Cradling New Life means a lot to my family and me.
Kody & Kylie celebrated their 7th birthday Dec. 12
My husband and I have had a dream to be a part of a charity like this for 6 years now. This is where my story begins.
Seven years ago we found out I was pregnant! Everything was going great, just like your typical pregnancy. We were preparing ourselves for a new baby. We had purchased some clothes, baby items, and my aunt had given us a crib. We thought we were as prepared as we could be! Then at 18 weeks along, we went in for my ultrasound to find out the sex of our new baby! Surprise…there wasn’t just one baby in the oven, but two!! I never in my wildest dreams expected that I would have twins! The good thing was they were both healthy; the bad thing was the doctor discovered that I had a short cervix and needed to have a cervical cerclage (a stitch put in through my cervix to help prevent pre-term labor) done as soon as possible. The procedure was scheduled for a few days later. The other kicker was I could no longer work at my job until after I had delivered the babies.
The surgery went just as the doctor had hoped for! Later that day I returned home with strict orders of bed rest. Since we lost my income, my husband (a journeyman lineman) and I decided that he should take a job in Texas that would be more pay and more hours to supplement from my income loss! It seemed like a great idea and it was, until I was 25 weeks along and went in for my check-up. That’s when I was informed that I was having contractions and was already dilated to a 1. The doctor then proceeded to tell me I needed to go home and pack a bag and head strait to the hospital. This did not make for a reassuring phone call to my husband who was still in Texas!
When I arrived at the hospital, I was admitted, given a room, hooked up to baby monitors, and an IV was inserted to start the Magnesium drip (helps to prevent seizures due to preeclampsia). I was told that I was on complete bed rest. (I could not get up to use the rest room, shower, or anything else. All I could do was lay in that hospital bed. The next morning when the doctor came in, they advised me that my husband might want to come back home because the twins could be born any time. My husband left his job in Texas and came back to Iowa. Lucky for us the room that I was in was big enough for a roll away bed as well so that my husband could stay with me at the hospital. My husband was given a tour of the NICU and we were advised to expect that the twins would be staying there once they were born.
Three and a half weeks passed and everything was staying consistent with the twins and me. My husband went back to work in Iowa and stayed with me every night at the hospital. The doctor on duty that day decided we were all in good enough shape to go home!! Yay, we were so excited!! Three days later, I had to go back to the doctor’s office for another check up. The doctor decided that my contractions were more frequent and didn’t feel comfortable sending me home without constant monitoring. So, back to the hospital we went and that is where we stayed until I was 34 weeks. At this time, the doctors felt that the babies were out of any major danger and sent me home and off of bed rest! I couldn’t believe it! I thought I could actually go back to a normal pregnancy. Although what I didn’t realize was that after that long period of bed rest, and the extra weight I was carrying around, I couldn’t walk 10 feet without feeling exhausted. I did what my body could handle and stayed positive that my kids were doing great and that I had kept them in as long as I had!
Just shy of 36 weeks, I went back to the doctor for another check up. Everything was great! Babies looked good, I was healthy, and I was dilated to a 4! The doctor said he wanted to keep the babies in me as long as we could. At this point, I was ready for them to be born! The doctor advised me that he was on duty at the hospital in 2 days and I could come into the hospital to get checked and see how things were progressing! So, 2 days later we returned to the hospital hoping for the good news that the twins were ready to come into this world! I was dilated to a 6 and the doctor gave us the good news that he was going to break my water and start the labor process! We were so excited.
Up until they broke my water, I had not felt any contractions! Once my water was broke, that became a different story. I requested an epidural! Not long after I had received the epidural the baby monitors could not track one of the twins heartbeat. That is when the doctor said,” it is time”! We went to the C-section room and I started pushing! Twenty-eight minutes later, my daughter was born. She was 6lbs 3 ounces & healthy! Eight minutes later, my son was born. He was 4lbs 13 ounces and also healthy! Neither one of my twins needed to go to the NICU after all! We were all relieved that this long pregnancy was over and that everyone was just fine!
Throughout this whole processes, our finances were tight, but we were able to make things work. We had insurance that helped to pay a lot of my hefty hospital bill and we were fortunate that my husband had the opportunity to make a little extra money to help supplement our income loss! We both realized that our outcome with everything turned out great, but that is not the case for everyone in these types of situations. This is why we want to help and devote our time to Cradling New Life! Any little bit of help to families in these types of situations that may not have such a fortunate outcome, may help to make things just a little less stressful! I know from experience that these families would be truly thankful for a little extra help in such an unknown time!
