My thinking.

I spoke with my MFM this morning and she said all the things I needed to hear. She sets the goal for 34 weeks, but many are stripped of the choice and they have to take them sooner. I am not denying that it is awesome to get them that far. But if something were to take a sudden turn after 32 weeks, I could never forgive myself if the result was devastating.

I am thinking to what my reasoning is keeping them in there past 32, when that is a perfectly fine time to take them given not only the success rate, but the recovery time, and the general lack of long term problems. My main reasons are for packing on weight and to be born with the potential advantage of being able to breastfeed a lot easier/able to at least take a bottle instead of feeding tubes. I know there are other good reasons to keep them in too, of course, and that's why I need to sit down with the neonatologist again. But going off of those reasons alone, aren't really good enough in my opinion to not take them sooner to be sure of their safety. The basic NICU stay range for a 32 weeker is 3-5 weeks, maybe shorter, maybe longer. I would rather live with that and visit them a few extra weeks versus not ever getting the chance to know them because I lost them to some issue that suddenly popped up.

My MFM said I can get to 32 and take it day by day on continuous monitoring, but that it would also be appropriate if I just really wanted them to be taken right at 32. I can breathe easier knowing they aren't forcing me to push them to a further date, but comforted that they feel confident enough to deal with trying to push it--a lot of places don't. I also just would really like to avoid an emergency.

I've seen their cords, they're tangled in a big ball. I'm worried about compression or presence of true knots as the babies and cords grow. Even with aggressive monitoring, things can be missed. I just don't want to take that chance really...