I woke my husband up and I was crying and shaking and so very scared. As far as we knew I was approximately 27 weeks, way too early. We called the doctor and the hospital and then we were on our way. My husband had to throw 3 sleeping kids in the car and drive like crazy for 30 miles. We arrived at the hospital, the doctor was waiting for us and upon examination confirmed that in fact my water had broken. He then advised us that they were not equipped to care for a premature infant at that hospital and I was going to be transported to Dartmouth Medical Center in NH.


I started getting shots and IV’s in prep for transport. They were going to take me by helicopter but the weather was too horrible. So they took me down and loaded me into an ambulance and left my husband scrambling to find my friend that had taken the kids for us, in our car, so he could drive the 2 hours to the hospital.

Even though they had put me on medicine to stop the contractions I started having them again about 20 minutes before we got to the hospital. The ambulance got me to the hospital in just over an hour and I was taken up to their birthing unit. I met all the doctors, obstetricians, neonatal specialists etc. They took time to get me settled, take vitals and all I think to allow time for Jeff to get there. After he arrived the primary doctor sat and talked with us about all of the possible risks and outcomes of having a baby at 27 weeks. We were devastated. At one point Jeff went over to the window and just stood staring out for the longest time. I found out later that he was praying to God to please let our baby be okay.

The physicians then decided to do an ultrasound so they could have a clear picture as to what they were dealing with. It took what seemed like forever for them to set up the machine and then they started checking. First they told us that the baby was head down which was good - that eliminated cesarean for reasons of a breech birth. Then they started taking measurements and the computer automatically calculates gestational age and they started coming up 35.4 weeks, 38.2 weeks, 40.7 weeks and the doctors started to chuckle looked at the nurse and said “take her off the magnesium and start the pitocin.”

I still had no idea what was going on, as I couldn’t see the monitor. So she told me that it looked like our baby was 8-10 weeks older than we all thought. I can’t tell you how hard we cried tears of relief. Then we asked her about my abdomen being so small as it had measured around 30 weeks. She verified this and then felt the baby and said “well you’re just not going to have one of those 8-9 pounders you’re used to. This one will probably be 6-6.5 pounds. The baby’s probably just been tucked up under your rib cage.” We spent the rest of the afternoon walking the halls and at 8:13pm on Sunday, March 23, 2003 Lauren Grace was born weighing 7 pounds 15 1/2 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches long. I guess all the doctors have been wrong about one thing or another with this pregnancy.