretty calm at this point. We got off on the Labor and Delivery floor where a nurse met us there and she took me into a triage room. There were a few other people there, but the room was silent. The nurse helped me change into a gown and climb into bed and afterwards checked on the babies. Justin came in and the nurse said everyone was fine. All heartbeats were normal, but I was having contractions and was 80% effaced. I couldn't even feel them. They decided to admit me and give me some medicine to stop the contractions. By this time the bleeding had pretty much stopped and I felt ok and thought that after the medicine I could go home. That was NOT the case. My Dr. wanted me to stay until I delivered. Which could have been as long as 8 weeks! But unfortantely I wasn't there even half that long. Five days later I celebrated my 23rd birthday in the hospital. It was a pretty good one. Justin was there with me, my family brought me dinner and my friends brought me an ice cream cake (a must-have on my birthday). I was very lonely and sad those 2 weeks. Justin had to go home everynight to sleep and he didn't get off work until late, so we only got to spend an hour or 2 together each night. He would stay all weekend with me and sleep in the chair next to me on the weekend nights. He was the best and I thank him for being there for me when I needed him. Two days after my birthday, November 12th, I started bleeding again. They took me from my room down to L&D where I spent the night in a very hard labor bed (It was not nearly as comfy as the bed in my other room). I was not having contractions, and the bleeding eventually stopped. They babies looked good, so they decided to keep them in. Only 3 days later, on November 15th, the bleeding returned and would not quit. That morning they had woke me up super early to take a gestational diabetes test and right after I finished both bottles of nasty orange liquid, I started bleeding (let me just say, I did not have to finish the GD test.) After about 25 minutes of bleeding, I called Justin and told him to come to the hospital- I also told him to call my mom b/c I was pretty sure this would be it. Justin got there just as they were about to wheel me into an emergency C-section. At first he was going to be allowed to come in, but as they were prepping me, my blood pressure dropped severly because I had lost too much blood. They had to put me to sleep and Justin could not be in the room. My precious babies were born at 8:20 am, 8:21 am and 8:22 am. I woke up in a recovery room with no babies. It was the saddest day of my life. Not knowing if they were ok, or where they were. Justin was with them in the NICU and he brought over pictures of them for me to look at. There was a lot of my family in the recovery room with me. My mom and dad, my grandma, my brother and his wife, my aunts and Justin's mom, dad and sister. I was given 2 blood transfusions and was not feeling well. I laid in that room and cried. I needed to see for my self it my babies were ok. It was a long time before I was well enough to go and see them. They wheeled my bed into the NICU and I saw tiny 2 lbs 15 oz Justin. I instantly fell in love. Next to him was little 3 lbs 1 oz Ayva and my heart grew and I fell in love with her also. And lastly , was my first born, little 3 lbs 1 oz Anna and wouldn't you know it, my heart grew even more and I fell in love with her also.

My three sweet, tiny babies. I cannot belive that in 10 short days they will be 1. It is so weird to think back on these days last year because it doesn't even seem like it was that long ago. I will post a birthday blog on Friday (I will probably be too busy on Saturday) and their 1 year appointment is on the 19th- so I will give the stats on them then!

Thanks to everyone who reads this blog, you all are wonderful!