See you in September

Well there will be no pony for our little princess...but shhh...don't tell her that! Some of you may remember the deal I made with Madelyn- If you stay put until 38 weeks, when you turn 8 years old Mommy will buy you a pony. No, we have not gone in to labor yet (praise the Lord!) but we did go in for our weekly doctor's appointment and NST.
Her heartbeat was beautiful as always! My contractions had not changed much since last week even though I have been lying to myself apparently all week that they were calming down. They were pretty steady at 7 minutes apart. The doctor said not to really focus on the frequency of the contractions, rather the intensity. Considering I did not even know that some of these were happening when they were I am not worried about them near as much as I was the week before.
All the small peaks on the left are sweet Madelyn's heart rate. All the small (and not so small) peaks on the right are my contractions. Considering the first time I had an NST this line was completely flat with the exception of when I would sneeze it freaked me out the first time I saw this last week. Today...it was just the new norm. So what does all of this have to do with Madelyn being robbed of the dream of owning a pony when she celebrates her 8th year of life?? Due to all of the complications and consistent bleeding due to a tear, my doctor has given us a few milestones that we want to shoot for. The next milestone is making it until 34 weeks. By this point she said they would not try to stop me from going in to labor if it happened on it's own. The second milestone is 36 weeks. At 36 weeks little Madelyn's lungs would most likely be fully developed and ready for screaming-I mean breathing! 36 weeks is the big time goal! If I make it that long she will not let me go past 37 weeks. At this point Madelyn should be very well developed and the risk of complications due to bleeding increases daily from there so it is not worth the risk to wait any longer than that. That means our little October baby will be a September baby after all! I am secretly very sad that she won't be an October baby-not for some vain reason like she has the cutest little outfit that I wanted her to wear...I am not so superficial that I would actually base my feelings towards my daughters birth month on something like an outfit :)

I can't believe that she will be here in 4 1/2 weeks at the LATEST!! I am praying that is the earliest she comes...but did I mention that it's also the latest?? I think she just wanted to join the rest of our family for the end of the month September Birthday Bash!
Here is the Birthday Bash lineup:
16-Lukey
17-Mom
18-Allison youngest niece
19-Beth cousin
24-Emily oldest niece
26-Rhonda nieces Nana
29-Luke's dad

Insert Madelyn somewhere around the 21st!

I almost forgot to mention some more EXCITING news!!! The doctor told us that it was OK for me to get out to walk around for 30 minutes occasionally! Target...oh how I have missed you! I am overjoyed that she is still looking great! Thank you for praying for us and please continue to do so. The doctor said the next 10 days are the most critical until we reach that 34 week mark! So horizontal I shall stay for now...

*Kathryn