Sister Wives

Last Monday, 3/21/11, was a life changing moment in my friendship with Nicole Archer and Sarah Thakur.

We affectionately refer to our little trio as the "Sister Wives." We all met working at Hines VA and have become the best of friends. When Nicole, who we affectionately called Mama G, found out she was having a girl, we were thrilled! We could not wait for Baby Grace to arrive. At 3:50pm on Monday, Nicole called Sarah & I and told us that she thought her water had broke. She was only 33 weeks and 1 day pregnant - we were freaking out! After calling her doctor, she told her to come to the hospital. To make matters even more complicated, Nicole's husband had left his cell phone in her car that morning. As Sarah & I were driving Nicole to Northwestern Hospital in rush hour, we were finally able to reach her husband and did all we could to keep Nicole's spirits up. He works at least an hour North of the city and was going to rush to meet us at the hospital. We got Nicole to the hospital and they quickly directed us to labor & delivery. Sweet Nicole was still in a little denial that she was in labor but Sarah & I knew it was happening. We got her settled in the delivery room and patiently waited for her husband to arrive. We saw her labor progress and laughed about who was going to hold which leg when she started to push. About 2 hours after getting Nicole to the hospital, Dave arrived! At 9pm, Grace Catherine Archer was born! 4lbs 9oz 19 inches. Grace has been in NICU at Northwestern since day 1 but is doing very well. Nicole & Dave have already become amazing parents and are doing everything they can to get Grace home as soon as possible. Sarah & I have become Grace's special "aunts" and love her very much. 30 years from now we will be telling this story at Grace's wedding...

Sister Wives: Sarah, Nicole, & Me - 5 days after Grace was born.