CHRISTMAS MIRACLES

Timothy James Marshall 12-25-2000 1:40 pm 3 pounds, 9 ounces 16 1/2 inches

Jack Edward Marshall 12-25-2000 1:39 pm 3 pounds, 3 ounces 16 inches

The first time Mommy got to hold her twins at the same time. They loved to be together!

Jack's tiny little hand in my hand... and wearing one of his many hats to keep him warm.

At 6 months of age you can't even tell they were preemies with "toaster heads"

This month, 9 years ago, was a roller coaster of activities. I was on bed rest for the most part but still having a lot of contractions. Finally, a week or so before Christmas, the doctor admitted me to Strong Hospital to stop labor and monitor the babies, since I was only 30 weeks gestation. Very early Christmas morning my water broke and I called home to tell Chris to come up to the hospital. He took Molly to Aunt Katie's for Christmas morning and Rob was with his dad. Chris got to the hospital and they were doing everything they could to stop labor. Unfortunately Baby "B", who we now call Timothy, was in distress so they did an emergency c-section. Chris had just left the room to make some phone calls when this all happened so he had no idea that the doctor came in and took me to perform the surgery. Also, because it had to be done so quickly in the hopes of not losing one or both of the boys, I was put completely out and have no recollection of even leaving the hospital room to go to surgery. When Chris came back from calling his family to say I was resting comfortably, he found that my entire bed was gone and so was any staff. Moments later the nurse came out to tell him that they delivered our boys. Immediately the boys were taken to Strong's NICU and placed on Ventilators (Tim is pictured here with that). Not too long into their stay they went to C-pap's (see Jack's picture). The boys were in the NICU at Strong for 4 weeks, then moved to Genesee Hospital's Special Care nursery for 3 more weeks. Because the doctors had pumped me so full of fluid before I delivered, the boys were also full of fluid and their weights got down to 2 pounds and some change in the first few days. They were so early they didn't have any pigment to their skin and basically looked like little hamsters. We loved them instantly even if you could barely see them for all the tubing, wires, monitors and isolettes that surrounded them. At nearly 9 years of age the boys are in the 95th percentile for height and weight and amaze us everyday with how perfect they are!