It was a cold Sunday morning in January, we were planning to go to my mom's first lamaze class that night and as she was getting ready, and to all of our surprise her water broke...how could that be? We were not expecting Andie for another month, but here we were, ready or not, it was time. We called our good friends and let them know what was going on and that we were on our way to the hospital!! We were so scared and excited, I was just 16, and certainly had never experienced anything like this. We got to the hospital and set up in our room and waited...and waited...it was slow going, and quite a few hours into it, our very intuitive doc decided to start monitoring Andie, and not long after that, it was very apparent that something was very wrong. The doctor and nurses started rushing around, and all I heard the doctor say was "we have to get that baby out NOW" More rushing, and I just remember thinking "what is going on?? Is my mom going to be alright? Is the baby going to be alright???" I remember holding my mom's hand as we all ran down the hall to the operating rooms and telling her, "everyting's going to be ok mom, everything's going to be ok." Even though I had absolutely no idea if that were true, I didn't even know what was happening.
Angie and I were very scared and upset and there was nothing we could do but wait, so we walked back to the room to make a few phone calls and let people know what was going on...I think back and it is so crazy to me that we were 16 and 18 and completely alone, in a hospital room with absolutely no idea if the rest of our family was going to come back to us or not.
A few minutes later we walked back toward the operating room, and as we neared, we heard crying, tiny little cries, the cries that I now know are those of a newborn taking her first breaths in this world, and almost immediately a nurse brought her out to us, still bloody, and sticky and all wrapped up and smelling like heaven, and she looked up at us and just blinked and we wept. I asked the nurse how my mom was, I was so scared she was in danger too, and the nurse said, She is great, still out, but good, you an see her in a bit. We had almost lost Andie, my mom had to have an emergency c-section due to placental abruption and had they not gotten Andie out so quickly she would not have made it.
We went back to the room and they brought Andie to us, she was perfectly fine, and Angie and I took care of her for the first night all by ourselves while my mom was in and out due to the anesthesia. I still can't believe that we, a 16 year old and 18 year old took care of this tiny little newborn, it seems so strange now, but so normal at the time, there's no way I would have been anywhere else. You couldn't have dragged me away.
We were in the hospital for 3 or 4 days, I can't even remember now, but it was like we were in a bubble and all the world had stopped except for us and that tiny new precious person we had been entrusted with.
I lived at home with mom and Andie for the first 5 years of her life, those are years that I will never forget and will always hold a very special place in my heart. Here are a few snap shots from that time.
Wow, and now she's 18, and she is amazing, and beautiful, and dramatic, and loyal and loving. We have all been blessed to have her in our lives.
This is her and our mom today...
So sweet!
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