Thursday

Today is growth check day.  I'm pretty sure babies are growing but we'll see...it feels like they are.

I'm 36 weeks today! 

I wonder if they will let me come home, or if they will check me and keep me within close radius of the hospital...

It makes me nervous being 80 miles away and not knowing when to get in the car and go...

Night time, when sleep comes, is my favorite time, because I don't have to worry or wonder.  Today I am wondering...and I am so glad we're headed to Great Falls in an hour...For a short time at least I will be near the hospital!

As I lay awake last night from 2-4am I had these thoughts going through my mind:

Will we make it to the hospital?

What will labor be like?

Will Dr. Key be there? 

Will the Sunday sermon and Saturday graveside service be ready to go before our appointment today just in case someone needs to take over?

Will Joel actually get to be off work completely once these babies are here or will things come up?

When will the car seats get put in the car?

When will the car be cleaned out? And things we don't need in it unloaded...

What will this all be like?! 

What will this all be like?!

Too much to think about.  But thankfully sleep finally did come again!  I'm ready for what the day brings!

Love from Minnesota!

Several days ago we received some love from Minnesota...

It looked like this:

It came full of sunshine and it brightened our days!  It brightened bed rest!  It's still working it's sunshine magic!

So many goodies...Candy, mugs, hot chocolate and tea, yellow guys who race down the window...which one will win?  A music mix, mac and cheese, lemon drops...all the hospital packing lists I read says to take hard candies for me...what is left of these will be packed...

And so much more...lots o' yellow, lots o' fun!  It keeps on giving...

Some wonderful cards...one that is waiting to be opened, as per instruction, til the babies are here!

It was such an awesome surprise.

We love our Minnesota dance party gang!  We miss them so much!  P. Whitty, L-Bomb, Penelope, jay to the dizzle, Elliot...

Much love to you all...we feel your support.

Graduation Day!

"You're graduating today", Ronnie said to me and she was hooking me up to monitors yesterday...

"What does that mean?" I asked her...

We made it!  Back in October when we were admitted to the hospital making it this far seemed nearly impossible...I was very close to giving birth then.  But we made it!  Graduation day!

Gretchen grinned ear to ear later when she told us the same thing.

This is a giant hurdle for us and them...we did it!  My bed rest, Joel taking care of us, other family members here to take care of us, calls and texts from family and friends near and far sharing support with us, careful monitoring by the Dr. staff, lots o' prayers from around the globe...it all worked.  We all did it!  Together.

And the miracle is that our baby girls have had 33 more days to grow and develop inside of me, not in the NICU.  They could still have a little time in the NICU but nothing long term.  We did it!

Now the new goal...wait to have them til late next Sunday night or Monday when Dr. Key and his sheep will be back...

It could happen anytime now, according to Gretchen.

Blizzard

A blizzard is coming.  I'm almost 35 weeks pregnant and 80 miles from the hospital and a blizzard is coming.

This afternoon my phone started making a loud noise like an emergency sound from the TV...and I was like what the heck is going on...

A warning popped up that said a blizzard is coming and the warming is in effect until Saturday at 8am.  Supposedly this is starting at midnight tonight and no travel is advised. 

Ugh!  At 10:45 tomorrow I have a doctor appointment...wonder if they will let us come home.  Wonder if we'll be able to get there. 

I kind of sort of thought we'd get through all of this without a blizzard...I've thought to myself, we don't have to worry about the weather.  It was so mild last year.  And maybe if the babies were coming in later December we should sweat it but not now...

I think Dr. Key has been worried about winter weather all along.  Makes me wonder if Ronnie, Gretchen, Joel and I will  have to make a decision tomorrow...do we go home or wait out the storm close to the hospital?  Geesh...just slightly nerve-wracking! 

Good thing we have hospital bags packed already.

Promises

Yesterday I was pondering God's promises. 

And our journey. 

And how our little babies will be here in 22 days or less. 

And how surreal that feels. 

And the tears we've cried...happy and heart breaking ones.

And the hopefulness.

And the hopelessness.

And the scare we had in October that landed us in the hospital...and how our babies came so close to making their arrival then.  And how dangerous that could have been...

And ultimately how all along God has promised us these little girls.  But we didn't always believe it.  Even in our disbelief that promise has always been there.  It never went away.  We just didn't always see it.  We were scared and heart broken.  We were sad and hopeless.

Dr. Key told us yesterday that we have new goals...by tomorrow their danger begins to go down, the days they will have to be in NICU begin to decrease...

By next week they will only have a couple of days of NICU ahead of them...

By November 20th they will more than likely get to go home with us!  That's our new goal.  And the added bonus...Dr. Key will be back by then!

He also told us...

"Your Faith is such a big part of why this is working..."

"You give me strength...what you have been able to accomplish..."

Him and I both teared up when we talked about the Dr. Seuss book he recommended.

When Ronnie came in he said to her, "I want to clone these two people,"...

We're walking God's promise...and our little girls will be here soon!  He said he would not let me go past the 28th of November because my body cannot handle it...babies are coming soon!

Traveling Sheep!

Last Thursday we went for a growth ultra sound.  Grandma and Grandpa took me because Joel had a funeral to do in Big Sandy.

We were told good news...Baby A is growing!  Baby A is growing!  Baby B went from 4lbs 2oz. to 5 lbs 3 oz.  Baby A went from 3lbs 6 oz. to 5lbs. 3oz.  Gretchen told us that this giant leap in Baby A is impossible...she is more like 4lbs 7oz.  But regardless, she is growing...

Gretchen had other news that day...

Come see us at 11am Monday she said, Dr. Key wants to be sure he gets to see you before he leaves...

He's leaving?

I finally worked up the courage to ask how long he would be gone...the answer is 2 weeks...WHAT?  Um...is this the point in our journey where I freak out, I wondered?  Grandma and I both kind of laughed! 

I think to myself, no Dr. Key cannot go anywhere when we are this close to giving birth!  No, no!

Guess where he is going?  To the International Sheep Herder's Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.  He's taking 100 of his sheep with him!  I mean, as much as I'm worried he'll be gone when we deliver, I get a big kick out of him doing this...

My goodness, traveling sheep!  Now if we can keep these babies from being born til him and his sheep come back, I'll be happy!

Gretchen did add that he has a back up she thinks we will really like, so in other words, we're still in very good hands!