Gracie and Bailey's Mom: Miracle Baby Reunion

I was SO excited to attend the Emory at Johns Creek NICU reunion today. Unfortunately, Preston had previously planned on going to a PGA golf tournament before we knew the date of the reunion and so I was grateful to have granny accompany us to the party. On the way to the reunion as we turned on the road that the hospital is off of I told my mom that I had the same "anxious/excited" feeling that I had after turning on that road for so many days when visiting my sweet babies. I was excited to see the nurses who cared for me for seven weeks and also the nurses who cared for Gracie and Bailey. I think of these nurses as more of family or really angels!

The first nurse I ran into at the reunion was Cathy and she was my night time nurse who took excellent care of me. Night time was the hardest for me because I usually always had contractions and Cathy was great at staying on top of them although it meant lots of shots for me. It was great to get to show her the little ones who she used to chase around my belly with the heart monitor for hours each night while trying to trace their heartbeats. We also were able to visit L&D were we saw Linda who was one of my daytime nurses who delivered the twins. Linda was always so sweet and caring.

We saw so many of the NICU nurses who cared for Gracie and Bailey. Each nurse brought back special memories. Like I said before these nurses mean the world to me. Most new moms can't leave their babies for an hour or day so to have to leave your babies every night for 6 weeks is very HARD. What made it more comforting was to know that I was leaving them in the most loving hands. Pervell and Karen were two of Gracie and Baileys night time nurses who we kind of became attached to. Pervell would always "teach" us how to care for our sweet little ones and would challenge us by making us do more and more with each visit. We always had fun with Karen who was the first nurse who allowed us to hold our babies for the very first time, what a special moment! I can remember her saying "I'm a mom and I know how important it is for you to hold your babies and so I am going to let you do this tonight even though it isn't exactly on the care plan yet." We also were able to see the twins' Neonatologist, Dr. Narayan who visited me just about every other day before Gracie and Bailey even arrived just to check in and cheer me on for keeping them in for another day. By the time Gracie and Bailey came it was so comforting to have him caring for them because I felt like I new him so well.

At the reunion, I was able to make a scrapbook page for Gracie and Bailey that they keep in the NICU and they also had a table to make prints of their feet. Looking at their prints now compared to when they were born is simply amazing as their old prints could probably fit into their toe prints now! It was a wonderful day celebrating with some of the most special people in our lives.

I brought this pic for our scrapbook page, can't believe how tiny they were!