Wow, thank you ALL for your thoughtful responses. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading each one and gaining a bit more insight through your experiences.

Regarding visitors, the NICU here is very flexible and it's really up to us who we do/don't want around, and they've told us they're happy to be the bad guy. Our thought is to limit to immediate family only, which I know will be extremely challenging because I have a huge extended family and many friends who are already talking about coming to visit. DH's family is 2,500 miles away so it's mostly my side that I'm worried about. I also don't want anyone here if I'm not here...perhaps this may change but the thought of someone, even if it is my sister or mom, being here without me saddens me. I'm just worried about being stretched thin, and here's why:

DH is in the military and there is a good chance he'll miss the birth since he leaves this weekend for training, then has to report 500 miles away for duty until November and then deploys for 6 months. (Long story short, I was visiting family this summer en route to our new duty station and 5 days before we were to complete our move I was admitted to the hospital, resulting in a canceled lease on our house, me having to move in with family and all of our household items placed in storage where we would have moved. He's been able to be with me in the hospital for the past couple of weeks but his leave ends this weekend.) We're going to try our best to get him here on the weekends prior to deployment, but it's going to be so important to maximize our time together and with the babies. My friends and family will have plenty of time to visit later so I want every second possible with me, DH and the babies.

Since I've been in the hospital for 4 weeks now, I'm familiar with policies and how things operate, and have definitely encountered nurses and drs with whom I mesh and others not so much. I have no doubt it will be the same in the NICU and I will remember that I'm the best advocate for the babies.

I also like the idea of journaling or keeping a blog. This whole time I've been in the hospital I've been "thinking" about starting a blog but of course the laziness of doing nothing breeds more laziness. But since DH will be gone I'm definitely going to attempt keeping track of everything, both in the NICU and once they're home, both so we can look back on it but to also keep him up to date.

~BGG Born October 6, 2011 @ 34 Weeks~