Today In honor of National Prematurity Awareness day I'm thankful for medical care...Day #7

Because it's National prematurity awareness day I am thankful for my access to some of the best medical facilities in the country. I never intended to move to Connecticut and attend graduate school where I'm currently at.  I intended to have a baby take a year off from school and then apply to law school...

Those plans didn't go so well since it took 3 years to have kids, so here we are, I'm in completely different degree program and we live across the country. In hindsight being here, with access to the this medical care and facilities, is probably what helped my babies make it to 32 weeks and continue to thrive.

My cervix started shortening when I was 21 weeks, and each week, despite all of my best efforts it continued to shorten. At 27 weeks I virtually had no more cervix, had a positive fFN test, was contracting and was admitted to the hospital for the first time, to get the steroid shots, and attempt to stop the contractions. During this time the doctors began talking to us about what it might mean to have babies at 27 weeks and we were terrified. I spent the next 5 weeks on bedrest (all of that in the hospital except a few days).

Those days of bedrest were awful, living in the hospital is not restful or enjoyable, but I knew everyday I could keep them in there was a few less days they would be in the NICU.

At 2:00am in my 32nd week of pregnancy Eli's water broke and they were unable to stop my labor. In an emergency c-section, under general anesthesia my babies were born, and immediately taken to the NICU. It would be 36 hours before I held Eli for the first time and 5 days before I was able to hold Emerson.

As much as the bedrest, delivery, and NICU time sucked, I know that we are some of the lucky ones. I have access to incredible medical insurance and health care. I have access to some of the best doctors in the world and because of that my babies were given some of the very best care before they were even born.

This is a privilege that many do not have, and I feel so blessed and thankful everyday that we live where we live, with the medical facilities that we have, so my babies, born 8 weeks to soon had the very best chance at life. Being a mom to preemies is challenging and presents a whole new set of issues for me that I'm still working through, but in the end my babies are thriving and growing, and for that I am thankful and blessed.