We had tried for about 18 months to get pregnant and after 3 rounds of Clomid we finally got lucky. I took a test on Easter sunday morning and it was very faint so I didn't want to get too excited but on Wed I tested again and there was a line. We were so happy. We had our first Dr appointment at 6 weeks and they did an ultrasound showing 2 sacs but only one baby at that piont. Baby A was measuring 5 w 6 days and other sac was measuring 4 or 5 days behind. We were loving it.... after all that time maybe a 2nd baby wow we were over joyed. We went back at 8 weeks and there were two beautiful little heart beats. There was still a gap in ages of the kids so we knew they were fraternal. How exciting two babies what a blessing for us with the troubles we had getting pregnant.
We had a couple times of bleeding at 9 wks and at 12 weeks they had a hard time finding Baby B;s heart beat so we had other scans and they were just fine. Once we got past 12 weeks we started to relax and know that both of the kids were doing great.
At 16 weeks we went in for another appointment and our Baby B was hiding so they couldn't get a heart beat yet again so off for another scan. Our little ones were very active and we loved getting pictures of our kids at all these different stages.My husband thank God goes too all the appointments with me he can. We schedule them around his work schedule so he has only had to miss 1 this entire pregnancy.
At 19 weeks we thought it was just another ultrasound appointment to get measurements of the kids. We had no idea anything was different or going wrong. The scan started pretty normal. Baby A wouldn't cooperate with being still so they did what they could and moved on to Baby B. They were sleeping so the scan went really smooth for a while. We got to see some really cut pictures. Once they woke up well then it was chasing them to get the last of the pictures. Ok now to finish the scan on Baby A. I know the tech was commenting that they wouldn't be still so I was sure they were fine. They were going to try to do the rest of the scan vaginally since needed to check my cervix anyway. I was asked to go to the bathroom and meet them back there. I returned and there was another Dr joining us in the room. I thought it was odd but nothing to be too worried about. They tried to get pictures of Baby A's head and such and I commented that they were sure wiggly and sorry they can't get any good profile pictures. No one answered that comment but I just thought they were busy. I thought the pictures were different but I just tought it was the view they had. Once they finished the scans they handed us some pictures and asked us to meet the Dr in the office. I expected good news on how great they were doing. ...... We were met with a room the Dr and several others. Now I was sort of worried. They then said I had mentioned it when they were doing the scans about how we didn't get good profile pictures of Baby A. I was concerned what that meant and well that is when they said the word that haunts me all the time now. ....... Anencephaly. Once they explained the birth defect I didn't know what that would mean for our baby then the words I never thought we would hear.... incompatable with life... the baby will die. I broke down and became completley numb. We sat there and listened to what the Dr said but for the life of me I can't remember anything but those few words Anencephaly and incompatable with life. We were given the choice of having amnios that very day to reassure us that Baby A had anencephaly and to check on Baby B to see if they were ok. We had to know. Within the hour they had us back on the table doing more ultrasounds and doing the amnio. IWe were in shock and just couldn't believe this was really happening. After the scans were done I was told to go home and rest. I couldn't imagine how I would survive with all of this news. How do we tell everyone one of our babies was going to die and how do we deal with not having two babies coming home. We just had to wait 4 days for the results. I was a basket case for those four days. I told my husband we had to name our Baby A I couldn't still just call it A or just it. We had picked 2 boys and 2 girl names when we found out there were twins. We wanted them to be suprises so we didn't plan on knowing the sexes. Our one girl name we had picked was Riley which when we told everyone our choices they said Riley would make a wonderful boys name too. With that in mind we picked Riley as a name for our Baby A. We are both signed up to be organ donors so we talked about it and we want to donate Rileys organs to help other babies. I looked up the name Riley and found it means to act with bravery or to be valiant. How perfect that name is If Riley can hold on long enough it would spare our second baby and if they hold on long enough they can save many other babies. What a comfort to us to have that as a possible legacy for our beautiful baby.
The results came back that Baby A did have anencephaly and Baby B was fine. Neither of them had any chromosome issues and no other defects that they could find. They offered us the sexes and I at first said no but my husband said why don't we find out. Riley is a little girl . They then asked if we wanted to know the other baby's sex..... after a moment or two he said yes to finding that out too. We are expecting two little girls We are so happy to introduce Riley Sophia and Abby Nicole.
Right now we are 21w 4d and we are planning on mini milestone celebrations to give us something to be excited for. Abby will have a 50/50 shot of survival at 24 wks. We want to celebrate every step Riley makes it closer to saving her sister and to saving other babies.. Riley can only be considered for donatation if she makes it to 36 wks and is about 6 lbs. We don't know if she will make that size requirement but we are going to do everything we can to keep her safe and healthy until then.
Every day is a struggle to deal with the fact we will loose one of them and possibly both if Riley can't hold on. We are scared, hurt, defeated and just dont' know how we will survive. We try to hold on to the blessing of Abby but morn our loss of Riley. We don't know what to do or how to cope. I have already made arrangements for Rileys cremation and pictures with Now I lay me down to sleep. I don't want my wonderful husband to have to deal with more than he already is. He is such a strong support for me. When I need extra love and attention he is there for me. He is my cheerleader when I just can't seem to smile anymore. I don't know what I would do without him. I just don't know how the two of us are going to deal with loosing one of them. Riley and Abby means the world to us. We can't help but be totally in love with our daughters. We read to them, tickle them and try to let them know how much we love them. I just hope Riley in her own way knows that we will alway love her and if at all possible would trade anything in this world to be able to keep her safe.
If anyone has been down this path before I could sure use some support. My family is not that supprotive. My mom is very religious so will not accept anyting other than a complete healing of her before she is born. I have seen the scans and heard the numbers of her amnio results. I have to be realistic and prepaired for what we will face. We are first time parents and now facing loosing one of our children when she is born.
Please keep our brave Riley in your thoughts and Abby that she will be strong enough to stay with us. Please remember me and my husband as we face the next 3 months of torture knowing we will loose one of our babies. This is the most horrible thing we have ever faced.
Lynn

I'm so sorry, Lynn. I will be thinking of you, your husband, and your sweet girls. I'm glad you found us here and we'll be with you through the remainder of your pregnancy, and after. Love to you, Riley, and Abbey.

I just checked and we have 100 days until they want to deliver the girls. I hope that we have peace and are able to enjoy what time we do have with Riley. It is so hard but we want every chance we have with her to let her know we love her so much.

I don't know what to say for your situation. I am sorry you are having to go through this.

I cannot even begin to thank you enough on behalf of whomever Riley might help that you and your husband are willing to donate her organs. Viable infant sized organs are apparently extremely rare, and it will be a truly amazing gift and legacy for your daughter.

My husband and I were told that transplant was not an option on the table as our son's heart failed because there were no organs available. If just one person does not have to hear those words because of your choices, that is a beautiful, wonderful gift.

I'm so sorry. Wish there was more to say that would help. It's going to be tough :(
We're all here.

I lost Baby A a month before Baby B died so I'm not the best person to talk to about this but Eve at http://infertilityrocks.wordpress.com/ lost her little boy Will but her little girl Abby survived. I think she'd be a great person to talk to about this.

Lynn, I am so sorry for this devastating news. I will be thinking of you and both of your girls over the next few weeks, and thinking every good thought I can for little Riley to hold on for her sweet sister's sake. You are so brave and kind to be thinking of organ donation.

Lynn, I know how you must be feeling. My husband and I lost our twin girls on April 8 and 9th. All was going well until 21 weeks when I began bleeding. I was admitted to hospital where they found that Baby A.(Ashleigh) was through my cervix and they could not see how she was doing. Baby B (Brooke) was fine and the plan was to try to keep my pregnant for as long as possible and hopefully save Brooke as they knew that Ashleigh could not grow outside my uterus. I lasted two weeks but found out the awful news on April 7th that neither would make it due to low fluid. My heart breaks everyday and I miss them terribly. Be strong and treasure every moment with them. I pray that Riley can hang on for Abby and she will be fine. A friend of ours also went through something similar to yours and her Abby is fine and now turning 6 years old.

Lynn, I am so sorry you are going through this. It is heartbreaking. I will be thinking of you and hoping everything goes as well as possible. I've heard of people in your situation that could hold on long enough to save one baby. Many hugs.

Lynn, I am so terribly sorry. Your story is absolutely heartbreaking. You, your husband and your two amazing, brave girls, Riley and Abby, will be in my thoughts over the coming weeks and months. I cannot imagine what you must be going through.

I hope that Riley knows how surrounded by love she is and that she will be able to hang on for many weeks yet. To spend more precious time with you and your husband and as her sister grows bigger and stronger.

Everyone I wanted to pass on some good news. Riley and Abby had another check up today and both little ones had good heartbeats. Riley seemed to be sleeping or just resting and well Abby had to wiggle and give them a run for their money in getting her heart rate wihout her moving.. Both girls did well and we go back in another 2 weeks. Also in 2 weeks Abby will have a 50/50 shot of survival so celebrate our mini milestone with them. Circle the date Aug 26th. I will keep you all posted. Lynn

To all that replied thank you so much for your kindness. It is heartwarming to have support at such a rough time.

Melissa, Thank you for your post. We are really hoping that Riley can help others. I know we have very strick guildlines to meet to have her organs be able to be used but I am hopeful we will make it to 35 or 36 weeks and around 6 lbs..

Martha thanks for giving me Eves information. I have read her blog. That is a touching story also.

Cynthia, I am so sorry for your loss that too has to be hard to deal with. My heart goes out to all the parents who looses a baby that is why we want to donate Rileys organs if at all possible to help even a few. We really hope our Riley girl is able to stay healthy and strong for Abby.

We are at about 90 to 97 days now until the girls come. I at least hope that we have that long. It is still a daily struggle with trying to deal with the realization that our Riley isn't going to be coming home with us. We have most of the plans in place for her. We have a friend who is a glass artist and I am working on designing our baby girls memorial art that will encase her ashes. We want to have something beautiful to remember her with and that we can have at home to cherrish our little angel. We are planning on having a sphere or pillar with two hearts encased in the glass. One with wings that will have Rileys ashes and the other just a heart to be for our Abby.
I find it hard still some days to have so much happiness in my life. I get realy down when I have good days that I am not thinking about her passing. It is hard to have good days but I know I need to have those times too. Abby needs a mommy that will be here for her and being down and depressed isn't good for her. We struggle with the balance of our emotions.
I have been feeling ill all weekend and just so tired. I just hope that it is not going to affect the girls. I have felt a litle better today but it is rough to try to and get my work done at home and get the rest and time off of my feet that I need.
Will keep you posted on how we are going. Thank you all for support.

Lynn,

This is Eve from Impersonating Normal (infertility rocks), and I just wanted to check in on you. My situation is not exactly the same as yours, but awfully close. We learned that we lost my dear son, William Scott, at 25 weeks (after many previously healthy scans) but that our daughter, Abigail (Abby like yours!) Hope was surviving.

Every day that passed led us closer to Abby but further from Will...and it was excrutiationg. I'm so glad to hear that you have made a lot of plans for NIMLDTS and Riley's memorial. We had NIMLDTS as well...our photographer also did a maternity photo shoot with us, which I cherish since both babies were with me there. I also did a 3D scan (complimentary, thanks also to my NIMLDTS photographer) to see our healthy Abby and dear Will. All of those things seem to make the passing of the pregnancy somewhat easier to bare.


Honestly, I really felt as if I had lost both twins up until the moment where I was able to hold Abby in my arms and feel her little heart pounding and chest rising and falling with her breaths. We were so very, very fortunate that Abby survived...and I hope that hearing my story gives you hope as well. I did have to go in and out of the hospital due to pre-term labor and ended up on full bedrest at the end...but I made it to 37 weeks.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to talk further. I desperately wanted to talk to others who had been in my situation when I was pregnant...and still yearn to connect with others now that Abby is born. I won't lie, losing Will is still incredibly, incredibly painful. I started Zoloft that day the twins were born to help combat PPD...and I feel like my hormones are still all over the place.

Please email me for more contact information at eve_62025@yahoo.com

Many prayers are going out to you and your girls.

Eve

Our girls gave us quite the scare Monday and yesterdy morning. We tried and tried to get them to move without any luck. Riley has been breech at the lower part of my uterus and they thought she may not move from that location. Abby has been really high and laying the opposite way across my stomach. I have rubbed, poked and just most everything to get Abby to move. I felt twitches down realy low so I thought Riley was ok. After not getting any movement since sunday night I called the Dr. They ordered an ultrasound to confirm if our girls were doing ok. I was terribly scared but tried to maintain composure so that I wouldn't be a total wreck. We arrive at the hospital and the worry realy started to mount, minutes passed like hours as we waited for them to call us back.
I explained to the tech Rileys condition so that she would not worry about her head when she saw Riley. Still even after that being said she commented how hard it was to see Rileys head... breaks my heart. She saw her moving which was a comfort but I really was still worried about Abby too. She then said Riley was head down. I said I thought she would still be breech. It appeared that there was a change in her position and that was when the kicking showed up on the screen. Abby has apprently kicked and pushed poor Riley out of being breech and now has her standing on her head. Abby has taken up that piece of realistate and is now standing up tall like a big girl. She is just now kicking her sister pretty good on the ultrasound.. What a relief of knowing they are doing ok just wish they were playing nice with one another. I guess they will act like sisters fighting even at this young age LOL. We really are relieved that our girls are fine another blessing and prayer answered. They are 23 weeks now!!! Wish us luck in carrying them another 13 weeks or so..
Lynn

Glad to hear that both your girls are doing well and hanging on in there even if they are kicking one another (as sisters will!) Hoping and praying for another 13 weeks for your brave daughters. You and your family are in my thoughts.

We are wanting to cherrish every moment we have and will have with the girls so
we are having a party to celebrate the girls making it to 24 weeks. This will
give Abby about a 50/50 shot of survival if we had to deliver. They are not
quite to the 24 weeks right now but our party is planned for the 29th (actual 24
wk day is the 26th). I sure wish more of you all lived closer and could join
us but here is our invite that we sent out to family and friends. I am so happy
that our girls are getting bigger every day and giving Abby more and more of a
chance of survival. Riley is such a brave little girl for being strong and
healthy so far.

Here is the invite.....
You are invited to celebrate the May twins 24 week milestone. Riley and Abby
are so far doing well and we want to celebrate the time we have them with us.
Riley may not have birthdays but we want to pour out all the love we can to her
while she can hear and share in the love of family and friends.
We would like to have a pot luck dinner on Sunday Aug. 29th at around Noon
Weather permitting (We will watch and may need to postpone). Bring what ever
item you would like I want to introduce Riley and Abby to as many yummy dishes
that people make as possible. They can hear you and taste everything so come and
enjoy the meeting of our girls. If you would like to record a message or read a
book to the girls we can arrange for you to record that and it will be played
for them at bedtime.

Oh Lynn, the invitation is lovely. I am reading with tears in my eyes. I hope your girls enjoy the company and the food. The idea of recording message and stories for them is wonderful. They are very loved.

I'm glad to hear that your girls are doing so well. My twin girls were delivered on the 26th of August 08 at 23 weeks, 4 days so our pregnancies must be tracking along very similar dates, two years apart.

Sadly one of my little girls did not survive her early birth. But I will be celebrating my surviving daughter's birthday this week and thinking of you and your family too. Riley and Abby will be in my thoughts and prayers. xo

Thank you so much for your response.. I am so sorry about your loss of one of your girls but it is good to hear your other daughter is growing strong. We are hoping that others will come and join us it would mean so much to us to have family and friends around us. We do love the girls so much and we get a check up today so weill get to hear their hearts agin!!!! Today is also our anniversary which makes it even more special. I will post updates when we get home this evening. Hugs and happy early birthday to your little girl!!!
Lynn

We went to the Dr today and the girls are doing OK. Abby moved and kicked and
gave them a run for their money as usual. Riley is our good girl she was
peaceful. Her heart rate is a little lower It was about 110 they are not too
concerned since the Anencephaly is pretty severe so she is in a constant rest
state and can't really react so they are not too concerned about it being lower.
We will still go every 2 weeks for her check ups. I do have another appointment
next week to evaluate Riley at the specialist so that will also give us more
information concerning how her condition is advancing. I will keep you posted. .

24 WEEKS!!!!!!!! Our Abby girl has over a 50% chance of survival. Hold on Riley we hope and pray you continue to do well. We love our girls so much..

Thinking of you often. You are being so brave and strong here, I hope you are able to take time to be completely gentle on yourself.

We are just so happy we get to celebrate this milestone. I was so worried we would loose both girls that this gives me hope that Abby will be ok. We have to celebrate what we can and there was not much that we could celebrate. I am very worried about Riley, her heart rate is going down more and more as time passes. She was right up there with Abby and over the past month she has gone down to 110bpm. It is scary to not know what is happening with her but we have an appointment on Tuesday to do another ultrasound and find out how she is doing. It is very scary but I am just hoping that the one Dr was right that she is more in a coma state now and that she just isn't responding to stimuli and that is why her heart rate is low like she is just sleeping. I really hope that is all it is but we are coping with the condition more and more all the time. It is not to say that we don't have times of complete melt down and crying but it is just one day at a time.
We will post on how our Milestone party goes. I can't wait to celebrate!!

Our Milestone Party was really good. I love that we got several family members reading stories that we can play to the babies at bedtime. We had one technical problem....no battery for the camera so I didn't get pictures for the memory book. (I was bummed out!!! and I was upset more people couldn't come) Great food and many dishes that I got to eat for the girls to "try". It was a good day I recommend this sort of party to any moms to be.

Thanks everyone for their well wishes and prayers for the Dr appointment today.
It went really well... Riley's heart beat was back up to 150 today!!!! We were
so worried with that going down every time for past 3 visits. They said she was
doing great. I guess just sleeping like her Daddy when we went for other
appointments. Today boy was she flipping and kicking and just in general acting
like her sister. Abby's heart rate was 170 and she was kicking and making lots
of fuss too. We had a bit of a hard time getting their heart beats for in the
build a bears. That is so sweet to have the sound of their heartbeats to keep
forever like that. It will be nice to be able to share that with Abby how her
and her sister sounded even before she was born.
We did take our birth plan over to the NICU and met with the Head nurse there
and got a tour and met some of the Drs that will be caring for our girls. I held
it together pretty well but I did loose it for a bit but all in all I did really
well. Jeff was so great to have with me I need him as my support. We are I
think ready for what we face. I am so relieved that things are about in place.
I am emotionally drained and just tired from not sleeping much lateley but it
was a good day.

Hi Lynn,

Glad that the milestone party went well, that you managed to celebrate what you can, that your girls have reached this important time and that you can start to hope for Abby.

Good news that Riley's heartbeat has picked up again. I love the idea of recording their heart beats. I'm sure that Abby will treasure those special bears.

Going to visit the NICU must have been really tough and I'm sorry that you and your husband had to go through that. It must have taken a lot of strength. Just hold on to the fact that now you will be prepared should Abby need to stay there for a little while and the NICU environment will not come as a shock.

You, Jeff, Riley and Abby are in my thoughts.

Catherine, Thanks for your kind words. We are very happy to be just about 27 weeks. We are so happy with every passing week.
We are visiting both NICU's of the two hospitals we may be delivering at. The one hospital is if there is an emergency the other is if there is a planned delivery. Our local hospital has a NICU however are not well versed with anencephaly baby. The hospital in Danville PA is a childrens hospital and are so great they have units there that are great with dealing with anencephaly baby. Riley is still doing well. She is back to being active and moving around in there. We go for 3D ultrasounds on the 22nd for both girls. We are very excited to see our girls while both are active and doing well. We know Riley has been compromised in her appearance but we still can't wait to see her.
We will post again after our appointments. I am so glad to have found people to have support with this situation.
Lynn

Last night we had spotting so off to the hospital for them to check everything
out. It seems to be nothing other than possibly complication from some
constipation and my cervix is getting shorter. I am down to about 2.5cm on my
cervix length. I know it is not that great however they said that it is
possible to have it getting short just because we are close to the 28 week time
that most start to shorten. I am 27 weeks as of tomorrow. We are doing ok so
far no contractions all night and I had no other spotting after the first coupld
of hours. It was pretty slight which is good. I am home and not on full bedrest
but I have been told to stay off my feet and rest not doing much at all. It is
going to be hard since we are going to be moving and I don't have all the
packing finished. I just feel bad that it is going to be more on my husbands
plate to get done. I will keep you posted on how we are doing but for now all
of us are doing ok.

Glad that the spotting was nothing to be concerned about and glad that your girls are still staying put. 27 weeks is great. I hope that you are managing to rest. Please don't feel bad, there is nothing that you do about it and it is important that you stay off your feet if that is was the doctors have advised. I'm sure your husband won't mind a bit of extra packing.

Thank you for the update. You and your family are often in my thoughts. Love and strength to you and your precious girls.

I have been in the hospital for over a month now. II had posted about the bleeding Mid Sept. Well I had another Dr appointment following up from the bleeding which was in Danville at the childrens hospital. I went in for the ultrasound and they kept me. I haven't felt much like getting on to write so I am sorry for the delay in the updates on our girls. Here we go and I hope this makes sense I have been rather stressed and sleep is one of those foreign concepts right now for me.
On Sat. 10/9 I woke feeling same as usual nothing bothering the girls and we had a pretty good morning. The girls did ok with the non stress tests and we enjoyed a morning of less fighting and pushing on my cervix. The girls had been really kicking and punching or something in there the day before I think it is funny just how much like sisters they get to be even before they are born. Around noon I went to the bathroom and when I had finished and went to stand there was a gush of water. It was Rileys fluids and we were able to confirm due to the discolored fluids. I rang for the nurses and they got me back to bed and started measuring for contractions.I called Jeff and had him come to the hospital since we were not sure what was going to happen. They said that even if my water broke that without contractions we could stay pregnant for weeks. They would just monitor for contractions and infections. We had a pretty quiet rest of the day other than the big panic and rushing me antibiotics and other things via IV. They kept assuring us that we could stay the same 3 cm dialated and still get several weeks out of this pregnancy if nothing started changing. What a relief that we had nothing to do but sit and wait. It was very nice to know we were not at any risk at that time. A moment of AHHHHH crossed my mind with nothing happening.
Late in the evening I started having what could only be described as stabbing pain right at my bladder and cervix. After several times of this happening and each worse than the last they did checks for UTI thinking that may have been issue and it would have possibly caused the water to break. The labs came back that it was not a UTI so back to the monitoring of the pains but the TOCO machine was not picking them up. The pains came and went so I tried to get some sleep however around 1AM my night of relaxing sleep came to an end. The pains were so close and I was feeling more and more of the horrible pains with each. This continued until morning around 6 or so when I was told that I had not dialated yet so I took some meds for the pain. I was worried about taking it so I only took 1/2 a dose WOW was I in a drunk state. I was able to handle the pains a little but after an hour or two the pains were not managable with what pain meds I had taken. The Drs then wanted to check with the 2 hrs of pains getting worse to see if they could see if my cervix was still stable. The answer was pretty definate no. I was already 7cm and it was very close to being the time to deliver. We were presented with an option to have them vaginally or C section. I really wanted to try vaginaly however after discussing the concerns with Abby being transverse and chances of Riley being obstructed or anything we went with a Csection. If they started a vaginal birth and anything changed then I would be knocked out and Jeff would have to leave. I didn't want either of those things to happen because it would be less time with Riley. The contractions were just waves at this point and no breaks in between. Off to the OR for prep and Jeff got his stylish suite to put on. they call it a bunny suite but I guess bunnies were not meant to be over 6 ft tall.
Once in the OR they started to get the spinal tap in (ouch) Once prep was done it was very quick. Jeff was brought into the room and we were snuggled up behind the big curtain. It was so scary not knowing how our girls would be and even more scared of facing Riley and death. I am still not sure how we held it together knowing what the outcome would be. They said they were starting and it seemed like seconds they were saying that Riley was now breach so it was good we went with C section. Riley was delivered first which was what I realy wanted. 10:22 our Riley was welcomed into the world. It was quiet so I wasn't sure if she was ok or not. The did tell us she survived birth. They took her over wiped her off and wrapped her up. Within less than one minute we had her in our arms. Jeff and I were able to spend time touching and holding our very tiny girl. The nurse (Kelly) was great she put a bonnet on her and made her look sweet. She was 2lbs even and she was 13 inches tall. We listened for them to say that Abby was delivered too. She was taken immediately to the NICU for evaluation and any care she may need. Again a scary thing not to hear our babies cry when they were born. They were closing me up and they unhooked my arms so I could hold Riley too. They told Jeff he could wait at our room and I would be over in just a few minutes. Once they finished closing me up they checked and was sad to report our Riley passed away. She was with us and was held and loved until she passed. That was all I could ask for, she never had to be alone.
I was taken back to our room to start recovery time and we were able to share Riley with family and staff at the hospital. The NILMDTS photographer came and we were able to get Riley dressed in her beautiful dress and she was as perfect as you could imagine. Her delicate features and just perfect tiny body were just stunning. She looked perfect. We were allowed to take her over to the NICU and have pictures done with Abby too. I got to hold both of our girls at the same time. It is hard to say how I looked but I can't remember much about that time either. I just know looking back it was great to have both of our girls in my arms at the same time. I wish I could say I remembered every moment of that time but I will just have to savor what I do remember and enjoy the pictures when they come back of our two tiny girls. When we returned to our room Jeff changed her into a premie outfit to get some other pictures in. She looked so cute in an outfit with little frogs on it. For those who know me well enough you will know that frogs are one of my favorites. She was so tiny her feet didn't even reach the footed part of her little outfit but when you put her feet in them her feet were almost the right lenght for that part. She had such long fingers and toes just like her sister and daddy.
Our Abby continues to do well in the NICU and she seems to be advancing with leaps and bounds. She is amazing how strong and easy of a time she is having for being so young. Our little girls were both fighters and stronger in their young live than I ever would have thought possible. They have touched our lives in ways I never thought possible and will continue to touch all those who will ever hear of them. Our little Riley was such a couragous valiant little girl who will always be the older sister to our Abby girl.
Our hearts may never be 100% without Riley but we will cherrish the time we had with her while building our lives with Abby always remembering Riley our first born daughter.

Ooops I didn't include their birthday info and their weights and such..
They were born on 10/10/10 Riley at 10/22 and Abby at 1023
Riley was 2lbs even and was 13 inches tall
Abby was 3lbs 2 oz and 15 1/2 inches tall

So glad to hear that Abby is doing ok! So glad you got to hold little Riley too. Hope you are coping ok xxx