34 Weeks

I'm over the hump! My pre-eclampsia symptoms have not progressed and everything seems stable. And at 34 weeks, Zoe and Leo are going to be fine, even if I go into labor tonight. This is the magic time where everybody breaths a sigh of relief.

And speaking of that, I was afraid last night might have been the night for a while. I was having all kinds of pain and strange goings-on, but it turned out to be nothing.  I did get a little taste of the imminence of the big event though, when I thought I might be going in to labor. At first I was scared, but then I accepted that it might happen and I actually started looking forward to seeing my two babies. I really, really want to keep them cooking for a while longer, but it wouldn't be devastating if they came now. And going in to labor on my own is preferable to being induced for some problem like hypertension. I figure that if I go into labor, there is probably some reason for it that makes it the best thing for me and/or the babies - not a mystical reason, like "everything happens for a reason," but a real causal reason that we just can't see because we don't really know what the heck triggers labor to begin with.

I had an OB appointment this afternoon and I was really nervous. I had gotten used to going in every day and it had been a whole six days since I had had any kind of checkup. But my blood pressure is stable and nothing new has cropped up. The kids are growing and responding to stimuli. Today, my doc got fed up with waiting for Zoe to have a heart acceleration on the non-stress test so he poked my belly with a cattle prod. Well, I guess it was more like a vibrator, but it felt like he had electrocuted me and Zoe went nuts, as she was supposed to. It was hilarious.

So things are good right now. Once again I'm feeling like my body is good at this pregnancy thing. I'm starting to trust my body again. I had such an easy time with Sam, so it's been kind of a let down to have had all these problems this time. But then again, what I've had aren't full-fledged problems. They've all been Almosts and Maybes. The gestational diabetes thing was a joke from the start. (Today I told my doc some of my numbers and he wouldn't even listen to any more and told me to forget the whole thing. Ha! I was right!) And I'm not sure if I have even been officially diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, or even pregnancy induced hypertension. We were just watching very closely for a while there. I know my doctor is no longer seriously concerned because he told me I can go another week before my next checkup. So, my body really is doing okay. I don't even have stretch marks on my belly. Not bad for a 41 year old.