Memory Monday - good things come in small packages

(Kimberly and Kaylynn - one week old)

Our twin girls, Kimberly and Kaylynn will turn 7 this week. It is hard to believe that it has been 7 years since they came into our lives.

Unlike Suzanne, we were not trying for a millennial baby. Jordan had just turned a year old in July 1999. It had been a rough year. He had suffered some health problems that had made his first year extremely difficult. That is another post for another day. By the time his birthday rolled around I was feeling confident that I would have more children, just not yet. It is funny how the Lord know us so much better than we do.

In September of that same year I found out I was pregnant. This came as quite a shock because I was on birth contr0l. After we got over the initial shock we were excited to welcome and new little one into our home and into our lives. At 10 weeks, I had my first prenatal appointment. My doctor scheduled an ultrasound for me because he thought I was measuring big based on how far along I was. He just wanted to get a better idea of where I was at in the pregnancy. While sitting in the waiting room prior to my ultrasound I was reading a parenting magazine. I happened upon an article about a woman who had given birth to twins. She apparently was also measuring big at the beginning of her pregnancy and that is when they found out they were having twins. I thought, "Hmm, that is interesting. Surely that would never happen to me!". Within minutes I was laying there watching the ultrasound technician take a peek at my baby. She got real quiet all of a sudden and I started paying more attention. She highlighted a heart beat. Then she highlighted another heart beat. There were two heartbeats. She told me that I was carrying twins. I was totally surprised, delighted, frightened, and all of a sudden very overwhelmed. Because I did not know I was having an ultrasound that day, my sister was with me instead of my husband. She had been watching Jordan for me while I had the ultrasound. She knew before my husband did that I was going to have twins.

For the most part, I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy. I was sick a lot more to begin with, but I understand that is common in multiple pregnancies. I was given a due date of May 24th. We had a neighbor across the street who had given birth to twins a few months earlier. She had had some complications in the last remaining weeks of her pregnancy and had delivered her twins early. I think she was 3 weeks early. After her experience I kind of expected that we too might have some complications.


At 24 weeks I flew to Denver with Jordan to visit my Dad and his wife. Though the visit was pleasant and uneventful, the flight home left me completely worn out. Jordan was only 18 months old at the time. That night in the middle of the night I had some contractions. I wasn't concerned at first because I tend to have a lot of braxton hicks contractions in my pregnancies. I did become concerned after they started coming regularly. I called the doctor on call and he instructed me to go to the local hospital (we were living in Tooele, Utah - about 45 minutes from the hospital I was to deliver at) to be checked out. This is when the nightmare began.

We had heard stories about the local hospital and how people wouldn't take their dying pets there. I was sure they must be exaggerating. It was a very small hospital in a small town. They called the doctor and he came in, but not before the labor and delivery nurse managed to completely and totally freak me out. She tried to be very comforting and reassuring when in reality she was completely incompetent. She told me, among other things, that I shouldn't worry unless they had to call the helicopter to take me to Salt Lake City. In less than two hours I was on that helicopter flying to the University of Utah Hospital. I was in preterm labor and they were unable to stop my contractions. I was told the babies needed to be born at the U of U hospital to have a better chance of surviving. I was only 24 weeks along and I knew the chances of them surviving were not good. If they did survive they would surely have many complications resulting from their early birth.

I was given all kinds of medicines to stop the labor. They also gave me a steroid shot to help the babies lungs to develop in case they were born early. Finally by early the next morning the contractions had stopped. What a blessing!!! It looked as if they had gotten the labor stopped. I spent the next week in the hospital before they decided I could go home. They decided that I had an infection that had caused the preterm labor and sent me home on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy.

I managed to carry them for another 11 weeks. On April 18th, at 35 weeks, I went in for my regular check up. I was dilated to a 4 and the doctor said to come immediately if I felt anything. As I mentioned before we lived 45 minutes away from the hospital and I was afraid of not making it there in time. On the way home that day we almost stopped and turned around twice. I knew these babies had to be born in a hospital and not in the car. We were so blessed through out this whole pregnancy and I am so grateful for the Lord's watching hand over us at that time. I had had another ultrasound on the 18th and was told that the babies looked good and were a good size. I was told they were around 6 lbs each. So we were not too concerned with an early delivery.

On April 20th I woke up having very minor contractions. We didn't wait around for it to get worse. We drove to the hospital right away. Jordan had been born by emergency c-secti0n and I was afraid to have a vag!inal birth. I didn't want to have any complications that would prevent me from having other children. My doctor was very sweet and kind and actually talked me into having a vag!nal delivery. He promised to monitor be very carefully and if he had any reservations at all he would do a c-secti0n. It turns out that vag!nal was the way to go.

Out of my 3 deliveries, this was by far the easiest and least stressful. I was given an epidural upon arriving at the hospital and I felt so relaxed that I actually fell asleep. The labor was short and virtually pain free. The girls came out with very little pushing required. Unlike what we were told 2 days earlier, they did not weigh 6 lbs. Kimberly was 4 lbs 14 oz and Kaylynn was 4 lbs 7 oz. They were born perfect and without any problems. They were just small. They did not require any oxygen or a stay in the NICU which we were almost anticipating. They left the hospital with me 2 days later and have been a joy and a delight ever since.

(Kaylynn and Kimberly 6 years old)