The Brownies Are Here!

Last Monday morning, I sent LPb a text about our plans to visit her the next day. As far as I knew, she was still resting {semi} comfortably at home, taking it easy, attempting to deal with her huge belly, and awaiting the arrival of the Brownies. Nola, Aunt E, the boys, Kate, Luke, and I were going to invade her new house and bother her for a couple of hours on Tuesday. But we were going to bring lunch. And cookies, I’m sure.

However, she responded that there may be an issue and that she may have to go back to the hospital. She said she would let me know something for sure later that afternoon. At 4:36pm, the text came through.

“Doing the section tonight at 8pm. Tomorrow is off :)“

She was having some shortness of breath, a lot of protein in her urine, and her platelet count was low, so her doctor decided to take the twins that very day and avoid any further complications. The day Lizzie and Doug had been planning and waiting and praying and striving for had finally arrived. The Brownies were coming, the Brownies were coming! Or, as they put it: “The Brownies are baked! Coming out of the oven tonight.”

I arrived at the hospital at 8:30pm, as Lizzie thought Doug would be out to announce the Brownies’ arrival around 9pm. There was a bit of a party going on in the waiting room: Cynthia was passing out champagne, and Ashley even opened a Google chat with their brother Alex and his girlfriend Janice, who live in Boston. We had a great time.

When 9pm came and went with no sign of Doug, everyone started to get restless. However, I knew from Kenny taking forever our first time around that Doug was probably just enjoying his first few moments with his wife and his new babies. He finally came in just before 10pm and announced that everyone was fine. (Sidenote: Lizzie’s mom Mrs. Patti ended up winning BOTH of the baby pools!)

And of course he had a special way to reveal the Brownies’ genders and their names. They had been calling them “Light” and “Dark” for most of the pregnancy, and he said for every dark side there is a light side. He brought out these twisted creations of copper wire and had us turn out the lights in the waiting room and put on our cellphone flashlights. We were supposed to be able to see the names from the shadows cast by the wire. It was very cool in theory but the names were really hard to read.

However, both names were eventually deciphered (with a few hints from Doug) and it was revealed that the Brownies were both girls! Emma James, born first at 8:49pm, and Hazel Elizabeth, born second at 8:50pm.

Doug left after sharing the news to get back to his three girls. The rest of us waited for almost another hour before we were allowed back to see them. I have no pictures of Lizzie from that night, but she looked happy, although very tired. And I just couldn’t believe I was actually laying my eyes on the Brownies in the first couple of hours of their lives. I even got to hold sweet Emma.

 

I only stayed for about 15 minutes or so before giving Doug a big hug and Lizzie a kiss on her forehead and telling them to try and get some sleep. They were officially parents!

I took Riley and Rory to meet Emma and Hazel two days later. The four of them were ensconced in a big room with a great view; the boys had so much space to zoom their trucks. They weren’t all that impressed with the two tiny humans, although Rory did get jealous when he saw me holding both of them.

Words cannot express how happy I am for you, LPb and DB. You worked so hard to expand your family and now it’s happened. I am so glad I got to be there to witness two becoming four, and I can’t wait to watch those girls of yours grow up.

Welcome to the world, Emma James and Hazel Elizabeth!