Holding Tight

We had our weekly appointment today and it was another encouraging hour with the doctors.

The stitches are holding tight, all 3 babies are active and growing. We saw one of the girls practicing breathing, which is great. We are all still very optimistic that we can make it to 30 weeks, praise the Lord!

We got the hospital bed late last week so it has made life a little easier for Ali getting up and down all of the time.

We have another complete ultrasound in 2 weeks where they will check out all the girls in depth again for breathing, size, activity level, etc. At that point we will be at almost 27 weeks and heading into the final weeks before our 3 little angels bless us with their presence.

We have finally painted both rooms up stairs to start the process of changing from Ali's "dorm room" to the nursery and changing/rocking chair room. We are getting close to completing the basement so there is an extra bathroom that I can use now that we will have 4 females looking for bathroom time.

Thank you all again for all of the meals, calls, visits, etc. It is fun to see everything pop on the calendar!

Wednesday Update

We had our weekly appointment today and we got great news again, praise the Lord.

All 3 girls are looking great and the stitches are doing their job and holding tight. They do not want to admit Ali to the hospital yet since she is doing so well at home and there is less chance of infection at home.

Ali is looking more and more pregnant each day and with that it becomes harder and harder to get up off the couch each time to go to the bathroom. So they are looking in to getting us a hospital bed for the house so she can raise her self up and down easily with less strain on her body. Who knew all of this stuff was available? We will take it if we can get it!

We continue with the twice a day monitoring and the twice a week home visits by the nurses to keep us busy.

Continued thanks for all of the meals, calls, e-mails, prayers, etc. we can't express our appreciation enough.

Stay Tuned!

4 1/2 more weeks to 28 weeks and then the hard press to 30+ weeks.

Peter and Ali +3

A Busy Week

Well, of the past 8 days we have spent 5 of them at Abbott. We have become "frequent fliers." Ali had a good appointment on Wednesday. The stitches are holding tight and her cervix has sustained its length. The girls are all weighing around a pound each and growing strong, baby C is the smallest at 15 ounces and Baby B is the biggest at 1 lb. 3 ounces. Ali was still feeling a little crampy with contractions, so she is now being monitored 2 times a day over the telephone.
You have to love technology! She wears the monitor for an hour and then plugs it into the phone line and calls the nurse hotline. The information is transmitted, and then the nurses call and let us know what they see and let us know if we need to get in the car to head to the hospital, or if we are okay to stay at home.

We are continuing to hold out for early December.

Hopefully the next 8 days will provide some more restful days and nights here at home.

Thanks again for all of the prayers, calls and e-mails.

Peter and Ali +3

Home Sweet Home

We are back home again after a long weekend at Abbott. The doctors won't admit until 24 weeks. (viability)

Ali is still feeling some contractions, but the doctors still felt confident in sending us home. We will now have home monitoring twice a week on top of our weekly appointment. We will be continuing with bed rest and continuing to pray that the stitches hold. The girls turned 22 weeks today.

Thank you for all of the prayers over the weekend!

We will continue to update this site but feel free to e-mail and/or call the house to chat with Ali to break up the days.

Peter and Ali +3

Change of Plans

Well, Ali went in again this morning since she was feeling some irritability and contractions. The doctor's measured her cervix again and it was holding tight at the stitch, so they hooked her up to the contraction monitors and they were seeing what she was feeling. So they admitted her to Abbott this morning for at least the next few days and possibly the duration which we are now hoping for 30 weeks or November 25th.

Ali is doing well at the hospital, currently they have her in a standard Labor and Delivery room and will hopefully move her to a long-term room tomorrow. She will then have a fridge and shower as well as a cot for me!

Please continue to pray for Ali and her comfort in the ever so comfortable hospital beds, pray that the stitches to hold and the girls to continue to grow and stay healthy.

We will continue to up date this site, when we know what her room phone number will be we will post it here.

Thanks again

Peter and Ali +3

Appointment Update

Ali and the girls had another appointment today and the girls are doing well still.

The doctor did say that Ali's cervix had shortened and was now being held shut by the stitch they inserted a little over a month ago now. (There is no cervix left, just the stitch) Ali was not having any contractions which is great news, but we are concerned about the shortening again. We are hopeful that the stitch will hold strong and that her cervix will gain some length back again this week.

So our plan now is to continue with the bed rest and continue to pray that the stitches hold strong and that the babies hold on until early December. Please continue to pray for Ali as she continues bed rest and for the girls that they find a way to stay inside until December.

Thank you for all of your support and we will update again after our appointment next week. Our appointment next week is another complete ultrasound so we should have some good shots of the girls to post again.

Peter and Ali +3

Thumbs Up!

Well, we have a few more photos of each girl for their baby books. They were all pretty normal profile pictures, arms, legs, etc. But in one photo Baby "C" (our little angel with the 2 vessel cord) is seen here giving us the thumbs up from inside. So she knows we have all been praying for her and she just wants to say back everything is cool guys just keep laying on that couch mommy!

We also took a quick photo of Ali on one of her trips from the couch back to the bed for the night. This is taken at 21 weeks with 1 month of bed rest down and 3 more to go!

We have another appointment (field trips for Ali) on Wednesday, so we will update the site after that appointment again.

Thank you all for the continued prayers, phone calls, e-mails, food, etc. it is amazing!

Love Peter and Ali +3