We have a potential birthdate!!!!

Well, it looks like the plan is to deliver next Thurs, Jan 31st (c-section scheduled for 9am), assuming that nothing comes up in between now and then. The babies looked pretty good again today, although the doppler (cord flow) looked a little off for our Baby C again. I will stay in the hospital for the duration so that they can keep a close watch over the babies and be able to deliver quickly should any other complications arise.

Email and the internet are my "friends" right now, so please feel free to email whenever. I enjoy the communication. Also, you are welcome to call/come by (for the locals, that is). I'm at UT in room 311. The main phone # here is (865) 305-9000 and then you would ask for room 311. I've told Troy that I have way more contact with people being stuck in bed at the hospital than I was at home, but it's still a little weird to be away from home for so long. I miss the puppies already.

I'm going to try to keep up with the blog pretty regularly as we will meet with the doctors each day. And I'm going to make sure that Troy and Aunt Karen know how to update here as well in case I'm not up to it and we have big news.

In the meantime, please keep praying that things continue to go smoothly and that the babies can put on a little more weight, get better lung development, and just generally be a little more ready for the big world by next Thursday. Our dr doesn't plan to go past that date since he feels they are not gaining weight as quickly as he would like, so we should definitely meet them in SIX DAYS OR LESS!!! We are hoping that this extra week might get them closer to (or at) 4lbs each and hopefully avoid any respiratory issues as well.

I guess I should also mention now (for those of you who might not have heard) that they will, obviously, be in the NICU at first. One of the neonatologists (baby specialists, we'll say)came by yesterday to explain what we could expect of 33-34 weekers. The hospital will tell us to expect them to be here until their original due date (March 13th), which would be 6wks. He said that we could realistically expect them to be here for about 4-6wks. That can certainly change and we could luck out with very healthy babies who feed and grow quickly and can come home much sooner.

I would like to explain that since they will be in the NICU, there is no viewing window in a nursery and there are no visitors allowed to see the babies (beyond us and the grandparents). I know that some people might want to stop in to get a glimpse and thought I'd should warn you now so that you are not disappointed. It's a hospital policy that is meant to protect the babies from any illnesses until their little immune systems are built up, so we hope you understand. You are, of course, welcome to stop in to see us, but I know that isn't as much fun. :)

Thanks again for all of your kinds words, support, prayers, calls, etc. It really is such an exciting (albeit scary)time. We are just so excited about seeing what they look like, holding their tiny hands and snuggling up to them! Neither one of us can wait to meet them. We were just saying that we are sort of thankful that it isn't a "normal" singleton pregnancy where we would have to wait another 6 wks to meet them. I think I'd come out of my skin! Thanks again. And we'll be back on here soon!