Just waiting now.

So, good news - now that we are at 37 weeks, the babies are considered full term! As always, we are so happy to have made it another week, and to have come this far. Surprisingly, the doctors report that I am not showing much of any signs of labor yet - though that, of course, can change quickly. Instead, the issue I have been dealing with is blood pressure, of all things, which has been going on for the last 4 weeks. It has been up and down - mostly not too far up, fortunately - but I have not been showing any other warning signs, either in lab tests or in symptoms. So far, they have continued to rule out preeclampsia - but regardless, having elevated blood pressure is still not a good thing. The irony of it all is that all along, I was so sure that pre-term labor would be the issue I'd have to worry about... and I never expected something like blood pressure would get me! So we'll see how it all goes, and how much longer they let me stay pregnant. It has meant more doctors' visits and more monitoring... and unfortunately, more serious bed rest now to keep my blood pressure down. Which is too bad in a way, because now that pre-term labor is no longer such a concern, I had big plans to start violating my house arrest doctors' orders, and doing crazy things - you know, like shopping, going out for dinner, and taking the dog for a walk every now and then. :-) Alas, it looks like those activities will still have to be kept to a minimum!

The kiddos still seem happy as clams in their cozy home, as you can see in their latest ultrasound image below, taken at 37 weeks, 2 days. Now that they are so much bigger, all we can see during ultrasounds at this stage is a jumble of body parts - so the circles you see here are their two little heads. They are now side-by-side, and head down - so no more breech babies for us, yay!

In other news, I had my last day of work-from-home on Friday... and am now officially on maternity leave! I'm hoping to be able to stay pregnant one more week, just so I can get ahead on sleep and enjoy a little break from work before we begin the real work of raising children!