First off, I want to wish a very happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, moms-to-be, step-moms, and foster moms out there. You’re all amazing!
It may be my first first sort-of Mother’s Day, but we didn’t do anything special–more work on the nursery and lots of naps for me. Matt did surprise me with the Eames elephant I’ve been lusting after though! He had planned to surprise me with it for the baby shower, but the color he knew I wanted was no longer available. He broke down on our anniversary and asked me if another color would be ok and it just arrived a couple days ago… so it’s sort a combo anniversary/mother’s day/baby shower gift.
I think I will name him Alonso. (Allons-y!)
As for, I’m officially in my Third Trimester now–home stretch baby! I’ve been steadily hitting the pregnancy milestones too. Yay?
Having Issues Getting out of Bed
Not because I’m huge (I definitely look pregnant–although not in the above photo oddly enough–and am seeing numbers on the scale that are distressing-yet-normal, but I’m not hugely pregnant), everything just hurts. My pelvis especially hurts when I’ve been laying down for a while and try and get upright again. It’s similar in feeling to having done waaay too many crunches so your abs start to burn and rebel, only lower down. The last midwife I saw sent me a video of some stretches to do, so hopefully they help.
Stairs are Hard
I finally had to give up and recruit Matt to carry my laundry down to the basement. I can handle our main stairs fine, but our basement stairs are narrow and I’m a little unbalanced at the moment so I need to hang on to the hand rail. Suddenly there’s not a whole lot of space for the basket unless I balance it against my belly which is its own level of awkward.
I also feeling mildly bad for the slow, plodding way I ascend stairs when I’m out in public. Then I figure, the stairs are wide enough, if you have a problem with my speed just go around. I did have to come to a full stop on a landing at work because two ladies were walking up side-by-side and chatting. That’s fine and all, but if you’re taking up the full width of the stairs and someone’s trying to head the opposite way switch to single file for like 2 steps. This is even just general politeness and not purely because I’m a cranky pregnant lady.
The Cat is Pissed
Schmutz was napping on my belly the other day when the little dude starting kicking. He’s now big enough that you can feel (and often see) the kicks on the outside. Schmutz turned and glared at me since she’s not used to be kicked by her current bed (and it was clearly my fault). Mort’s started obsessively kneading my belly and then deciding to sleep next to me instead. I don’t know if he thinks I’m too lumpy or what.
So Many Kicks!
The first movements I really felt were just from the kiddo shifting around (I think). I would just get pressure changes in a specific area as he wedged himself into a new position. The last few weeks I’ve been getting more and more definite kicks and they’re getting increasingly more visible on the outside of my belly. They started off feeling like weird little muscle spasm-y things, but he’s gotten some good shots to my ribs lately and thrown a couple punches that have made me wince a little bit. I am really not looking forward to the day he discovers my bladder…
OMG Heartburn!
One of my very first pregnancy symptoms was some mild heartburn (but we were also eating our way through a large batch of chili so I thought I was just getting old and decrepit at the time). Now I’m getting legit heartburn and popping Tums like candy. I get heartburn by so much as thinking about food.
Unsolicited Advice
This actually hasn’t been bad at all! Most people keep pretty quiet or share the “this worked well for me, but it’s honestly a crapshoot” kind of stories (which are actually useful). The only person who rubbed my the wrong way was, oddly enough, the midwife at one of my prenatal appointments. I was talking about how I was considering a water birth because I am deathly afraid of needles* and don’t handle pain well.** Her response was that I clearly just needed to educate myself further because it didn’t seem to her like a good reason to try a water birth. I sort of wanted to shoot back “look lady, the reason I’m already freaking out about this is BECAUSE I was reading about it and looking at my options.” Then she seemed a little miffed that I didn’t have any questions. Maybe it’s because I’m actually reading about what to expect and I hadn’t encountered anything out of the ordinary at the moment? Most of the midwives I’ve seen at my appointments have been awesome, but this one was just not a good match for me.
My mom (of course!) also hopped on the unsolicited advice train after looking at our baby registry. She means well, but she started questioning some of the bigger items (Were we sure we wanted this car seat instead of that car seat because so-and-so really liked that one). While she definitely brought up some good points, it just stressed me out that all the previous research I did was wrong so I re-researched everything…aaaand ended up with the exact same products I picked out the first time. Moral of the story: everyone is going find different products that fit their individual needs.
Trippy Dreams
These have been happening for a while. I don’t tend to remember my dreams but I definitely have while pregnant! The last notable one was a nightmare about how I was never ever going to get the ceiling fan I wanted for the nursery. I was shipped a broken one, then someone tried to convince me it was perfectly fine and I couldn’t exchange it anyway because it was the very last one ever. The next day I called Lowes to check on the status of my order because the dream may have freaked me out a bit….
Bye Bye Wedding Ring
My fingers have started to swell enough that it’s getting really hard to get my rings off. I had to resort to some windex the other day, so going forward I’m probably safer just leaving them off before they get solidly stuck. My ankles are starting to swell a bit too, but thankfully they haven’t morphed into full-on cankles yet.
Pregnancy Brain
More notable moments have been going to work with my skirt inside-out (thankfully it was stripey pattern and really not noticeable!) and getting halfway to my car before realizing I was still in my slippers. I also nearly forgot Matt’s birthday. Ooops. In general I’m just spacey as heck and very easily losing my train of thought.
Glucose Challenge Test–PASSED!
The internet really builds this up as being awful, but it wasn’t that bad. The drink they give you is sort of a like a half-flat soda, so not exactly tasty, but not completely vile either (I went with the orange, but everyone I know recommended a different flavor). I chose to have mine done first thing in the morning and grab breakfast after since I’ve heard any sugar consumption (not just sweets, but things like fruit too) beforehand can mess up your results. How true this is, I don’t really know, but I really didn’t want to get stuck doing the 3 hour test so I figured it couldn’t hurt.
* Really, it’s bad. My regular doctor tried giving me valium before a shot once and it didn’t do a thing. Nitrous Oxide at the dentist doesn’t have any effect until after the shots are done (ie I calm down again). I currently have my own stash of prescription lidocaine to use before blood work, but I still get super anxious until it’s over Yeah, I’m kind of mess.
** I am so screwed.