Month: May 2010

Alrighty then….we’re getting there! Slowly but surely, we are getting closer and closer to the finish line.

I’m sitting on my couch with my feet up on the ottoman and I’m trying desperately to stay awake and yet, in spite of my best efforts, I’m nodding off and I catch myself jerking awake and well, quite frankly that’s really uncomfortable. Biggest problem, my two year old is watching a movie in the kitchen and it would be terribly unwise to fall asleep….who knows what level of mischief he could get up to in 10 -15 unsupervised minutes. But, BOY WOULD I EVER LIKE A NAP RIGHT NOW!

I actually went grocery shopping with my sister this morning and well, at this point that feels a bit like a herculean effort. Especially considering that I had Siah with me. Although to his credit, he was the most amazing little shopper this morning. Normally, shopping with him is a bit like sheep herding and cattle wrangling, but the little monkey actually sat in cart the WHOLE time except for the very end. I thought for sure that I had bought enough at Superstore that I could use the coupon to get the free $25 Gift Certificate…….but no, the total rang in at $233. and so I chose to run back and pick up a 3 pack of roasting chickens (which we will totally use over the next little while – easiest meal ever!) and a Jumbo box of cereal.

But……racing through a store with a 35 pound 2 year old on your hip at 36 weeks pregnant…..HA HA HA HA HA! I “raced” him back to the cart/cashier (as opposed to carrying him) and he did great.

Okay, enough with the nodding off already, I should go and make myself a coffee.

Actually, I’ll be right back……………….

……………Okay, still tired, but I think that the getting up and moving around helped some. I haven’t actually had any of my coffee yet as it’s blazing hot, but it’s sitting here beside me and it smells amazing.

So, I had my 36 week midwife appointment yesterday and it went well. I actually lost a pound from my last visit, which was a pleasant surprise. Everything else checked out great…..little man’s heart rate was at 156bpm and I’m measuring 35cm. She doesn’t actually believe that he’ll be the ginormous monster sized baby that the OB suggested based on his scans, but only time will tell, eh?

I was tested for the Group Strep B yesterday and at the same time she checked things out and I’m 1cm dilated and my cervix as soft, so things are exactly where they should/could be.

She gave me some Mother’s Cordial to start as well as a herb tea to help build up my nutrient levels and to prep me for the labour and some homeopathic remedy that is supposed to also help to prep things.

I also walked outta the appt with a whole armload of CD’s, DVD’s and a video. There were some labour massages and other relaxation techniques that she wanted me to take a look at and I figured why not. If I can get a great massage outta Jon in the next little while – BONUS, as far as I’m concerned.

I had planned to do a few things while I was out, but I had forgotten my cell phone at home and so I just went home and killed some time until my chiropractic appointment.

I’ve actually been feeling pretty good. My necks not bothering me. My shoulders are not really bothering me. I do have a tiny bit of a sore spot on the top (and inside) of my right foot. I have NO IDEA what happened. I woke up fine on Tuesday morning. Walked around a ton. Put on my Birkenstocks to leave for work and right where the band crossed the top of my foot it felt like I’d been burned or like it was massively bruised…neither of which is the case.

My hips were slightly out, but really not too much and he did quite a bit of work on my feet. I think that 211 pounds combined with the Relaxin hormone is just too much for my feet to handle. I will be happy to have this baby and loose some of that weight. It sucks when your feet hurt.

I didn’t notice a massive difference in my hips until this morning when I crawled outta bed and for the first time in a while waddled myself to the bathroom and had absolutely no hip pain whatsoever.

Yah for my Chiropractor. He’s the best. I have scheduled another appointment with him for Monday June 7th. I figure that puts me a little closer to the time of the birth and that there is a good chance that I’ll be out of alignment at some point between now and then.

I’m feeling quite pressured to do another thorough tidy on my house and to prep some meals or at the very least some easy/quick meal ideas for Jon and the kids to make and to finish up the last minute things on my “to do” list. It’s very exciting because as of next weekend – we’re on an “anytime now” basis and that’s pretty exciting.

I’m planning on walking a lot over the next few weeks and continuing with the 2-3 times a week exercise class.

36 weeks! WOW! We’re almost there. YAH!

Well, to be honest, I’m only a few days away from 36 weeks, but I was bound and determined to get a 35 week post up, even if I just threw some crappy pics up and called it done.

I had Jon take some pics of me yesterday and while I wasn’t totally thrilled with the pics (once I downloaded them from the camera) I didn’t care enough to try again.

At this point, we’re just rushing past this week’s photos and looking forward to the 36 week pics at the end of the week.

Last week was a bit of a weird one, to say the least and while I’m not feeling like I’m on the top of the world…I don’t feel quite as “down” as I did last week either.

I’m not sure why, but at this point…..I’m just gonna go with it.

I’ve been swelling off and on with some days being brutal and other days having almost no swelling. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it all. I can be on my feet or off of them for the day. I can eat different things, and I haven’t identified anything specific that makes me retain fluid more than anything else. So, as far as I’m concerned…it’s just a crappy thing that happens to me in late pregnancy.

I’m definitely into the whole BRUTAL TIRED and yet often can’t sleep thing. I seem to be awake long past midnight and then so SO tired during the day. I hate that! But……soon! YAH!

I do have my 36 week appt with my midwife on Thursday and so I’m looking forward to that. I’m also planning on booking a few last appts with my chiropractor just to make sure that I’m in really good alignment for having this baby.

And, that is the sum total of excitement happening around these here parts.

Hopefully, I’ll have something better for ya tomorrow.

Okay, so we’ve made it to 34 weeks…..in my head this seems both HUGE and completely insignificant.

I have 6 weeks left until my due date. Only 6 weeks…….and yet 6. more. whole. long. weeks……..UGH!

I want this time to fly by and if I’m really being honest, this week went by fairly quickly and so I’m hoping that the rest of the weeks continue along the same way.

I’ve been REALLY tired recently and so I’m trying to be very diligent about bedtimes and about taking all my vitamins and supplements.

I seem to sleep for about 7 hours and then wake up….today I tried really hard to get back to sleep when I woke up at…….5AM!!!!! and I did manage to fall back asleep. In fact, I did such a good job, that I didn’t wake up until 7:45am. Fortunately, Jon had already gotten up with the kiddos to get them off to school.

I didn’t feel tired, BUT…..I’m all puffy. I can feel it in my hands and feet. YUCK!

I had a visit with my midwife on Wednesday and she offered to give me a natural tonic to help with the fluid retention and I turned her down saying that I wasn’t really uncomfortable….just mostly by the end of the night. Now I’m kicking myself. I should have just taken it.

It was a great appointment, which was followed by a really weird Thursday.

I woke up with a pain on the left side of my abdomen down by my groin. It felt almost like a muscle or tendon ache, BUT….I couldn’t make it “stretch” out so I’m not sure what the deal was. On top of that, I woke up with a weird rash on my stomach. It wasn’t itchy and it seemed to fade and this morning is completely gone but weird to wake up with 2 weird symptoms that seems to be completely unrelated.

The pain is gone and so is the rash and I think that the rash had something to do with the aloe vera gel that she used as a conducting gel for the doppler. I also wonder if the pain had something to do with um…..er…….gas or something else like that. Who knows. All I know that I feel much better this morning except for the tight puffy hands and feet.

I have my next appointment with her in two weeks and then we start in on the weekly appointments.

See, it’s all coming so quickly and yet the end of June seems SO. FAR. AWAY!!!!!!

The little man is still favoring the right side and we’re guessing that’s where he’ll stay for the remainder of the time.

He has his butt up close to my rib cage and his back is pressed up along the right outside edge of my stomach. Until the last week or so, he’s been up fairly high, but I can feel him grinding his head against my pelvis. That’s a lovely feeling, let me tell ya.

I feel his kicks up at the top of my stomach and can feel him moving his little hands, and elbows down in the lower half of my stomach.

Someone asked what it feels like and the best explanation that I can think of is if you had someone inside a balloon (you know those giant balloons that people sometimes crawl inside) and you were blind folded and had to try to identify which body part they were pushing through the balloon. It’s a pretty thick balloon (my stomach is) so it’s not quite that easy, but you can feel the pokes and jabs and pressure as the baby presses against the edges of his current, temporary, little home.

Sometimes he pushes so hard that it hurts, but that is rare and is more a pressure hurt than a blinding pain. Most of the time, I can just feel him pushing and stretching and slowly building his muscle as he exercises inside of me.

I counted out the days yesterday and there is 42 days left. Not very much longer, right??????

Here is the “really not so exciting” 33 weeks shot.

I’m noticing that I’m rapidly getting more and more uncomfortable and horror of all horrors….i really don’t fit all that well into non- maternity clothes….and by clothes, I mean mostly shirts.

I’ve pretty much worn the same pair of maternity jeans since about 11 weeks pregnant. Which, in and of itself is amazing for me as I’ve typically worn one maternity size (ie large or extra large) for the first half of the pregnancy and then switched to the next size up (extra large or XXL) for the last half.

But, I’ve managed to hold steady on my size and for that I’m supremely grateful. Although, I can no longer consider that I fit into my pre-pregnancy pants even with the elastic in the button hole trick. I foresee a lot of skirt wearing over the next 7 weeks as I’m not about to buy any new maternity clothes.

The shirt that I’m wearing in this picture……

…….I bought recently from Superstore’s Joe line and its a large. I woulda bought an extra large, but they didn’t have any BUT…I figured that for 10 bucks I could get some wear out of it now and then be able to wear it the rest of the summer.

I do plan on checking out Old Navy in the next few weeks and picking up a few of their LOOOOOONG layering tanks. I’m hoping that they will get me through the rest of the weeks and then be suitable for the “after the baby” time this summer.

I really have not much else exciting to report on. I’ve been really careful about what I’m eating (read as eating only mostly healthy foods) and drinking massive amounts of water and I have not had too much trouble with swelling over this past week.

I have also figured out that if I tighten up all my core muscles and use them to hold my hips in place when I’m standing and sitting or rolling around in bed then they don’t hurt nearly as much as they have been. And so….I’ve been walking around clenching my butt cheeks together like I’m holding a twoonie. I figure that the worse that can come of this is that I end up with a tighter butt….which can’t be all that bad, eh?

I’m still feeling like I’m drugged during the day, and then am awake at least until midnight or beyond; but seem to wake up every morning at 6am regardless……I roll over and go back to sleep OBVIOUSLY! But, I really don’t get what’s up. If I’m tired, why can’t I just get a good night sleep. Oh well….

It’s only just for a short time longer and then I’ll be experiencing tired on a WHOLE NEW LEVEL….

But, I seem to be able to handle the tired because “I’m not sleeping” much WAY better then the tired because “I’m growing a separate being” inside of me.

Oh well….7 weeks to go. YAHOO!