Swelling. Emergency Trip. Dropping. Peeing.

Did I mention I am all swollen “down there”? Swollen so much I almost couldn’t see the opening in the mirror? Itches like crazy when I shower? Feels “fallen asleep” when I sit for too long?

Well, today a bit of bleeding was added into this joyful mix and I decided not to tempt fate and go and get checked.

I was impressed with the speed – I was in and out in 2 hours. Wow!

And it all turned out normal. Normal late-pregnancy swelling – increased blood flow, pressure of the fluid- and baby-filled uterus, blah-blah… And bleeding was from a little skin crack on the outside. Caused by swelling.

Remedy? Giving birth. Yay. 5 more weeks of fun.

Although… I am not sure it is gonna be 5 more weeks. Cause as I was walking down the office corridor today, I literally felt the baby fall through. I am fairly sure he dropped – the pelvic pressure is incredible. I cannot walk and not waddle, it’s impossible. Standing up hurts. Walking hurts. Not hurts-hurts, it’s manageable, but still – it hurts.

I am so looking forward to not having to go to work… 2 more weeks (which, for me, is 8 more working days).

And now let me get a cushion under my lower back, stretch my feet onto the coffee table, spread my legs so that the swollen area gets enough room, arch my back so that there’s enough room for the baby’s feet before they hit my ribs… Until I need to go pee.

Yeah. Another sign of dropping – all of a sudden the peeing frequency increased. Nothing too bad yet – but much more than it was.

Fun times.

Exhausted

All of a sudden, I feel really, REALLY exhausted today. I wanna sleep. My feet are tired. My legs are tired. My lower back aches. My belly feels incredibly heavy. Seriously – INCREDIBLY heavy.

Although the belly heaviness I should probably attribute to the lovely third-trimester-constipation phenomena. I think I haven’t used the washroom properly for 4 or 5 days now. Ouch.

I also need to watch more closely how much I eat. I tend to stuff the same portions inside myself, but the real estate inside me is highly limited. While I sit and eat, I feel ok – but the moment I stand up, I feel it: I overate. So I now need to consciously cut down my portion sizes.

I also need to watch my carbs. Sigh. So hard when the office is flooded with gift baskets full of sweets.

I switched from yogurt-and-bread in the morning to either eggs or hotdogs. Pathetic. I am also eating less sweet fruits.And I am trying to replace rice (I love rice! I can eat rice every day!) with veggies as a side.

I try and not snack at all unless I am actually hungry.

I really worry about the size of the baby. If it’s so hard and heavy to carry this big belly around now, what will it be like in 2-3 weeks? 5-6 weeks? I still have 6.5 weeks to go…

And – probably as a side effect of the overall exhaustion – I am getting irritable. Normally I am trying to be supportive of my hubby when he goes through his periodic panic phases (so much to do! so little time!) – but now it annoys me. I get irritated by the complaints about the lack of time, or the headaches, or whatever. I am not sure exactly why. Maybe I just don’t have enough compassion any longer for anyone else, feeling so exhausted myself.

I don’t like my irritability. I am trying to suppress it. I don’t always succeed, though.

Mmm. Do I sound really down? I’m not down, really. I am just… exhausted.

from getty images

Luscious Hair… Linea Negra… Wonky Appetite… Patterns

I love that I lose like 2-3 hairs a day. My bathroom used to be so messy with all the hair falling out. The thingy in the bathtub that catches hair had to be cleaned every other day before – not anymore. I brush my hair and only 1-2 hairs get loose.

But I dread what will happen once the pregnancy hormones stop raging. I will probably feel like I am going bald. And I hope I will be able to contain the urge to crop my hair. I’ve been growing it for 3 years now (haven’t had long hair since I was 7!!!)

Linea negra is starting to appear. It’s very vague – but it’s there.

The acne that were plugging my chest in the summer are gone now. In fact, everyone’s saying I look really great. Blooming. Rested.

Well, I rest only on my days off (which are 4 days a week) – on my weekdays I grudgingly climb out of bad and feel pretty sleepy and tired. Because I stay up until midnight – and I just don’t wanna sleep before then!

My appetite is weird. There are days when I eat normally (full lunch, couple of oversized apples, good dinner) – and then there are days when I can’t even finish my lunch and feel pretty stuffed from tiniest portions of food or fruits. Bizarre.

The baby seems to be starting to develop patterns. He’s at his most active around 8-9 pm – and then when I go to bed, around 11-12. I am not sure what the patterns are throughout the day – probably because I don’t have any patterns ( I work thre days a week, I wake up at different times, eat at different times, etc.)

Spent the day today at home, making a video for my best friend’s husband’s video – his big bday is coming – and also cooking borscht. Borscht takes about 4 hours to make, so I am very pleased with myself (I made a huge pot of it, will last a few days. And borscht tastes best on the third day!!!)

Hmmm. That’s it for now!

26 Weeks!

26 weeks – 14 to go!

The progress is accelerating with a mind-boggling speed.

My hubby yelled yesterday when the baby kicked him. He said he never felt it so real. That before he always needed my confirmation that what he felt was the baby – not me or my rumbling insides. But that was… a very good kick and he yelped in surprise – he actually scared me

Took another merengue class today – was fun! Even though I am starting to feel the changed centre of balance is affecting my ability to follow the steps

Went for a nice walk in the autumn forest today. Weather was beautiful – about 10 degrees and sunny. Just lovely. But a bit too hilly for my pregnant self. I got hot from the hour-long walk

Hosted an awesome halloween party! I made my own costume. I was a cupcake – that provided enough space for the big belly

I still don’t pee excessively. I don’t even necessarily wake up to pee during the night. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. But I do wake up in the middle of the night because my hips hurts, and my knees, and my feet…

TMI: I am getting progressively more and more leaky. I hate panty-liners, but now I feel I cannot do without them. It’s weird – feels like I suffer from incontinence.

And I definitely am developing the horror of hemorrhoids ;( Oh well, I’ll take care of that after the baby arrives. it’s not too hard, right?

But all in all, I am doing great. Baby is kicking away busily, I am feeling great, feeling happy.

Heartburn…Little Heels…

I am tired. I so wanna sleep.

Not only do I have a cold, I also started suffering from heartburn the moment I go to bed. Which makes my throat even more scratchy. Which makes my eyes tear so bad it looks like I am crying.

So I have like 5 pillow now and I am falling asleep in a seated position. It’s a bit easier that way. But only a bit.

I am kind of scared of how it will be when the baby arrives. I am so tired just because I fall asleep around 1 am (and wake up at 7 am) – I still get 6 consecutive hours of sleep! Which soon will be a luxury – first with the increased bathroom breaks frequency, then with the baby feedings…

Oh well. No point in worrying about that now. I’ll worry about it if and when I get there.

For now – I started feeling baby’s limbs through the skin. Often if I press my fingers where my son just kicked, I can touch his little heel. He often would kick again in response

He’s getting bigger. His kicks are getting progressively closer to my liver and stomach. Soon his kicks will probably be very uncomfortable. For now – I enjoy it. He moves a lot. I can feel it, I can see it, it’s very cute.

And… heartburn-shmartburn… it’s all so worth it!

Baby Brain?

I am starting to get forgetful.

Missed my credit card payment.

Forgot to return the library book on time.

Agreed to go see a musical on a day when I already had dinner plans.

Ahhhhh.

Baby brain already?…

23 Weeks

By the way, we’re 23 weeks already!

I missed the 22 weeks post last Sunday for I was on vacation, and I didn’t get around to posting the 23-week post yesterday.

Nevertheless.

23 weeks – and one day!

According to one of my newsletters, we’ve reached ‘viability’ – which means if the baby decides to get born now, there is an 85% chance of survival. I am quite dumbfounded – the chance is that high? I don’t believe it.

Baby is busy wiggling and kicking. I feel not only the kicks, but the moves, too. It seems to communicate – like respond to pressing or tapping on my stomach, and kick around when loud music is around.

Every time I spent too much time in the pool, it would start moving around. Was it getting a bit cold in there? Or was he swimming, butterfly-style, like his daddy?

Also, the baby started to blink (according to the newsletters… I don’t feel it, of course )

Overall, it is an amazing feeling, feeling the little one move around and start showing its temper (often when I turn abruptly from one side to the other, he starts wiggling around, obviously trying to find a new comfortable position )

My belly got quite huge – or so I feel.

My weight gain is still progressing very well, I believe – so far I gained about 7-8 kg (about 15-16 pounds) – not too bad for 23 weeks?

No stretch marks – but my right leg hurts under the back side of the knee and a dark spot is starting to show there. I guess I will have those ugly spider or varicose veins. Before going on vacation, I ordered online a couple of surgical weight pantyhose to keep the pressure on my legs. They have probably arrived – will find out tomorrow when I am back in the office. I am glad fall is upon us – and it’ll be cold enough to wear them, soon.

After the flight to Cuba, my right leg hurt really badly, and both my legs got a bit swollen. The flight back was normal, though.

I often wake up with my hips sore; sometimes it’s the sore hips that wake me up in the middle of the night.

But overall – it’s grand. I’ve never been happier.

Ahhh… The Bliss of Happy Bowels…

With the baby’s growth spurt that’s happening at 16-19 weeks, came the pregnancy evil: constipation. And I mean CONSTIPATION. Like I gained 8 pounds in a week constipation. Yikes! My legs could feel the abruptly gained weight and my belly jumped in size!

Thankfully, my ob-gyn recommended I start my day with prunes, followed with metamucil. 36 hours since I started the new regime, the bowels started to work again. 4 days later – I feel happy and my scale is showing me a normal number – down 4 pounds from the crapped-up-bowels-number. Overall gain since the pregnancy started – 10 pounds, which is right on track for almost 20 weeks. Hurray!

Funny thing: I had to turn my scale. It used to face the wall – but now I can’t see what it shows because of the belly. I need to bend over to see. And with the scale facing the wall, there’s nowhere to bend So weird seeing the scale positioned this way LOL.

 

19 weeks!

Really? 19 weeks already? And the newsletter – for whatever reason – says I’m halfway there. Um, I thought pregnancy is 40 weeks – so I will be halfway there in a week?

Anyway.

So what it feels like to be 19 weeks pregnant?

Belly is getting BIG. Every now and then I would catch a reflection of myself in a shop window and silently gasp. It feels it happened almost overnight, how much it grew.

This morning, I woke up with a feeling that either a part of skin on my belly, or a part of an internal organ fell asleep. It felt dull and slightly tingly. My baby’s getting bigger and heavier.

The belly support belt probably shouldn’t be warn while seated. Every time I leave it on when sitting down, I get dull muscle pains in my belly. Nothing bad, but still – not pleasant. So the belt should be reserved for prolonged walking and standing (like while cooking).

My hubby felt the baby kick for the first time. I had to guide his hand and tell him where the kicking is happening and then I told him “just now – did you feel it?” – he said he did, although he looked doubtful. He said he couldn’t be sure if it was the baby or me. I assured him there was no “me” happening at the time The baby’s growing and kicking!

I am definitely in the pregnancy constipation land. Boo. Maybe that’s why my belly is so big? I eat so many fruits and vegetables, but it doesn’t seem to have any impact on my digestive system. I’ll talk to my ob-gyn about this tomorrow.

Rolling in bed from one side to another is a chore now. For the brief second that belly is on top of me, I feel how heavy it became. Such an odd feeling. And thinking of how much bigger it’s gonna get is even odder.

I get an occasional leg cramp. Climbing stairs is getting harder and talking while walking is becoming tougher and tougher. Headaches plague me much more rarely than they used to in the first trimester.

So far, no swelling. Which is good. No extra acne, no sensitivity to smells. Although I noticed I can eat reheated meat. Meat leftovers. It just doesn’t taste right. So bizarre.

Overall – life’s good. Started a gift registry, out together and invitee list, waiting for my ultrasound on Wednesday (I hope we find out what we’re having).

Oy! Baby just kicked me again

Navel-Gazing

Artist Mouse wrote yesterday about her navel disappearence. Granted, she’s like 6 weeks ahead of me – still, today I caught myself doing just that – navel gazing.

And boy, was I surprised!

My navel always used to be really deep and sort of wrinkly on the inside. TMI alert: cleaning the folds of it was one of the greatest pleasures (I am sure some of you go YUUUUUCK!!! oh well… that’s TMI for you LOL)

So today I discovered that my navel got all stretched out, wrinkles smoothed out, navel absolutely clean. The navel “crater” got wide – compared to what it used to be. This is so weird.

All because of you, Artist Mouse

But seriously, should I be surprised? Look at my belly growth progress at 6, 10, 14, and 18 weeks – it is definitely getting big now, not just bigger…