Day 16 of my captivity

Today is the last day of my "bed rest" captivity! Hooray!! Tomorrow is the exciting birth of our beautiful triplets. We are so excited to meet them!! The labor and delivery nurses will come in around 5-6 am to get me and start preparing me for surgery in the OR. I will get a spinal block for the procedure so I will be awake for it but numb. Once they have me all prepped they will go and get Ben. He will sit next to me during the delivery. He will have the option to watch the babies being born if he so chooses. Once the babies are cleaned up, he will be allowed to take pictures of them - as long as there aren't any emergencies. The actual c-section will take about an hour and then I will go into recovery for approximately 2-3 hours. During that time Ben will be allowed to stay with the babies as long as there aren't any unforeseen problems with their health. Please continue to pray that the delivery goes well and that the babies are born healthy and can go straight to the regular nursery rather than the NICU.

Dr. J. (Perinatologist) came in to see if I had any questions about tomorrow procedure. We went over the details again and he reassured me that babies born at 35 weeks should not have any long term health problems due to the timing of the delivery. He said the same was for 36 weeks. He also said NICU possibilities were about the same for 35 and 36 week babies so that was helpful to hear. Dr. J., Dr. V., and all of the other Perinatologists I've been seeing agree that 35.0 is the safest option for me and also for the babies. Even the Neonatalogist (Dr. C.) agreed it was the best time for me. This information was helpful. Ben and I are both confident in their decision and believe it is the best for me as well.

The social worker stopped by to see me and gave me information about the Ronald McDonald house in the event the babies are staying in the hospital after I get discharged. She will be on "stand by" for coordinating everything if it's something we end up needing. For now, we're all concentrating on the positive outcome - take home babies!! :) The charge nurse from the MSC (maternal special care) unit came in to let me know that I will come back to this unit/same room after delivery for a couple of days rather than going to the mother and baby unit. The doctors decided to do this because I am at risk for complications due to carrying all of the extra blood, fluids, etc. with the triplets and they have the staff in this unit to watch me closer than the other unit. The first few days they will monitor my heart, lungs, etc. to make sure I am okay. Once I prove to be stable they will move me to the mother & baby unit for the remainder of my stay. If I don't have any complications, they said I could get released on Monday or Tuesday next week.

Ben is coming tonight and will spend the night in my room so he's here and ready to go in the morning. He is bringing his camera, laptop, etc. so at some point on Thursday (when he has time) he will send out an email or post on the blog (or both) to let people know how things are going. If he sends an email, it more than likely will come from my hotmail account. Pictures may or may not be a part of the original email - it just depends on how much time he has. More than likely the babies will not have names yet. We are waiting until we can both spend time with them before giving them a name. Once we have selected the perfect names we will let everyone know. :)

Thanks for all your prayers. We are so thankful for your encouragement and prayer support during this entire journey. We are so blessed to have such fantastic friends and family.