T-minus 24 hours.

Taken the day before Alexa's grand entrance..

I had sat and pondered for a while at that point what it would have been like to have this pregnancy progress normally, without complications and hospitals, and needles, ultrasounds daily, dopplers daily, more IV's than I care to count - the list could go on forever. I had two doctors pick Alexa's birthday for me, she wouldn't be born on her January 4th due date. She would be pulled into the world on November 29th instead. I was so scared that they would be wrong and something would go wrong with her - that she would have under developed lungs, be too tiny or have something else I hadn't thought of wrong. I had spent hours upon hours googling 'birth at 34 weeks gestation', and oddly, every story I had found had a happy endng. Apparently being born at 34 weeks gestation is pretty common these days. Within my 64 days of bedrest I knew that my Doctors had prepped me mentally, physically and emotionally for what was to come. They could more or less predict what would happen now. I knew she would be born at roughly 3 pounds and change. She would be TINY for her gesational age due to the IuGR. Would the steroid shots work? Most likely. Doctors, even Dr's as fantastic as mine were cannot predict everything -they aren't God. I knew I would have a baby in the NiCU - who knew for how long. Would she be home for Christmas? I had A LOT of free time on my hands to ponder the worst and the best possible outcomes. I knew this much - I wanted her healthy. I didn't care by what means it happened, so long as it happened.

I had spent Thanksgiving in the hospital. Ever spend a holiday in the hospital? Its kinda lonely initially. I had a good day tho - they let me up to shower that morning, and I had a ton of company who bought me food galore by that evening. I'm fairly certain I've never been able to pack away THAT MUCH food EVER. It was appalling and amazing all at the same time.

November 28th - the day before. I spent that day paranoid. Asking more questions that I thought I could. I had my regular daily routine that day - wake up and have breakfast, then doppler, downstairs for an ultrasound, and so on and so forth. I was allowed to shower that day because who knew when I'd feel up to it again. I had a really long day and a really long night, tons of visitors and phone calls. Lots to do before my entire life changed. I prayed pretty hard that day for a good outcome the following day. Time would soon tell.