The Aerie
They are 11 today! Eleven years ago I was driving around when the
pager that the hospital loaned me went off. When I looked at it, it
was all 9's the sign that the time had come! It was two months sooner
than they were due, but they had arrived.
I pulled into a gas station, called my wife quickly to let her know I
got the message, then gassed up and drove the 20+ miles to the
hospital. Why, with five world class hospitals within two miles, we
ended up 20+ miles away, I don't know, but I'd been driving there
after work every day of her six-week hospitalized bedrest for
premature labor.
I zoomed up there in record time, flew into the hospital...
...and waited. I even had time to set my watch to the atomic clock in
Denver.
Finally they were ready for the C-section. I got some photos. She came
out first, squalling and healthy at 4.5 lbs. He came out second, and
he hates for me to relate this, but the first time I saw him he was
upside-down, bloody, and urinating all over the place.
He was 4 lbs, and needed help breathing for three days.
They brought her over to mom so that she could see her daughter, then
they whisked them away to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit)
where they were put in incubators. They stayed there for a month while
we visited to feed, hold, and clothe them.
When we finally took them home a month later they were hooked to apnea
monitors that weighed as much as they did. We'd wake up to feed them,
and it would take them 20 minutes to eat 2 ounces of formula. During
that time they would become so engrossed in eating that they'd forget
to breathe, and the apnea monitor would go off like a smoke alarm. We
were supposed to shake or stimulate them when the monitor went off,
but we usually started awake from the feeding doze so sharply that the
kids were plenty stimulated by that.
Now they're tall, preadolescent, mouthy, smart sweet kids.
And we went through twins just to prepare us for our third...
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Posted by Albatross at August 3, 2002 12:00 AM