Little Sweetie,

was how Lucy reffered to Ariana. I don't know where she picked up the phrase, I don't ever remember using it myself, but that was what Lucy said to her all the time. "Poor Little Sweetie"," Hello little Sweetie", "Hi my little sweetie"," Oh little sweetie", and finally, the most heartbreaking "Goodnight little sweetie", and "I love you little sweetie", as she said goodbye to her sister for the final time.

I was afraid, that when Ariana was born Lucy would be scared. I worried that she would be afraid of the tubes, the wires and the machines that were keeping our baby alive. As it turns out, I was more afraid of them than she was. We thought about keeping her away at first, but all we wanted, was for our family to be together, For Lucy to meet her much anticipated baby sister. So we let her in.

I'm so glad we did. Because if we hadn't, she would have missed some of the most precious moments. She never would have been able to call her "little sweetie". And when I went shopping tonight, and found a pink baby towel, with the words "little sweetie" embroidered on it, I would have had no reason to cry.

I bought the towel to keep in the memory box. I'm going to go back and buy Lucy one. My two daughters. My two "little Sweeties".