Irritation
So I now understand how my sister and friends felt at this stage in their pregnancies. I’m irritable and emotional these days, probably because I feel at least a little uncomfortable most of the time. The typical things you hear about: swollen hands and feet, joint pain (in my hips and hands), having to pee ALL THE FRAKIN’ TIME, waking up a lot at night, losing my breath, etc. I think this is nature’s way of helping you prepare for the pain of labor. You get so uncomfortable you finally say, enough! Whatever it takes to make this stop. Of course, I know my physical discomfort is going to get worse before it gets better, and chances are, my sleeping time isn’t going to magically increase all of a sudden (quite the opposite).
I was telling Nate that the thing that sent me over the edge (and it’s a strange thing) was looking down at my feet one day and thinking they didn’t look like they belonged to me. I’ve always had skinny feet and toes (and hands and fingers, for that matter) and looking down and seeing swollen, plump feet … I dunno, it was weird. It was like looking at a stranger.
I’ve watched my stomach grow gradually over time but my feet seemed to have plumped up overnight. I wore my wedding ring until Monday when I realized my finger was red and abraded from it being too tight. The funny thing was, a woman in our birthing class had just told me: “I’m so jealous you’re still wearing rings.” Ha! All of the rings I used to wear on my middle fingers have migrated to my ring fingers.
These are small things. Logically, I don’t think they should bother me. Yet somehow they do. I guess I’m just generally irritable and anything would bug me at this point. Due date is May 27. We are a month away, presumably.
Things I'm looking forward to: sushi, raw oysters, drinking a couple of glasses of wine at one sitting, going for a run again, sleeping on my stomach, wearing my wedding ring, meeting my daughter.
Friday
The Humorous
There have definitely been some amusing moments during this whole pregnancy thing. Like:
Nate and I had noticed that over time, my pants tend to slide down under my belly and I have to hike them back up. We were talking about men with beer bellies, and how they have the same problem. But unlike these men, I never have the ass crack problem. In other words, the back of my pants never slides down. Nate and I were both wondering why this might be, when we simultaneously came up with the answer: my butt is too big. My pants will never fall down in the back because I have plenty to hold them up.
During our last birthing class, people were talking about concerns they have about labor. One thing that came up was worrying about cussing. Now let me tell you, I have plenty of concerns about labor, mostly involving pain, an episiotomy, an emergency c-section, and a few other physical things I will not go into detail about. Let's just say dropping a few f-bombs is not high on my list.
I have a hard time rolling from side to side in bed and getting out of bed. To do either, I have to build up my momentum. My upper body and stomach stay mostly stationary and I use my legs to to turn my whole body over to the side. When I want to get out of bed, I push myself harder, roll onto one side, and land with my feet on the floor. The first time Nate saw me do this, he called me a "roly-poly."
A couple of weeks ago, Nate wanted to go to a pub but I'm so pregnant now I felt self-conscious. I could have gotten a non-alcoholic beer or a soft drink or something, but I've heard horror stories about pregnant women getting a hard time, dirty looks, etc. when in a bar. So Nate said if anything happened, he would tell them "My wife's not pregnant; she's just fat!"
Tuesday
#1 on the list of things you shouldn’t say to a pregnant woman after you haven’t seen her in awhile: “Wow, you are huge.” I wasn’t offended when I heard it; just thought, yup, that was about the worst thing to say to me.
In new pregnancy symptoms, my fingers were hurting a lot last week. Apparently has something to do with carpal tunnel syndrome and retaining fluid. Joy. But I’ve been drinking more water and trying to sleep with my hands flat, instead of the weird twisty things I do with them normally, and they seem to be getting better.
Last Friday we had some crazy tornado weather. The sky was green and about half a mile away there was a funnel cloud. We heard the power lines snapping. The next day, I felt really odd. Just off and zone-y and when we went to the grocery store I was having Braxton Hicks contractions. We got home, I went to bed, and had more contractions off and on for the next few hours, but they didn’t intensify or happen more frequently. Our birthing instructor told us that barometric pressure changes can sometimes cause women to go into labor.
We’ve had three of our birthing classes. In the first one, as I mentioned before, there was praying at the end. At the second class, the prayerful couple was late and I think they felt a little discombobulated that night, so no request to pray. Last night they wanted to pray again. Nate and I had already decided we would leave if that should happen, which is what we did. They were going to pray for someone specifically, so before we left I walked up to her and told her Nate and I would be thinking of her, and then we vamoosed.
The nursery, thanks to Edie and John, is complete! You should check out the pictures. I’ve gotten almost everything ready. I have a little bit of organizing left and we’d like to get a rug for the nursery, then I think we are done for a while.
I’m having a big debate in my head about cloth vs. disposable diapers. The cloth require a hefty investment upfront, which presumably pays off over time because you aren’t buying disposables. However, everyone I’ve spoken to who has used cloth diapers has said they are a pain. Some don’t like washing them and everyone has said they have problems with leaks and “explosive” situations. Also, I haven’t found a day care that will accept cloth diapers. I think there are difficulties storing the dirty diapers and it’s a hygiene issue. Does it make sense to try to invest in something I won’t be able to use in day care? I can’t decide. Right now I’m thinking I may buy only a few cloth diapers to test out the leakage thing, supplemented with Seventh Generation diapers. I was thinking I could use cloth at home and disposables at day care, but we’ll just have to see how they perform. I’ll let you know how this fascinating diaper debate concludes. I can’t believe I’m freaking writing about diapers. What’s next? Breast pumping?
I’ve been doing a nice amount of freelance work lately and am in the process of trying to wrap up my last few projects. My due date is May 27 (six weeks away!) so my cut off for turning everything in is May 15. I think most of my projects will be wrapped up before then, except possibly one, which would be turned in on the 15th, I hope. We’ll see. Then I’m taking some time off of freelancing to have a newborn and maybe work on my novel. (Hahahahaha. Seriously, I’m going to try to work on my novel. I’ve always done well while sleep deprived.)
Weekly Update
I'm now gained about 33 pounds and I have seven weeks to go. Not too bad.
I've been eating better the last couple of days (more veggies and whole grains, less junk food) and the swelling in my hands and feet seems to have gone down. I can wear my engagement ring again, for one thing, so that's good. I'll be interested to see if this means my blood pressure is lower next week when I go to my doctor's appointment.
I caught a nasty bug on Sunday. Not sure if I picked up a virus while we were traveling or if I ate something that didn't agree with me. Nate was a little sick, too, but not violently ill like I was. At one point when I was vomiting in the middle of the night, the baby was kicking really hard (she probably didn't appreciate all the heaving) and I was thinking, Okay, ready for this to be over. Nothing like getting kicked internally while you're puking to want your stomach back to yourself.
Our list of names is constantly evolving, but right now our favorites are: Samantha, Madeleine, Chloe, Maren, and Rosalyn.
It snowed in Midland while we were there for Easter. And I got some very nice baby gifts from family and friends for ze bebe.
Seven weeks!!!