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Charlotte was born at 3:15
and she weighed two pounds, ten ounces
and Kennedy born at 3:16 was two pounds, eleven ounces.
So they were really, really tiny,
I mean you could fit their whole body in our hand.
Now they've quadrupled their weight in a very short time,
they're thriving, they're not even on the preemie charts
any longer, they're just like regular newborn daughters.
My name is Wende King and I've been a member of
Kaiser Permanente San Diego for three and a half years.
On May 9th we had our routine visit and Dr. Mehalek
examined my *** and she said, we're going to
need to get you upstairs right away.
We had specialists come in and tell us that we
wouldn't be leaving until the babies were born.
The statistics you know for a premature baby born at
23 weeks and a day, which is what I was
at the time that I was admitted were very grim.
I mean it was 97 percent chance of death or severe malady.
I felt like I was right where I should be at Kaiser Hospital.
I managed to keep the babies in till 28 weeks and four days
because they were so preemie they got admitted to the
neonatal intensive care unit.
They were doing really well because they had had a
steroid treatment, so their lungs were really strong.
While they were there they were monitored for
apnea and bradycardia.
Both babies had jaundice and had to go under
the ultraviolet lights for treatment.
Then they would encourage us to do kangaroo care,
it's skin to skin contact with the baby.
Our heartbeat has the ability to calm them down.
So when you do skin to skin contact they flourish,
they just do so well.
Kennedy was released about six weeks later
and Charlotte stayed on another two and a half weeks.
They're developing amazing personalities,
they're laughing all the time.
Jimmy is very hands on, he gets up with me all during the night,
he changes them, feeds them, I couldn't do it without him.
What's amazing with Kaiser is that all the doctors and all the
different departments, they're all aware of what's going on,
and so when you go to an appointment they're
looking ahead to all your other appointments
and it's incredible, it's a phenomenal network.
There's a real strong comfort level knowing that even though
you're in a risky situation, everybody's got your back
and ultimately the babies are going to be okay.
This is going to happen to anybody, anywhere,
this is the place to be
and these are the people to be with.