On April 11th, I woke up and started getting ready for work. Within 20 minutes of being up, I started having mild cramping. I blew it off as nothing and finished getting ready. I took Charlie to daycare and by the time I got to work 30 minutes later, I was in so much pain that I couldn't sit up straight. I left work telling them I was going home sick for the day. By the time I got home it was about 7:30 a.m. and I thought I was going to die (literally)! I still kept telling myself that the pain would pass and waited until the doctor's office opened at 8:30 a.m. I was hurting so bad at this point that I could hardly talk to the nurse when she answered and all I could do was cry. She asked me how far I lived from the hospital and told me to get to the emergency room immediately. I got there and was rushed upstairs to labor and delivery. At this point, I still didn't realize that the pains I was having were contractions because I never felt them when I had Charlie. I was thinking the doctor would check me and send me back home to rest. Well when I got upstairs my doctor was waiting and immediately checked me. I'll never forget the look on his face when he looked from behind the sheet and said "Your 7 cm dilated and we're gonna have a baby today". I cried my eyes out for about 5 minutes just thinking about how "not ready" the baby was to be coming at only 33 weeks. My doctor assured me everything would be ok but said we may have to send her to USA Women's and Children's Hospital. They were preparing for the worst but hoping for the best. By 12:30 p.m. baby girl Kaylin Hope arrived weighing 5 lbs., 11 ozs! They rushed her to the nursery and put her on oxygen. The next 12 days were a blur as we dealt with having her in the NICU and balancing visits with her and taking care of Charlie at home. During this time, she lost almost a pound and was put on a feeding tube. On April 15th we were finally released and were so happy to be home (in our own bed)!
