On our way to 26 weeks!!!

Well, I'm the most uneventful patient here I think. The nurses say they love it :-) ! I am not having contractions, I don't have any pain, the babies are doing great so everyday I just hang out in bed and the nurses don't have to do much for me. They laugh at me because my biggest crisis right now is that I broke two nails....by the way, it's much harder to find someone to make "hospital calls" for acryllic nails than you would think!!! It's my mission :-) !! I'm not going to give up!! Anyways, nothing new to report really. The babies are moving all the time, they have shown no signs of distress on any of my non-stress tests, and I'm feeling just fine. The hardest part of my NSTs are getting the girls to both stay on the monitors long enough. They get to moving so much, and they are still so small that the nurses have to sit with me the entire time to chase them around. We've decided Conley is definitely the problem child of the two! Cooper is always cooperative and we can always find her hanging out in the same exact place. I feel her moving a lot, but it never fails when we have to hook her up to the monitor or listen for a heartbeat, we know where she is at. As long as my cervix maintains where it's at and doesn't continue to shorten, all is good! I have another sonogram on Wednesday to check my cervix again and to measure the approximate size and weights of the girls. I'm anxious to see how much they have grown over the past two weeks. Yes, on Wednesday I will have been here TWO weeks already!! It really has flown by so far, praise God!

They are starting the new program that I get to be a part of for the first time here called "Mommies in Waiting Antepartum Family Support Program." It's especially geared toward those moms that are here that don't have as much support from family and friends. Apparently, I have a LOT of visitors the nurses say :-) . Sometimes, I'm afraid they are going to have to tell us to keep it down in here! I really am so blessed to have so many thoughtful family and friends. This would be much harder otherwise. It's so sad, because apparently there are some girls here that are teenage moms-to-be on bed rest or that have some sort of substance abuse problems, whether it be cigarettes or drugs of some kind. They've even had to take a girl down for drug tests on occasion. I can't imagine after all the sacrifices that you have to make (even

though they are well worth it) to be admitted to the hospital for full-time bed rest, that you would continue to do these other things that could harm the babies. It's so so heartbreaking. I pray for those moms and I pray pray pray that their babies will be born healthy. Well, this program should be interesting. I know that I told you guys that they want me to teach/help with the first craft to make the countdown chains - we'll see if anyone even shows up :-) ! We have FREE 15 minute massages that will start on Thursday, EVERY Thursday. The lady will come to our rooms. AWESOME!! They are trying to find someone to do manis and pedis, which we will have to pay for, but is so nice that they want to make the services available. They have

some scheduled classes that we can attend on caring for newborns, breastfeeding, delivering a baby, etc. These are classes that the hospital offers, but they won't be any cost to us. Next week we have a scheduled craft time where we are going to make the sew-free blankets where you put two pieces of fabric together and cut the sides into lots of tabs that you tie into knots....I know it sounds cheesy, but I'm excited about it :-) ! I feel like I'm in a retirement home where they have a social calendar for all of us. I'm waiting for them to say there will be a BINGO night...ha ha!! I'll go to that one too :-) !! Anyways, I think it's really great that they are doing this, because I have heard that so many of the other women are down and depressed a lot. I can see how that could happen over time, especially if you don't have a lot of positive support.

The hardest thing still is being away from Matt and Campbell. I have been blessed to see them everyday so far, but it's still hard to say goodbye each time. I just have to keep my mind focussed on Cooper and Conley, and just thank God that the more time they can stay inside me is less time than they would have to spend in the NICU. I know that Campbell is being cared for and that she is doing fine, so I have to remember that. There are times that I could just cry (and I have!), but I know that this is what I have to do right now, it's only a short time in my life, and it's for the best interest of our two precious girls. I'm still hoping and praying for my ultimate goal of at least 36 weeks, when hopefully they won't have to spend anytime in the NICU. I just talked to a nurse that said she remembers a patient that was on bed rest for over 2 months,

went home to finish her bed rest there for the last few weeks and then had to be induced at 38 weeks!!! I hope that is my story!!! It has been easy to keep my focus on why I'm doing this, because Matt has been so great and handled all of his responsibilities so well and Campbell is continuing to be her happy self. Our visits are getting more fun as she is getting used to visiting me. She immediately wants to turn on a movie, which I love since she can be in bed with me, and she knows when she is here that she gets M&Ms or other candy. My dad got me a box of M&M Minis from Sam's, so I'm stocked up to hand out treats to all my little visitors!

I'm 25 weeks and 3 days today!! Thank you God for this day for Conley and Cooper to grow bigger and stronger!

For a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7