Nic'd Not Broken: Nina and Lina... Judith and Jen

In 2007, a nurse slipped me a piece of paper with a phone number and email address on it. It belonged to my neighbor, Judith. Neither of us were allowed to leave our rooms nor the monitors. I wondered what she looked like, how big her belly was and even what her room looked like. I wondered if she was in pajamas or hospital gown. Whatever made the time pass faster really. We "spoke" on email and most days on hospital phones, but we had never officially met face to face.

On a Sunday morning, my husband and I heard a scream from a woman in the hallway of the bed rest unit. I knew it had to be Judith from the sound of her voice. There was a rush of chaos, followed by complete silence for a long time. Hippa kept anyone from talking to me. It was a blow to me personally.

Over those weeks, we shared a lot of things. We were both pregnant with triplets, both of our mother's names were "Rosemary" and we both grew up Italian. We baked pizzelles, we watched the same shows, had a tendency to cuss, and we shared the same worry and waiting that we knew was coming. The doctors thought it was going to be me that went first and that every day was a blessing for me right down to the hour. Somehow I had heard that her babies were alive and in the NICU and it gave me hope, because she delivered at the cusp of vitality at 24 weeks gestation and I was then just a few days ahead of her now in my pregnancy.

After my own children were born and I was able to walk through the NICU to visit, I saw a girl with long dark brown hair walking towards me. I knew it had to be her. She must have had the same feeling, because she walked right up and introduced herself. And then she introduced her daughters. I watched them as they held their babies a few days later, while I was left still unable to hold the one daughter that I had left with me. I remember taking their picture as my heart sunk into my shoes. Judith holding one and her husband holding another. Those feelings quickly passed as I was equally happy that they weren't in my shoes. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Over the past 6 years we shared the most beautiful and the most excruciating experiences together. Things didn't exactly turn out in our favors... in fact, we kept getting kicked even when we were down. And then kicked some more. We cherish the gift of friendship and we've moved past the reasons we originally met. We continue to learn that we share so many other things in common and that we are still so close, yet so far away from those days on bed rest. We have truly found a friend in one another.

Former roomies, Nina and Adelina (Age 6)

Happy Birthday Nina, Angel Livia, Angel Georgia... Adelina, Angel Sofia & Angel Vincent. And to my oldest daughter, Gianna, who spent her 1st birthday with me the day after the babies were born eating cake out of a foil container, wearing khakis and a white onsie (aka a baby wife beater) with not a single picture of you taken that day... Happy birthday sweetheart.

People always tell Judith and I that we are only given what we can handle. Maybe it's true... maybe not. But having someone to handle the bad times with you is quite the lucky draw. I'm sure either of us would drop each other like a bad habit to have those children running around our homes, but we are in this together.

We've ALL come a long way Baby! Thank you Judith and Nina... and Jason and Tessa.