It all started innocuously at our 7 week prenatal visit. Mary and I had gone in for our first ultrasound. It was exciting times. We knew Mary was pregnant and it was a long time coming. The doctor comes in does a quick ultrasound, not saying much. At the end, she says the babies are doing great, we'll see you in three weeks. Mary and I look at each other and almost simultaneously say "babies". In stunned silence, we leave the doctor's office, get in our cars and go to work. As I'm sitting at work for the 1st three hours staring out my window thinking what could the doctor have possibly meant by "babies", Mary calls confirming what I had thought--we were having twins.
It was great for the next three weeks, then the trials and tribulations began.
At 10 weeks, Mary had emergency surgery after collapsing at work with internal bleeding
At 22 weeks, Mary went on bedrest
At 25 weeks Mary went to the hospital in pre-term labor
At 34 weeks and 63 days later Mary came home from the hospital
At 36 weeks Mary delivered Ella then Jack at St. Peter's University Hospital, New Brunswick, NJ
4 days later, Ella and Jack come home from the hospital with Mom and Dad
Then the fun began...
Mary was in the hospital for 63 days, beginning May 22nd, with her leaving the hospital July 22nd. During her 63 day stay, we created a calender so I could cross out every day she made it. As you can see, on the right in blue are numbers that correspond to what gestation week Mary was in. Because of her high risk pregnancy, our goal was 27 weeks, but as you can see she went home at 34 weeks and only delivered in the 36th week. Long hospital stay, but worth it.
Before our twins were born, on our refrigerator was a white board (as seen in picture). If you have children you will know that where ever you are, someone is giving you advise on what to name your kids. So every time Mary or I had a name thrown at us, we put that name on the board. the good ones we circled, but no matter how ludicrous, we still put them on the board. Its fun to look back, and so will the kids at what there names could have been.
