Getting Sick

FB had a bad cold last week and I fear that I am coming down with it this week. I woke up this morning with a sore throat and a groggy headache. Sad face.

I had hoped that Snapdragon might be born today (Talk Like a Pirate Day), but it looks like that is not going to happen. I still haven't had any noticeable contractions or mucus plugs fragments or any other signs of labor.

While I am impatient to meet Snapdragon, I'm not very excited about laboring or caring for a new baby with a cold as bad as the one FB had. Hopefully, whatever symptoms I have will run their course over the next few days and resolve themselves before Snapdragon makes her appearance. I wouldn't want her to get seriously sick in her first week of life because I have the sniffles.

Itchy

Screw these stretch marks. I've never been much of a bare midriff girl, so I don't care if they are ugly, but they ITCH! All day, every day, and sometimes in the middle of the night, I have an irresistible urge to scratch all over. The three inches below my ex-belly button feels like it's on fire.

My skin is stretched so tight it is shiny and feels so thin. Worst of all, most of the area around my belly button is also completely numb, so I'm afraid of getting into one of those situations where you bite through your lip after getting Novocaine.

I have some Aveeno lotion that is usually good for 2-3 minutes of relief. I am considering duct taping mittens to my hands.

Updates

For the past few weeks, I have been struggling to overcome a bizarre mental paralysis that has made it difficult for me to do anything other than watch trashy TV and play computer games. Anything that involves mental exertion — even something as simple as updating this blog — has seemed like an huge, unmanageable task. Is this the much-talked-of "pregnancy brain"?

Anyway, a lot has happened, but it would be tedious to write a dozen posts, so I'll do bullet points:

• On the night of 8/18, I started having extreme pain just above my right hip. That's right where my ovarian cyst is, so I was worried that the cyst was twisting or rupturing. I tried to sleep and wait until my scheduled appointment with my midwife the next morning, but by 3 a.m., I was in so much pain that I decided to go in to the hospital. I called my parents, who were on vacation in Maine, woke up my sister, and drove myself to the hospital. I thought I would vomit in the car because the pain was so intense, but I made it to L&D. Of course, as soon as I got there, I felt much better, but they kept me for monitoring. I had an ultrasound in the morning, which showed that my cyst was fine, but I have a kidney stone. I don't think that was what was causing my pain because my kidneys are up around my ears at this point and the pain was just above the hip, but that's everyone's best guess. The ultrasound tech estimated Snapdragon's weight at 6 lbs. 13 oz.
• They also diagnosed me with polyhydramnios (too much amniotic fluid). The cut-off for this diagnosis is 25 somethingorothers and my fluid measured 25.8, so I had to see an OB to be checked. More on that later.
• I felt terrible about interrupting my parents' vacation, even though they were planning on coming back on Thursday morning anyway. They raced down from Maine — there is no traffic at 3 in the morning. Though I hated to bother them, I know that they would have been pissed to find out later that I hadn't called them right away. Everything turned out fine, but they would have been upset if I hadn't told them.
• After sleeping for less than an hour and a half on Wednesday night, I drove home to CT with my family. My mom rode in the car with me in case I needed to switch drivers. We ended up hitting a HUGE traffic jam — it took us almost 4 hours to make a trip that usually takes 2 hours or less. That was the real low point of the whole thing — I was on the verge of tears, tired, and missing Pete. It sucked.
• On Friday, 8/20, I spent the day shopping for the babies with my mom and sister. Our family threw a joint baby shower for Snapdragon and Giuliana on Sunday, so we needed to buy presents for the babies from our family and from my Naunie. It was lots of fun, but we were out for 6 hours and my feet were throbbing by the end. We spent all evening wrapping, which was easier on my feet. We wrapped Schnappi's things in animal-themed paper to cut down on the explosion of pink and pastel.
• Our baby shower was 8/22. I'll write a separate post about that.
• In general, August has been much more pleasant, weather-wise, than July, but these past few days have been brutal. It's so hot and humid that it's hard to breathe. I've been getting by with cold showers, drinking gallons of water, and taking air-conditioned car trips to run unnecessary errands. I know that it is not an earth-shattering revelation to note that August is hot, but pregnant hot is a whole new kind of gross.
• I'm pretty annoyed with my midwife. I had an appointment yesterday (8/30) during which she went over my ultrasounds and NSTs from my trip to the hospital. I am measuring "big" (39 cm instead of 37 cm) and she is concerned about the discrepancy in the measurements of Snapdragon's weight (6-6.5 lbs on 8/17 (63rd percentile), 6 lbs 13 oz on 8/19(82nd percentile)). I asked whether the discrepancy was really that big a deal — after all, don't those late ultrasounds have fairly wide margins of error? She looked at me blankly and just said that she was concerned because Snapdragon "grew so much" in just two days. WTF? She didn't grow — two different ultrasound techs made slightly different estimates, both of which estimated her weight as "biggish, but totally normal." Long story short, the midwife wants another growth ultrasound next week. Whatever. I think it is completely unnecessary, but at least I will get to see how she's doing. My next appointment with my midwife isn't until 9/9, so it will be nice to have some reassurance sooner than that.
• No matter what the ultrasound says, Snapdragon is BIG. Very big. I can tell you that without taking any official measurements. She moves around ALL DAY LONG and it is very uncomfortable. Between the vigorous stretching and the pelvis-pounding hiccups, I am feeling pretty beat-up. My skin is so stretched that the skin around my ex-belly button is numb. Come on out, Snapdragon! There is so much more room for squirming on the outside!
• Tomorrow is Sept. 1st, and Snapdragon will be full term! That means she is welcome to come at any time! I've got my fingers crossed for sooner rather than later. Obviously, she will come when she is good and ready, but I can't even entertain the idea that I could still be pregnant on October 1st. I am mentally prepared for 3 more weeks, tops.
• I've got my money on Sept. 19th — Talk Like a Pirate Day. Various nerds among our friends think that Sept. 22 would be a cool birthday because it is Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' birthday.
• My guess for birth weight is 8 lbs 12 oz, but I would be unsurprised if she turns out to be a 9-pounder.
• I am not scared for labor. I am awkward, uncomfortable, hot, bored, and tired. There is very little left to do to get our house ready for Snapdragon, so I don't even have any little projects to keep me busy. I have tried to do dissertation work, but that's not going so well. I am impatient to get started on this whole parenting thing!

That's it for now.

Chugging Along

I haven't posted in a while, but everything is pretty much fine here. I've been sleeping a bit better — not really comfortably, but enough to feel rested in the morning. My lower back has been hurting more often and I have had some bad headaches, but my blood pressure is fine (110/72) and I'm staying well hydrated, so that's all that can be done.

I'm 33 weeks along, which is either terrifying or frustrating, depending on whether you express it as "You could deliver 4 weeks from today!" or as "You may have as many as 9 weeks left to go!" I have mentally prepared for 6-7 weeks, but anything less is unfathomable and anything more makes me want to crawl out of my increasingly swollen skin. My ticker says 48 days to go, and I am just trying to get through each one of them. Accomplishing anything work- or house-related is strictly over-achieving at this point.

Not Sleeping

It was 79 degrees here at 6:15 this morning. I know this because I have been awake since 4.

This sucks, but perhaps it is nature's way of getting me ready for labor — make me so miserably uncomfortable that labor looks like a reasonable, even desirable, way out.

A Headachey Day

Ug. Feeling awful today. I woke up with a super intense headache just above my right eye. I was able to take the edge off with some Tylenol and a nap, but it has persisted all day. I feel fragile and shaky, as if I were having a reaction to the heat, but it isn't very hot today and I have been staying well hydrated.

Luckily, I had an appointment with my midwife at noon, so I got checked out and everything seems fine. My blood pressure — which is the first thing they worry about when you say you have an awful headache — is fine, even a bit low at 118/60. My hydration level was good, though Joyce recommended that I keep drinking constantly, even if I am not thirsty. If it persists tomorrow, I will go back, but if I can sleep it off, I should be fine.

Today has made me very thankful that I have not had a difficult pregnancy so far. If I felt like this every day, there is no way in hell I would ever do this again.

Overheated

It has been in the mid-80s here for the past few days with no let-up in sight.

I have been having a really hard time — sweating, headaches, and general discomfort that make it difficult to get through the day. I made the mistake of going for a walk yesterday afternoon and never really recovered. We don't have air conditioning, so the most relief I can get is lying still in the basement with a cool bottle of water pressed against my skin.

Today, I took my work to the public library, which has air conditioning. It's slightly better, but even walking a few blocks to get lunch was rough. Luckily, I have indoor activities planned for the next few days before FB and I leave for Maine. We'll be right on the water, so I hope it will be cooler!

Symptom Update: 25 Weeks

As my second trimester enters its final weeks, I have been blessed with some new symptoms and the return of some old symptoms. At this point in my pregnancy, I am enjoying:

• strong kicks/punches in groups of 10-20 about 5 or 6 times per day (more at bedtime and in the early morning when I am lying down)
• belly visibly moving during aforementioned kick sessions
• leaky boobs (especially at night)
• 1-2 bathroom trips during the night
• alternate bouts of ravenous hunger and total lack of appetite, lasting 1-2 days at a time
• inability to walk more than 2 miles comfortably (round trip to work is 3 miles — I attempted it today and only got halfway home before I regretted pushing my luck)
• infrequent heartburn — not too bad, only once a week or so
• random numbness in my left hand due to pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel syndrome interacting with my old surgery scars
• general lack of graceful movement

Still, no vomiting and only occasional swelling of the legs and feet. I'm fairly physically comfortable as long as the temperature stays below 80 — if it is over 80, I have to get out of the house to somewhere that has air conditioning. In all, I'm doing pretty well.

My First Separation Anxiety Dream

I had my first separation anxiety dream last night.

I dreamed that Snapdragon was four days old and we took her to my parents' house for an overnight visit. I went to sleep in my old bedroom, which was set up the way it was when I was in high school, not the way it is now that it belongs to my sister. When I woke up, I realized that it was noon and that I hadn't fed the baby yet. I looked in her bassinet, but she wasn't there. Then, I realized that I hadn't fed her in four days. Since she was only four days old, I soon realized that I had never fed her and wouldn't know how to do it. I ran downstairs, but no one knew where the baby was. After a long search, we found her displayed in the window of a daycare along with two other infants whose mothers hadn't fed them.

I've been having plenty of weird, vivid dreams lately, but this was the first one that specifically revolved around Snapdragon. I guess that means she's seeming more real to me these days.

Feeling Movement?

For the past few days, I think I have been feeling Snapdragon moving around in there. I'm not completely sure because it is still really early (I'll be 16 weeks tomorrow), but I think I could be feeling him/her.

Once or twice a day, I can feel a little movement low down, just above my pelvis. Sometimes, it is on the right and sometimes on the left, but it is always right in front. I know people say they feel flutters, but I definitely feel squirming. I don't know whether that means it's not really the baby or if I'm just not as romantic about it as other people. Probably the latter.

I felt it twice today, two little squirms about a minute apart. We'll see if it gets stronger over time.

Sleeping Through the Night

I am proud to announce that I have finally started sleeping through the night again! During weeks 3-10, I was getting up to pee at least twice a night — once at 1 or 2 o'clock and again at 4 or 5 o'clock. From week 11 to week 13, I found that I was only waking up once per night. For the last 5 nights, I have slept until 8:00 without a single bathroom break.

Hooray for me!

Let us hope that it only takes Snapdragon 14 weeks to accomplish the same feat.

OMG Bagels

I cannot describe my love of bagels. For the past three days, I have thought of nothing but bagels. I was at Bruegger's Bagels at 8:30 on Saturday morning. I made my parents bring me bagels from the awesome bagel shop near their house, 100 miles away (I did meet them halfway and we had some other things to exchange).

I go back and forth between Cinnamon Raisin and Everything. Right now, I am in a Cinnamon Raisin mood. It does not matter that it is nearly dinnertime. I must have a bagel.

Second Trimester

There are several ways to calculate when the second trimester begins. If you go by developmental stages, it starts at 12 weeks, 0 days. If you take 40 weeks and divide by 3, it starts at 13 weeks, 3 days. There are other methods, too, but it doesn't really matter.

In any event, I am 13 weeks and 3 days along today, so I feel that I can consider myself officially in my second trimester.

Many women look forward to the 2nd tri because it means that they will soon get a break from the nausea, but other than that notable food poisoning incident, I have not been sick at all. I suppose the hormone changes may give me a reprieve from my acne, which is still active, but not quite as explosive as it once was.

In the past few days, I have started experiencing some new symptoms: light cramps, some twinges in my cervix, and, most notably, shooting pains on the left side of my uterus if I stand up too quickly. These are annoying, but still relatively minor. Unfortunately, FB is still sick — he has a bad cold piggybacking off of his recent ear infection — so I don't get a lot of sympathy for my aches and pains.

I hope that the 2nd trimester goes by more quickly than the first. When I reflect on the fact that I've only completed 9 weeks since I found out I was pregnant, it seems that I will be pregnant forever.

Let There Be Puking

Well, I spent all weekend worshiping the porcelain gods, but, alas, I cannot blame it on Snapdragon.

On Saturday, FB and I ordered pizza from our usual pizza place. We always get 2 small pizzas instead of sharing one — that way we have plenty of leftovers and FB doesn't have to worry about his pizza being contaminated with mushrooms or eggplant. We enjoyed our dinner and put the leftovers away before enjoying a quiet evening playing video games.

Six hours later, we were rotating in and out of the bathroom.

At first, I resisted vomiting. I thought, "I haven't thrown up once yet and I won't be weak now!" Then, I realized that FB was sick too and that there was probably something poisonous in my stomach, so I surrendered and puked up a storm. It felt like I had an exploding bowling ball in my stomach.

We were up all night. By morning, we both managed to catch a few minutes of sleep at a time. I got out of bed around 4pm on Sunday and got a bit ambitious — I drank a glass of water and ate a cup of Jell-O. Bad idea. That sent off a whole new cycle of sickness. I crawled back into bed at 9 and stayed there for another 12 hours.

I felt better this morning, but FB is still out of commission. He has had a fever off and on and it is not getting better. If he is still sick in the morning, he will go in to see his doctor. He's not actively vomiting anymore, but he still feels crappy.

It was awful. I don't know what sort of food poisoning it was, but it was definitely the pizza. It was the only meal we shared that day and we both got sick at exactly the same time.

I've managed to eat some saltines and drink some juice today, but I haven't had any protein and I'm feeling headachy and weak. I did manage to keep my prenatal vitamin down. Hopefully, I'll be able to eat some small meals tomorrow.

I am incredibly thankful that I have not had to deal with this as often as many of my pregnant friends have. It sucks.

Not So Tired

I feel like I am waking up out of my extreme exhaustion. I had a full day at work today, walked a mile and a half there and the same back, but am still awake and happy at 10:30. Tired, yes; exhausted, no.

It's been about a week since I have felt the exhaustion that characterized the last month or so of my pregnancy. It used to be that I would be laughing/crying from tiredness by 8:30 at night. Now, I just yawn and feel sleepy, but I am confident in my ability to walk up the stairs.

I'm looking forward to the rumored energy increase of the 2nd trimester. Only a couple of weeks to go!

Thickening

It will be a while before I really begin to show. I'm fat enough to begin with, so it's not really easy to distinguish a baby bump under my normal belly.

Yet, I have started to notice a definite thickening right around the top of my underwear. It might not be very visible to others, but it feels different — firm, rather than soft, rounded, and thick. I suspect that it will be at least another month before I have a real bump, but this little change is helping me to feel pregnant.

My next appointment with the midwives is on Thursday. I really hope we get to hear the heartbeat.

Give Me Red!

I'm feeling much better than I was earlier in the week. I only had one day of real nausea and it never got too bad. I have started to have some acid reflux, which is new, but not terrible.

Over the past week, my cravings have taken a strange turn. From 7-9 weeks, I was craving rich things: mashed potatoes, steak, chocolate, cheese, etc. Now, I only want RED things: cranberry or pomegranate juice, red Jell-O, Powerade, Starburst, strawberries, plums, etc.

I suppose that consuming large quantities of fruit, fruit juices and artificially fruit-flavored things is probably not helping the acid reflux situation, but what can you do?

Feeling Pukey

These past 24 hours have seen my first real brush with pregnancy-related stomach troubles. There has been no actual vomiting, just a general feeling of unease and tepid appetite. It's not debilitating, but it is annoying.

My sympathies go out to all the pregnant ladies out there who have been dealing with this bullshit for a month or more.

I Can't Complain . . . But I Will Anyway

I really cannot complain about my pregnancy symptoms. I have had practically no nausea — a few smells make my stomach flip over, but I haven't spent a minute writhing in agony and I haven't thrown up at all. My boobs are bigger, but they don't hurt. All of my cravings have been for fairly reasonable things (hotdogs, anchovies, chicken salad, plums). My face is still an acne-swollen mess, but I can cover it up with foundation when I have to teach and I don't care too much about it when I'm home.

This is the upside of having my mother's body. I will never be tall and I will never be thin, but I can pull off this pregnancy thing no problem. Let's hope that the similarities hold out til the end and I have a short, unmedicated labor.

I know I'm having a much easier time than many women, so I feel bad complaining about my one prominent symptom, but what else are blogs for?

I am SO GODDAMN TIRED. I went to bed at 11 last night, slept until 10 (with two bathroom breaks), and by 2 p.m., I was ready for a nap. This was after I took a shower, ran errands for one hour, made lunch, and sat on the couch folding laundry. This is the extent of my ability to exert myself at the moment.

On Thursdays, I teach two two-hour seminars, one from 10-12 and the other from 2-4. About halfway through the second seminar, I was writing on the chalkboard when I felt my knees begin to wobble and my voice give out. I sat down and got through the rest of class, but the exhaustion just hit me like a cartoon anvil. I took the bus home instead of walking because I could barely put one foot in front of the other. It took me a full day to recover.

Luckily, I only have to go into work on Mondays and Thursdays. The rest of the week, I can sit on my couch and read or write. Theoretically, I could go to the gym in the morning, but in reality, I only end up going about once a week because it takes so much out of me.

I hear that some women get a second wind in the second trimester. I'm looking forward to that, though it is still a full month away.

Delicious

Tonight, I had a mushroom-anchovy-olive-eggplant-onion-and-pepper pizza for dinner. And it was delicious.