Summering at Norton's

This year we decided rather than summer at the Hamptons we'd get a nice little unit downtown in the city. Starting June 7, when Baby "B", our little girl, broke her amniotic sac, we were full time tenants in the ante-partum unit of Norton hospital.  We spent 10 days in a luxurious hospital room where I was showered with gifts and had several visitors. The morning of June 17th we were literally kicked out of our summer residence by an impatient little girl named Clara. She insisted on joining the party before we were ready. Clara Marie was born in less than 30 minutes. She was breech but that did not stop her from being delivered naturally . . . and I mean NATURALLY - no medicine! Then her brother, John Wilson, decided he would chill in the womb and throw a few contractions until the doctors decided it was too risky for him to be left alone. He was breech too. Thankfully he was not in a rush like his sister and was delivered via a c-section. Yep, I'm the "freak" who has both deliveries. In case you were wondering, I prefer the c-section during the delivery process but the recovery from the natural is a lot easier long term. After the delivery we were moved to the post-partum unit with much less space!

I was 26 weeks and 1 day into my pregnancy when Clara and Wilson were born. We are confident the 10 days they stayed in utero after my water broke significantly improved their chances!  They are now on day 4 of life and so far they are both doing very well. Wilson is doing better than Clara but that is not surprising since he weighed more at birth and his amniotic sac was fine. Both are breathing on nasal cannulas (which is the best possible breathing option) but we expect they will get tired and have to go on the ventilator at some point (although, Wilson has not been on a ventilator, which is unusual for a 26 weeker). The doctors have been very clear that this is a roller coaster ride; we will have good days and bad days. We'll take two steps forward and one step back. They will be in the NICU until at least September 22 - their due date, so we have a long road ahead of us!

Today was a good day. I got to go home from the hospital and Wilson started feeding. However, he is only 1/5 tsp. of breast milk every 8 hours! I got to hold him twice (they call this kangarooing) which was the highlight of my day. Clara is breathing really well and the hole in her heart that closes in most newborns at birth, is closed!!!! I will most likely get to hold Clara tomorrow. It is also amazing that we are already to getting to know their personalities! Every nurse who has Clara uses "feisty" to describe her. All of Wilson's nurses say he is loud when he wants something (did you know at 26 weeks they cry?! - I didn't) but overall he is a really "good boy".

Tomorrow is the first of many critical tests - they each get a brain scan. This scan will let us know how much bleeding is on their brain. They measure this in "grades". Grade 1 is minor and grade 4 can be fatal. We'll continue to update the blog so people who want information can stay up-to-date.

As you can tell from the tone of this post, we are in good spirits and have a lot of faith and hope this will all turn out okay. The unbelievable support for our friends, family, co-workers, church groups and even strangers helps us keep our spirits high. We have our down times too; this is the hardest thing we've ever been through - emotionally and physically. Spending 14 days lying in a hospital bed hoping every minute that two little people make it to see the next day really made me appreciate life. Thank you for enriching ours.

Until tomorrow - 

Chris and Morgan 
Here is a picture of Wilson's hand from today!