Happy BIRTH-day Gracie! (5 weeks early)

yesterday morning as i skyped with my mom, i heard my phone chirping (yes, chirping) upstairs.  when i checked it about 20 minutes later it was from h., with no message.  i called her back and what she said was such a surprise: her water had broken that morning and she was at the hospital about to have a c-section.  i didn't get many details because just as h. was telling me, ella closed her thumb in the bathroom door and started screaming.  i handed the phone to j. just as h. handed the phone to j.'s brother, so the boys briefly talked to tell us where and when to come.

(elenora's thumb was fine.)

we gathered ella's overnight bag (i forgot pjs) and the premie clothing i had just washed for h. on friday and we headed out to the hospital.  elenora was so excited that it was gracie's birthday ("is it march?" "nope, gracie is early.") and kept saying "i'm going to be a big sister now!"  "nope, you're the big cousin." "why can't i be the big sister?" "because then i would have to be the mommy, and auntie h. is the mommy."

we arrived just after noon and found h.'s parents in a waiting room.  just a few minutes later the doctors wheeled the incubator out into the hallway with j. following to go down a floor to the NICU.  we glimpsed gracie for about 2 minutes (so beautiful and sweet!) and then she was gone--no sight of h., who was taken to recovery (she'd had a c-section with general anesthesia and hadn't even seen her daughter yet).  grace marie was 4 lbs 3 oz.

we followed her down a few minutes later to wait in h.'s room for h. and to see what we could find out about grace.  j. was the only one allowed into the NICU, and even he wasn't allowed in most of the time, but he was reporting to us when he knew anything.  we spent over an hour walking back and forth between h.'s room (waiting for her to come) and the hallway outside of the NICU. 

gracie wasn't able to breathe on her own, so after awhile it became clear that they were planning to transfer her to tufts medical center.  h. did finally arrive in her room, and she was given the information about grace's transfer.  just before the ambulance took gracie, they brought her into h.'s room so that she could finally see her sweet baby and touch her briefly.

j. and i left around 4 pm (ella went home with momby) and arrived home at 5 pm.  he had invited (days before) all of his buddies over for a superbowl party, so i had 15 minutes before everyone arrived.  luckily i had prepared all the food the night before and had time to clean the day before.

this morning i talked with h. and she is good.  grace is still on a ventilator, but the doctors are hoping she will be off of it in the next couple days.  we plan to visit her tomorrow.

what an unexpected turn of things.  we are just so happy that grace and h. are doing well.