Holding pattern...

A quick post to keep everyone up to date. The mothership has been put into a holding pattern and is currently cruising steady at 4000 calories a day with constant H2O burn of 12 glasses a day. All systems seem to be working as per expectations with the ground crew working overtime to ensure adequate fuel availability. Slight wear and tear is noted on exterior surfacing, expected and noted for future repairs. Mothership and cargo scheduled for complete analysis in port on Thursday 13:00 hrs, results will be made public when available.
Co-pilot is currently enjoying a little relative R&R due to extra reinforcements brought in from Alberta (the best help seems to come from Canada these days...who knew???)and Jr pilot Mark is working on becoming General Mark First Class.
Countdown clock noted at Arrival less 6 weeks, much optimism that the mission will be a complete success although experts warning of difficult phases ahead. All systems go and countdown continues.

Of course, Mark is enjoying the weather and a few friends - doesn't have a care in the world...

24!

Well this house is rockin and rolling...well maybe not but I am proud to say that our appt at Swedish yesterday went really well and so we're all feeling pretty good around here. I might even get my sense of humor back, which would be nice for my roomates - daddy's been feeling the pressure lately which probably makes me a pain in the butt to be around!!!
I have to admit, I was worried that Sherri would be whisked straight from the ultrasound into L&D yesterday-of course I said nothing but you know...the worst case scenario did present itself regularly (usually about 4:30 in the morning too).
But Sherri is a supermom and all her bed-rest seems to be doing the trick- the babies look awesome, cerv. has actually improved a bit (YES!) and so a big collective sigh of relief could probably be heard all the way to Pikes Market yesterday. All of a sudden, we're thinking 32-34 weeks again instead of "oh-my-goodness-this-is-my-worst-nightmare-1-lb-babies-in-NICU-for-months-and-months-with-50-percent-chance-of-survival..." You know what I mean. None of us want that.
Here's the goods. The next 4 weeks will see the babies grow from about 1 1/2 lbs to about 2.5/3 lbs - this is a huge period for their development which makes it so important - we're pulling all the stops out right now, Sherri's mom has been here all week, my mom is coming next week, etc. Fern said to me yesterday "I just can't believe how much she is eating!" - Sherri's eating constantly, drinking copious amounts of water and really just laying around. But it's working.
Welcome to our roller coaster. Today I feel invincible.

Week 23

Time for another update, although there's not too much to share. Sherri's doing ok this week, has started to have a few contractions occasionally which always puts us on high alert! I'm hoping that they don't get any worse as if they do we'll be off to the hospital for a full check over, and I'm thinking that we might just lose our mama around here for a while. Hoping that doesn't happen yet, as both Mark and I would prefer her to be here at home. But the babies come first, and at some point I know she'll be hospitalized so we'll just have to wait and see.
Sherri's mom is flying out tomorrow for a week, and it will be so nice to have her here. I'm realizing that it is really tough to look after a 3-yr old and a wife on bed-rest...so the extra help will be amazing. Last weekend my aunt and uncle came down from BC to help out for a few days...Aunt Betty filled up the freezer with made meals and Uncle Robin helped me with my projects- absolutely amazing of them to come and be with us. We truly enjoyed having them and Mark was calling them grandpa and grandma in no time! Whatever...the more the merrier!
We've pretty much shut everything down except for necessities. Sherri is taking her bed-rest very seriously - only up for bathroom breaks and lots of days she doesn't even come downstairs. This of course is kind of tough if I'm working late so we've had to call in a few favors!! Thankfully, we've got great friends around that are able to chip in a little here and there.
I find myself counting the weeks all the time - and just keeping my fingers crossed that we can get to the 32 week mark, where in theory the NICU can take over if they have to and the babies will be fine. But between then and now there's 9 weeks that sometimes seem like ages! One day at a time...
Our next scheduled appointment at Swedish is next thursday, so thats our next big target. We'll keep ya posted.

Some pictures from when Uncle Robin and Aunt Betty came to stay!

Mark keeping mama company
Mark's "worker-man" hat!
Fun fun fun!

Week 22 Update

I've been meaning to update the blog for a few days - but thought I'd wait until we had been to the hosp. for our appt this week so I could share the progress report. Sherri had the last of her 4 Iron transfusions yesterday, hopefully that will help her feel a little better and not be so tired all the time. I guess its pretty common for a mama of trips to have iron deficiency- the three critters are takin' all they can get right now. So that appt lead into the ultrasound where we could spy on the babies a little.
The ultrasounds are kind of neat right now - all arms and legs and in our case...little man parts! I'm telling you, I have to laugh every time I see all these little guys and how they are all curled up hanging out in their little swimming pools! They don't have a care in the world. They box one another, hiccup all the time and we even got to check out baby Bs little eyes that were wide open. These little guys are perfection.
So the bad news was that Sherri's cervix is getting thinner - which is both expected and shocking at the same time. So for those not well versed in baby-carrying: the babies are wrapped up inside the uterus, and the cervix is a muscle-like area that holds it shut. Eventually, the cervix thins out to nothing and opens, at which time the babies start to come. I think of it like the cork on the bottle, and as the babies grow the cork will eventually pop. So Sherri has had a great cervix up to now, and we've been fairly confident that she's doing great. However, they measure it everytime we go in and this week it had shrunk about 30%. So...the only remedy at this point is bed-rest and hope that it doesn't continue to get smaller. Now, we know that eventually we'll have have to deal with this - that is a forgone conclusion...but we definitely don't want these problems right now at 22 weeks. Basically, we need another 4 weeks absolute minimum for the babies to be viable, 8 to 10 weeks more is what we really want. So the pressure is on!
Marky is doing great- he's getting more and more excited about the arrivals - he keeps saying that "the babies take a long long time" so I think he's looking forward to it. I think he'll be a great big bro and we'll have a lot of fun with these little guys. Of course, he'll need to learn to share all his prized possesions which will be interesting, but hey thats ok too.
All in all we're doing great...just the usual drama at the Miles house!! Ciao.