Guest Blog Post:  A Special Announcement from my Best Friend Jenna!

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It took Andy and me a year and a half to get pregnant with Aaron. It was the longest year and a half of my life– each month came with sadness, disappointment, and unknowing until finally getting a positive pregnancy test. When we found out we were expecting – December 19^th my “school friend” Liz was also expecting but two months earlier in October. It was so much fun having someone at school going through all the crazy pregnancy stuff with me and slowly “school friends” turned into best friends. We talked ALL the time about how often we peed that day, how incredibly big our boobs were getting, how gassy we were, how tired we were, how many times we peed that day, oh yea and how many times we peed during the night. We shopped for maternity clothes together, looked for baby clothes together, shared every detail of our baby’s room décor, and even had doughnut days together!

Then, at midnight on October 27^th my water broke 2 months early. It was the scariest experience of my life—it never occurred to me that this could happen. I think I said the f word a record number of times as we drove to the hospital. The next 24 hours I was put on critical watch and Liz was scheduled to be induced the night of the 28^th…but was told on the phone she’d have to wait because an emergency came in and there were no more beds. I was the emergency. In all the panic and fear, there was Andy and me cracking up at the humor of the situation—I stole Liz’s bed. She was miserable, had had this induction scheduled for weeks, and there I lay in her bed…

Four days later…perfect little Gracie Kim Henson arrived J.   Three days after that Aaron Stephen Filipowicz.

Aaron had to spend 12 days in the NICU at Liz and Mark got to go home. Andy had to go to back to work while I convinced him I had it covered at the NICU. That time alone with Aaron and the nurses/doctors at the NICU was the loneliest time of my life.

But then we all got to go home! Andy took a few more days off of work and then it was just Aaron and Me. But it wasn’t as lonely this time. At two in the morning when Andy slept and I fed Aaron, Liz and I were talking. We talked ALL the time. About how much we hated pumping, waking up, the crying, the screaming. We also talked about how much we loved the Today show and all of the hosts. We went on walks together with the babies, planned out our first days back at school, and talked about all the gross stuff that goes along with having a baby. It was awesome, and never lonely.

Why did it take me a year and a half to get pregnant when everyone around me made it look so easy? Why was Aaron born early and we had to spend almost two weeks in the NICU?

Why? Because as lonely as I was in the NICU for those 6 days, there is nothing like the loneliness I would have felt if I had to take Aaron home from the hospital and had do the rest of motherhood alone without Liz. Of course there is family and friends, but having a newborn and people “helping out” is nothing like having someone going through exactly the same thing at the same time. Whatever cosmic force is out there in the universe it knew that we needed each other to get through it all together. No one should have to do motherhood alone. We were lucky to have each other.

So…let’s do it again. What do you say Liz? Both of us, together again. This time though, let’s have the SAME EXACT due date and both make it full term?

Also, when is doughnut day?