The "late triplets".

Since I am now 29 weeks pregnant, the nicu has named my babies the" late triplets" because they thought they'd already be born by now. This makes us feel a little relieved since they are used to dealing with much worse. (But not too relieved-we still want as much gestating as possible!) Anyway, can you believe it, only days away from another big goal, 30 weeks! It's been a rocky couple of weeks being in the hospital, with contractions all over the place, and not very restful nights, but I feel a little better mentally (physically is another story, ugh) every day knowing the babies had that day to develop inutero a little longer. One of my doctors has said that if these contractions were any more productive, we'd being visiting these babies in the nicu already. So at least whatever progression they are making is slow thanks to all this intervening, and we all have a little mental party as we go to sleep knowing we made it another day.

I'll admit, sometimes my hormones get the best of me, and I feel like I can't take any more physical or emotional anguish, and I want the babies out already! But then whenever there is a real threat, I freak out and pray that they'll stay in just a little longer. Oh the roller coaster! Of course, we have no other choice but to do everything we can to keep them in, and hormones won't have any say in the final outcome of their arrival. But I hope my sanity can make it to that day. I just want to hold these babies so much, my arms ache. KC and I are just trying to find our deepest strengths to hold it together on the hard days, and to have enough faith to know that everything is going to happen as it should. It's much less pressure to leave it all up to the Lord than to put it all on our shoulders. I wish I could remember that more often.

Mostly, things go pretty smoothly around here. They have me on a few different meds to keep the contractions at bay, and KC and my mom are always doing whatever they can to make me more comfortable and keep me from being too active, or too crazy. Mom and I have really made ourselves at home here with our computers, game-playing, TV vegging, napping, reading, going on wheelchair walks, just plain chatting, and getting to know the entire staff it seems. KC has been working hard looking at vans and accumulating more time off for when we really need it, and then coming "home" for dinner where either he or mom will stay to sleep over. So this is the normal life for us, and we seem to be in a pretty good routine to keep us all sane. Every now and then, I forget why I am here, and what will eventually take place. Before I leave, I will have 3 babies that belong to KC and me. I mean, I feel their jolts all day long, I see them at least once a week on the sonogram, I hear their heart beats at least twice a day, and still, it usually doesn't hit me until I'm about to fall asleep, and everything is quiet, and my brain is finally resting, that I'm going to finally be a mom. It just seems too surreal to think about. Oh man, we are almost there.

So here are some pictures of the latest:

Scary I know, but I had to include it. I had some scarier pictures, believe me.

I LOVE my wheelchair walks, as you can see. People always think I'm in labor so they panic when we are at the elevator, or when we need a door opened. We always reassure them that we have at least a little time left.

Mom did a little decorating. It's nice to see this right in front of my bed. The tiny onesies actually attract a lot of attention. The nurses love it.

I just had to include another walk picture since I love it so much. I hadn't been in the warm noon sun for weeks, and it felt like paradise.

Get ready for the 30 week picture coming up soon. This belly is really quite a scene these days!