One day while driving to visit my mom, I felt my first Braxton Hicks contraction. I was 27 weeks pregnant and I noted the time on the clock, but didn't think anything of it. Ten minutes later I felt another and 10 minutes after that another. I called my husband on my cell phone and told him eagerly that I'd had a few Braxton Hicks, just to share my pregnancy with him. He wanted me to call the doctor, but I wouldn't until about an hour and a half more of contractions exactly 10 minutes apart.

I'd been laying on my side drinking water at my mom's, just as the doctor said, and they stopped. After a half an hour I got up again, and they started again. I went to the hospital to Labor and Delivery, just to get monitored, but absolutely nothing was registering on the monitor or even felt since I left home. Just as they were about to release me they checked to see if I happened to be dilated. I was 3-4 centimeters!

I got lots of shots to stop labor at this point and an ultrasound machine was pulled in. What they saw shocked everyone. I figure all the hospital personnel must have thought I was imagining it all to this point. The bag of waters was hour-glassing (hanging below the cervix) and a tiny foot hung down! The university hospital in Seattle was notified and an ambulance was sent to take me there.

My contractions were coming back and were getting stronger by the minute, although none were very painful. When I got to the hospital I sat and waited, feeling more and more contractions, but not seeing any doctors coming to see me. Finally, after a while, someone checked to see if I had dilated and I was 7-8 centimeters. I was sent directly to surgery for the Cesarean Section of my 27-week-old baby. I did not know what I would wake up to.

He was 2 pounds, 10 ounces and 17 inches long. The first few weeks were terrible from not knowing what to expect, and from the ups and downs of our baby's health. They thought he'd had an infection. Then he needed three blood transfusions and was on a ventilator which breathed for him for four months which causes chronic lung disease while keeping him alive. He had a spinal tap. He was fed through a tube for two and a half months. All the while his weight went up and down. But, slowly but surely, the improvements outweighed the setbacks and after almost three months in the hospital, 50 miles from our house, he has come home at last.

Andrew is now 7 pounds, 8 ounces and it is still not yet his due date for one more week. He is completely healthy, yet still at risk for infection. We plan to stay home until after the cold and flu season!