Today is a big deal because I hit the 23 week mark!!
No, that's not the number of weeks on the Bestseller list. (Someday...someday...) It's the age of my sweet twin boys yet to be born. A month ago I was happily growing bigger and older with few worries beyond the start of the school year and whether we could we sneak in a few more trips to the pool before summer ended.
Then the unimaginable happened. My water broke. And the miracles began. Instead of going into labor my body held on, refusing to give in. Didn't know that was possible. The not laboring part. I'd like to think of myself as a fighter, after all. :)
And indeed the battle began. We had to make it to 23 weeks before the doctors could do anything more for the babies. So the remainder of my summer consisted of bed rest, machines, and doctors galore. Then the other sac broke. On the first day of school. Last year a school bus ran into our car parked on the street. This year? Yeah...not a big fan of the first day of school these days. :) But older kids got little ones out the door AND managed to take the traditional first day pictures. Have I mentioned how much my children rock? Yup. They're awesome.
We were admitted to the hospital full time for watchful care. And boy do wonderful nurses and doctors make all the difference. A few scary nights were smoothed over because of their vigilance. And looking back, I can honestly say I didn't mind my time here. I was well taken care of, as was my family at home. The amount of people pulling for our family has left me in utter awe. To give you an idea, my husband bought me a box of thank you cards so I could use my hospital stay(and boredom) to thank everyone. One day he said, I think you need another box.
Yup. And here we are. My birthday became something more to look forward to this year. It was a chance at life and birth for our boys. I've never been so excited to turn another year older. It holds a special place in my heart for the miracles it has given me. Not that we're out of the woods, but this was the first milestone. Now onto the next. A new hospital, special doctors, and a hope for more weeks of rest and writing out thank you cards.
Some have suggested there may be a story in this. Hmmmm...you never know. Life is full of surprises. And miracles.
