Week 33

This weekend was full of people coming over and good food. On Saturday we had a few friends over for a potluck dinner and a game of Cranium. My mom made a salad and bruschetta while J got some cakes from Strossner's. Our friends brought an Asian noodle dish, a chicken curry concoction, and a cheesy Greek lamb entree. I held down the couch. Cranium turned out to be pretty hilarious.

On Sunday it was Mother's Day. J claims that it counts for me since the babies could technically do fine on their own at this point. I'm not so sure. Either way, I got a really sweet card from Baby A and B plus a dozen roses. The nephews also got me a card, complete with custom artwork on the inside. We had most of J's family over for a cookout. Our littlest nephew fell asleep on me while clutching a plastic penguin. What people couldn't see was Baby B kicking him. hehe Luckily it didn't wake him up.

Word at the doctor's is that the big countdown has begun. At our check-up today the MFS outlined the plan. I have one more week of the home monitoring. This is also the last week that they would throw me into the hospital to stop the contractions. From 34 weeks on they'd only use turbutaline to try to slow them down. No more magnesium sulfate! At 35 weeks I can stop taking procardia, the muscle relaxer I've been on for months now. No more setting my alarm for all sorts of weird times to take that medication.

When we clear the 36 week mark, the MFS wants to do an amnio. This won't be anything like the one I had before. Instead it's just a regular one where they take a very small sample of fluid. They use it to check for lung development. If their lungs are ready to go, then I'll go ahead and have the babies that week. If they still need more time, we'll give it to them. The biggest risk at this point is that the placenta stops providing them with enough nutrients, so they want them out as soon as it's safe.

We'll continue the twice weekly doctor's visits to check for practice breathing, movement, and general feistiness. Today's check-up went really well. Both babies were awake and moving around. Their practice breathing has gotten a lot stronger than last week. Before you could only see a little movement in their bellies. Today their bellies were really pumping. Fluid levels were great. Baby B had his legs pulled up close to his body and had his head laying on Baby A's chest.