The Date Has Been Set!!!

I waddled my way in for the non-stress test today. It was uneventful. I played mindless games on the iPad while the boy and then the girl were tested. It was fun listening to their little heart beats and seeing the changes in their HB's as they moved around. It was slightly uncomfortable toward the end; my poor back. The OB came in and checked out the graphs and said we passed with flying colors! Everything looked perfect!! She was happy to see I'm having contractions and asked if I could feel them. Honestly, not really. Once in a while I can feel a slight tightening or twinge, but if she didn't tell me those were contractions, I would not have known.

She then lit up when she told me she had good news on setting a date. After discussing my case with the MFM office (they have to give their stamp of approval on a multiples induction), the MFM office wanted me to wait until 38 weeks. They didn't see a reason to schedule it early. My OB brought up the smaller size of the boy baby and they obliged to give their blessing for an induction during the 37 week mark. She did me a favor by pulling this card out of her back pocket, because although the boy is a tad smaller, he's still healthy and hanging in at the 30th percentile. Aside from the initial concern of his slower growth, he's been keeping a steady weight gain so realistically we are not concerned about him. However, if bringing him up as a concern gets me in a week earlier SIGN ME UP!!

At my last appointment earlier this week I begged her to schedule it as close to the 37 week mark as possible. I got my wish!! We're scheduled for Sept 15 which puts me at 37w1d. YEAH!!!! I think 9/15/12 sounds like a lovely day for a birthday!! I waddled back out to my car with a new spring in my step! Of course I had to go through a few 'you're going to have that baby at any time' comments from strangers and I smiled largely and responded 'yup, by next Saturday!' I had an overwhelming sense of happiness and joy wash over me. This is happening. Our day is coming!

My OB still didn't seem too confident that I'd make it to next week, but either way I'm fine. The babies should be healthy and avoid the NICU. What more could a girl ask for? 36 weeks has been my goal throughout this pregnancy and I hit that mark today. What a great feeling!!

To think, we've been trying to bring a baby home for over 4 years. FOUR YEARS!! It's been an arduous journey and a far off distant dream that frequently felt unattainable. Here we are, after dozens of appointments, hundreds of shots, days of tears, weeks of sadness, wishful thinking, heartfelt prayers, and endless amounts of hope, patience and strength on the brink of making our dream a reality. We fought for this. We made abundant sacrifices. When I didn't think I could do it another day, my husband put his arms around me and gave me reason to continue. He was at my side holding my hand through this entire journey. He never placed blame for our infertility on me nor uttered one complaint about our situation. He was my source of strength, motivation and my hope through the past 4 years. This struggle has brought us closer than ever. The pain united us and forced us to work together. We made it through and our relationship has forever changed for the better. We're incredibly blessed to be able to experience one of life's greatest moments. I'll never forget what we went through to get here. We'll hang on to these babies a bit tighter, gaze at them a little longer and love them explicitly more because of what we went through to meet them. Dreams really do come true.