Welcome to month number 9! We're now considered full term for a singleton pregnancy at 37 weeks gestation. A huge milestone for twins. In the past couple of days we've rechecked our hospital bags and put them by the front door. Phil also installed the car seat bases in our truck. I've yet to see them but I'm sure it'll make things just that much more real to me. Our nursery is coming along, not quite finished but it's functional for the most part and organized.
Way back in early May, for my birthday, my Mom & Dad gave me a hematite pendant with a bear paw print etched onto it. I've been wearing it everyday since and like to think of it like a talisman watching over our babies and myself. Bringing us health and a good pregnancy. I recently read that hematite has a "stabilizing quality". This pendant is where the babies nickname "The Cubs" came from. My plan is to wear it into labour and keep it nearby at the hospital. Then after the babies come home to hang it from the dreamcatcher in their room.
I keep on waiting for my water to break suddenly or contractions to begin. So far we've had no signs of labour. Tomorrow we return to the OB for another check up (and what I suspect will be our last visit to the office). Our OB wants to check my cervix and talk about scheduling an induction for the following week. I've heard that checking the cervix alone is enough to push one into labour so we'll see. I hope it takes a couple of days. I'd like the cubs to come no earlier than Jan 7th personally and be as far away from the new year as possible so they can have a bit better birthday celebrations. I'm also not certain as to why the doctor would want to do an induction. My best guess is that since they know everyone's healthy and head down, there's no more reason to wait.
I'm looking forward to having one last ultrasound end of this week as well (if babies don't decide otherwise beforehand). I'd like to see if last week's measurements were wrong and just to know that our babies are growing as they should be. I don't like being left to worry about them for a week with no information.
The cubs have been kicking me this week and were super active all day long on New Years Day. I don't think they slept at all! They must have been just as excited as we were, to make it to 2012 in my belly. Good babies. Since then they're movement have slowed down and I'm not trying to focus on kick counting to make sure they're doing well. We listened with the doppler on New Years Day as well and took videos of their teeny hearts beating away (ignore the numbers on the doppler as they aren't always accurate due to anterior placentas). I love it.
Baby girl's heartbeat on our doppler New Year's Day (36w6d)
(not sure why the image is backwards, but you get the idea)
Baby Boy's heartbeat on our doppler New Year's Day (36w6d)
This week I'll be breaking up my posts into smaller ones, just in case we do go into labour. I plan to rest, nap and read as much as possible this week. I'm hoping Phil can do the same. We will update on the OB appointment and ultrasound later this week, and of course should anything more exciting happen...
