The delivery?

The delivery?! Such a nerve wracking thing to think about. On the one hand, it would be so nice to just have a date and know that they wouldn't come before that date and mess with our perfectly laid plans. On the other hand, I don't want to take them out until they've done all the growing that THEY plan to do inside of me.

My OB is no help. He's perfectly content to let me pick a date and get it scheduled. He won't stop labor if it happens anytime after 34 weeks (which I'm not OK with) and he's not really concerned with them doing their growing outside of me.

So, I will not be just picking a date or 'giving up' until the babies are ready to meet their parents. We have a date that is our cut-off though. March 3 (3-3-09) makes a great mathematical birth date for STE & S, so if the babies have not decided to come out by then, I'm OK with helping them along. Unfortunately, that makes me 38weeks 5 days. What are the odds that the babies will really stay put that long? Neither one of my own stayed that long (although we induced Ciera because I needed to hold her and we think Logan's dates were off by a bit).

P & L were a scheduled c-section at 36weeks 6 days due to P's breech presentation and my rising blood pressure (but it was the end of August and hot as heck-the swelling was horrible). Although they were both released with me on the 3rd day and were totally OK, there's still parts of me that wish we'd made it to at least 37 weeks and I wonder how much longer they would've liked to have grown inside the uterus.

Since these are not my children, I will not be the one to decide when they come. I do have an alternative date that I think could be just as special as 3-3-09 and that is a little more reasonable for the body to handle though. February 25, 2009 (2-25-09) would make me 37weeks 6 days. The numbers still add up to 9, P & L were born on the 25th, AND P & L were born at 36weeks 6 days (1 week difference exactly). Being the sweetest people ever, STE has said I can schedule the birth any time I just can't carry any longer, but that is just not my choice to make.

So I figure we have less than 9 weeks to go at the most and probably closer to 7 or 8 more weeks. With any luck at all, baby girl will flip breech sometime in the next month and we'll have to pick a c-section date after all, making all of our worrying about planning a vaginal birth unnecessary.

I remember the toughest part of being pregnant with my 2nd child was how to make everything OK for my 1st. In fact, I didn't even have my husband come with me to the hospital. My SIL flew in from CA (we were still in TX) and she came with me at midnight to the hospital. She traded places with her brother around 8am and Brian barely made it for the birth. BUT, I knew Ciera (my 1st) was as happy as she could possibly be without me, I was a grown up and would be OK with anyone. Even staying home with her dad, the poor thing was awake all night watching cartoons because I wasn't there. During the daytime she was fine with her aunt, but nighttime was OUR time. I didn't really want Brian to miss the birth of his son, but I was OK with him missing the labor.
I think STE is facing some of the same concerns, but to a different degree. She doesn't want to miss the birth of the babies, but how long is OK to be without her first two while she waits? There is no easy answer. A scheduled delivery helps, but what if we pick the wrong date and the babies just weren't ready?

I have an ultrasound scheduled for 36 weeks, so hopefully that will help us to know how things are looking with the cervix, baby girl's positioning and how the sacs are looking.

And then there's the little fears in the back of my head, what if I can't carry them as long as their siblings? What if I go into labor in January before 34 weeks? What if my bag of waters break and there's nothing we can do but let them be born early? Now, I do not spend insane amounts of time worrying about them coming early, but when baby girl spends an immense amount of time pressing on my lower parts while I'm out strolling Target, I do worry that maybe she's telling me to go HOME! So while I do still have some things to do in January and February, most of my days will be spent at home, lounging around, trying to keep everything quiet. Is it necessary? Probably not, but it will make me feel SO much more comfortable and less worried about the babies coming early.