35 Weeks

As you can see, I'm slowly outgrowing my clothes. It's sad, I really liked this green shirt.
Since I took that little trip last week to the hospital things have been very quiet. I haven't felt a lot of contractions, just one or two here and there.
On Wednesday I went to a meet and greet at the pediatrician's office a friend referred us to. It was a chance to meet the doctors in the practice and ask questions. I really liked them and will be taking the twins there. Thanks for the recommendation Sandy!
Today I had an OB appointment for a baby check. Blood pressure and urine dip were both fine. Total weight gain so far is 48 pounds. My cervix, however, has finally started to make it's move. I am currently 80% effaced and 1 cm. dilated. The doctor and nurse were very excited, but I'm a little nervous. Maybe because I can't believe it could start any day now. I should say I was ok until my sister pointed out that you don't go from 100% effaced down to zero, you start at zero and go to 100%. Probably something I should have known, huh?

Baby A is still head down, but baby B has moved to a breech position. They are very conservative here when it comes to a breech presentation, especially for first time mothers. If he does not move down I will have a c-section. I'm OK with that, as long as both babes come out healthy it doesn't matter to me how they get here.
So I still have some things to do, like pack my bag for the hospital. We have the major things covered: nursery, done; car seats, done; baby clothes washed, done; all bottle paraphenalia sterilized, done. I even remembered to pre-register at the hospital.
Well, I'll keep everyone updated on my progress. Wish me luck!

Four AM Field Trip

A trip to the hospital is a good way to start off my 34th week, don't you think? No, me neither. I started feeling contractions and cramping on Sunday evening, plus I had an upset stomach. The contractions were about 10-12 minutes apart, but some of them were actually a little painful, which is a new thing for me. It went on for about two hours, and after a lot of water and laying down things got quieter and I went to sleep.
Then this morning at 3AM I woke up feeling a small contraction. I went to the bathroom, drank some more water and laid down. I felt another and looked at the clock to see if they could be timed. Then I felt another one pretty quickly and looked at the clock again. Five minutes. OK. I waited, and felt another. Again, five minutes. At this point I don't want to second guess myself so I called the doctor, who told me to go the hospital for some monitoring.
When we got to the hospital at 4:30 I was no longer feeling regular contractions (of course) but they hooked me up to a monitor and checked my cervix just in case. My cervix was closed but I was still having intermittent contractions so they started an IV. About an hour later they gave me a small shot of terbutaline, which is a drug that will calm the uterus down but the side effects are an elevated heart rate and jitteriness. It was not as bad as I expected, and did its job to quiet the contractions, and I was discharged an hour later.
I felt bad for my mom, who came down for lunch on her day off, and we couldn't go out anywhere. We ended up having grilled cheese and tomato soup (on a ridiculously hot day! still delicious), watching TV and chatting.
So far I have been feeling much better. Still drinking water, and now it's time to get back to laying down.

Week 33

I should have clarified in my last post that I was at the end of my 32nd week. My weeks change over on Sundays, so today is the end of my 33rd week.
Anyway, this week was the level II ultrasound to check on the babies. I have no pictures, because both babies have been pretty shy about having their picture taken. Not shy about kicking, bladder-sitting and rib-whacking, however.
The ultrasound went well with no surprises. Baby A is weighing in at 4 lbs. 7 oz. Her heart rate was good, fluid and placenta looked perfect. She is still presenting head down.
Baby B's weight is 4 lbs. 10 oz. His stats were also very nice, and it looks like he's making a move toward head down, but I can't be sure. The perinatologist was not in to review the scans, he had some family emergency, but if there were a problem I would have heard something by now. I have an OB appointment on Tuesday and they will do another ultrasound to check the position.
I also had another Non-Stress Test on Wednesday. Results were fine, both babies managed to stay on the monitors so I didn't have to hold anything in place. My uterus, however, was irritable enough that they checked my cervix just to be safe. Of course it was closed, I think my traitorous uterus is trying to send me a message.
Overall the week was fine. In the beginning of the week I was struggling with heartburn and nausea still, but it seems to have calmed down some. At least the nausea is gone. For now. The babies have been moving so much lately. I thought that the more cramped they got in there the less movement I would feel, but that theory has not panned out. This morning I woke up at 2:30 and could not fall back asleep, that's how much they were moving. The location of the movements has also changed. I'm feeling them much lower now, which makes me wonder if Baby B has shifted from being across my abdomen to either head up or head down. I'm sure there'll be a lot of shifting between now and the final weeks, so I'll have to just wait and see.
This weekend is going to be really hot here on the east coast. Everyone stay cool and drink plenty of water!