We have a birthday scheduled!

Just a quick update today. We made it to the magic date of August 14...my doctors have returned! Had an in-depth check up with each yesterday and everything is very good. Did an ultrasound first and all three babies seem quite content where they are for now. No measurements or weights this week, but they check things like their movements, amount of amniotic fluid for each, etc as indicators of whether any seem to be experiencing any distress. Next was the non-stress test/monitoring, and the babies heartbeats are great, but I'm still contracting quite a bit. I'm continuing on my medication to try to control it, but they don't seem to be bothering the babies or causing any other problems, so I just try to ignore them! Next was my OB check - blood pressure's good, weight is good (a total of 40 pounds now, which is right in the range of the 40-45 pound gain they told me to expect). My belly is now measuring 46 weeks pregnant, so as you can imagine, gravity is not my friend. I've also begun to swell a bit, mostly in the ankles. First thing in the morning it's almost inperceptible, but by evening, even with mostly sitting and a little walking around they've puffed out - I guess I didn't escape the "cankle" affliction entirely! Jeff affectionately refers to them as my Fred Flintsone feet. :-) I have surpassed the "average" triplet delivery range of around 33 weeks, so we are truly in bonus territory. I've been told that if I started to dilate they might try a few things to slow it down and buy a few days, but that if they were born tomorrow, the outcome would almost certainly be excellent. The best thing is that I'm beyond the window when they would use the "big gun" drug Magnesium to stop contractions/slow dilation...it has some nasty side effects and requires hospitalization during its use, so I'm VERY grateful to have escaped that. Both doctors seem to think we can make it to 36 weeks, which would be as much as we could possibly ask for. So, we went ahead and scheduled a c-section for Thursday, August 31st, just 2 days shy of the 36 week mark, and we'll pray the babies and I can hold out that long! There's even a chance that if we make it that far, the babies would come home with us after my c-section recovery...no extended hospital stay. Yippee! Then the fun really begins, right? My mom visited last week and between she and Jeff we made a ton of progress on our To Do list! They installed a closet organizer in the nursery, and my mom painted our dresser/changing table, checked all the swings and bouncy seats to make sure they're operable as well as washed the covers, ran a bunch of errands and much more...she was a warrior! Jeff installed the car seats over the weekend and now we just need to have them double checked at the police dept to make sure they're installed properly. There are still things to do, but it felt good to knock those off the list. Please keep us in your prayers that we make it to August 31st. Much love to everyone!