Last week I think the baby dropped. I can fit more food in at a meal and I don't get short of breath so often anymore. The other symptom that supports my conclusion is that when I go from laying to sitting up I feel a lot of pressure in the pelvic area. If I sit up very, very gradually it makes a smoother transition. The baby is so low, my ability to bend and reach things is even more restricted. I can't lean forward to eat over my plate, which makes me laugh!
With the first baby they say the it can be several weeks after it drops before it is ready to be born. So if it dropped in week 35, that doesn't mean I'm about to go into labor. Obviously, since it is a week later now. :)
P.S. I hope you see my humor.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Layout
I think I've figured out how the baby lays most of the time. At my last appointment, the midwife felt around on my belly and helped me identify its body parts.
The baby's head is down, which is good so long as it stays that way! It's back is along the right side of my belly, and its arms and legs are towards my left side. I told the midwife about the little movement that I feel really low on my left side and she thought it was probably feet.
I think this is the way the baby is positioned most of the time based on the type of movement that I feel and where. I think I feel it stretch out its legs while it is doubled over. I will feel small little feet low on my left side while what must be its bottom pushes out high on my right side.
I want the baby to get bigger before it comes out in the world, but I just don't see how it can. I suppose that is why baby's are miracles.
The baby's head is down, which is good so long as it stays that way! It's back is along the right side of my belly, and its arms and legs are towards my left side. I told the midwife about the little movement that I feel really low on my left side and she thought it was probably feet.
I think this is the way the baby is positioned most of the time based on the type of movement that I feel and where. I think I feel it stretch out its legs while it is doubled over. I will feel small little feet low on my left side while what must be its bottom pushes out high on my right side.
I want the baby to get bigger before it comes out in the world, but I just don't see how it can. I suppose that is why baby's are miracles.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Big and feeling it
With less than six week until the due date, I'm really beginning to feel big, or make that enormous. For me, I am enormous, though other people don't always agree. I have my doubts that the baby has anywhere left to go as it packs on the extra pounds here at the end. Sometimes I feel the baby move up by my ribs and I think I'm losing space to breathe. And maybe even space to eat.
I try my best to include the extra calories that I'm supposed to eat everyday, but it is difficult. I'm reminded of the beginning of this pregnancy when I could only eat two bites and anything more made me gag. I'm not gagging now, I just don't think there is room in my stomach for much food at a time!
I try my best to include the extra calories that I'm supposed to eat everyday, but it is difficult. I'm reminded of the beginning of this pregnancy when I could only eat two bites and anything more made me gag. I'm not gagging now, I just don't think there is room in my stomach for much food at a time!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Into the 3rd Trimester
Again, I've not posted for quite a while. On the pregnancy front, little has changed. The baby keeps getting bigger and my belly is showing it. Sometimes the baby tickles me and I wonder if it is a hand or foot I'm feeling. I enjoy just sitting and feeling it move, so long as it isn't kicking me in the lungs.
I seem to be gaining an appropriate amount of weight from my estimations. I can certainly tell I've gained weight when I move from one place to another! While I am enjoying the pregnancy, I will also be glad to get back to my typical weight sometime after the baby is born.
The doctors have me coming in about every two weeks now that we're in the third trimester. I talked to a woman at the hospital's anesthesiology department about what we could do if the baby needs to be delivered c-section. I had rods put in my back to correct scoliosis when I was 12 years old, and my doctors and I thought it would be a good idea to have a plan if the old fashioned way of delivering doesn't pan out. The anesthesiologist said that she would like to have an x-ray to see where the hardware is in my back, which we are trying to get from the hospital in Chicago where I last had x-rays. Other than knowing where the rods are, she said performing an epidural or spinal would probably just be difficult. She said I may have an increase in the risks associated with those procedures, such as leaking spinal fluid and severe headache that can last a couple days.
Hmmm. Well... here is my plan: hope, plan, and prepare in the ways that I can to have the baby naturally. The doctors say that giving me an epidural will prevent what is known as autonomic dysreflexia. My injury is around the T-10 level and I have not experienced this in the past, so I'm hoping that it will not occur during labor. But I've never had something as tramatic happen as having a baby, so I don't know if it will or not.
I'm hoping that they will physically be able to give me an epidural or spinal, but I really do not like the idea of having a needle and drugs going into the spinal area. If the baby ends up needing delivered by c-section, the other alternative if a spinal doesn't work is general anesthetic. If that happens, I am totally out of it, the baby can possibly get exposed to the drugs before it is born, and Josh doesn't get to be there when it is born. :(
So I'm thinking positively, trying not to stress about all the "what if's" that freak me out, and enjoy still being pregnant. I have the baby to feel and talk to everyday, so it is easy to enjoy.
I seem to be gaining an appropriate amount of weight from my estimations. I can certainly tell I've gained weight when I move from one place to another! While I am enjoying the pregnancy, I will also be glad to get back to my typical weight sometime after the baby is born.
The doctors have me coming in about every two weeks now that we're in the third trimester. I talked to a woman at the hospital's anesthesiology department about what we could do if the baby needs to be delivered c-section. I had rods put in my back to correct scoliosis when I was 12 years old, and my doctors and I thought it would be a good idea to have a plan if the old fashioned way of delivering doesn't pan out. The anesthesiologist said that she would like to have an x-ray to see where the hardware is in my back, which we are trying to get from the hospital in Chicago where I last had x-rays. Other than knowing where the rods are, she said performing an epidural or spinal would probably just be difficult. She said I may have an increase in the risks associated with those procedures, such as leaking spinal fluid and severe headache that can last a couple days.
Hmmm. Well... here is my plan: hope, plan, and prepare in the ways that I can to have the baby naturally. The doctors say that giving me an epidural will prevent what is known as autonomic dysreflexia. My injury is around the T-10 level and I have not experienced this in the past, so I'm hoping that it will not occur during labor. But I've never had something as tramatic happen as having a baby, so I don't know if it will or not.
I'm hoping that they will physically be able to give me an epidural or spinal, but I really do not like the idea of having a needle and drugs going into the spinal area. If the baby ends up needing delivered by c-section, the other alternative if a spinal doesn't work is general anesthetic. If that happens, I am totally out of it, the baby can possibly get exposed to the drugs before it is born, and Josh doesn't get to be there when it is born. :(
So I'm thinking positively, trying not to stress about all the "what if's" that freak me out, and enjoy still being pregnant. I have the baby to feel and talk to everyday, so it is easy to enjoy.
Monday, September 29, 2008
My Theme Song this Season
If my life were a TV show, the theme song this season would be Danny's Song. Does a song ever hit you as being about you because it describes your situation and/or feelings exactly? There have been a few songs that I remember feeling that way about in the past few years. If life were a TV show I think the theme song would need to change every year or so, and it would be the underlying mood to what happens each episode that season.
I came across Danny's Song a week or so ago on Pandora Radio and found myself humming it a few days later. I remembered only a few parts of the lyrics and decided to look up the rest. When I did, I found that it is a song originally done by Loggins & Messina, though I had heard a remake by another artist. I thought it was funny that I hadn't remembered that it was a Kenny Loggins song since he is one of the artists I spent a lot of time listening to growing up.
If you aren't familiar with the song or know it and want to hear it, here is a link, (this link is a real treat because it has pictures of a very hairy Kenny Loggins as well as the lyrics as the song plays, lol). If you can't or don't want to play the song but would like to read the lyrics, go ahead and click here.
It is highly amusing to me that my parents probably really liked this song when they were my age, since they were married only a few years after the album debuted.
I came across Danny's Song a week or so ago on Pandora Radio and found myself humming it a few days later. I remembered only a few parts of the lyrics and decided to look up the rest. When I did, I found that it is a song originally done by Loggins & Messina, though I had heard a remake by another artist. I thought it was funny that I hadn't remembered that it was a Kenny Loggins song since he is one of the artists I spent a lot of time listening to growing up.
If you aren't familiar with the song or know it and want to hear it, here is a link, (this link is a real treat because it has pictures of a very hairy Kenny Loggins as well as the lyrics as the song plays, lol). If you can't or don't want to play the song but would like to read the lyrics, go ahead and click here.
It is highly amusing to me that my parents probably really liked this song when they were my age, since they were married only a few years after the album debuted.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Life keeps going on
Lately it seems like there isn't much new. I am happy that the pregnancy is uneventful at this point because that is what it should be! Thing are pretty much the same as they have been for the past few weeks; the baby still moves quite a bit. I wonder, "what it is trying to do in there? What it is thinking? Does it think it is going to get anywhere if it hits me harder?"
I went in for my glucose screening this week to test for gestational diabetes. I drank this sugary orange concoction that reminded me of a mutated McDonald's orange drink. It made my stomach a bit queasy and an hour-ish after downing it my blood was drawn. When the results come back if I'm not in the normal range I will have a 3-hour screening to better determine if I have diabetes. I'm hoping I'm in the normal range!
I went in for my glucose screening this week to test for gestational diabetes. I drank this sugary orange concoction that reminded me of a mutated McDonald's orange drink. It made my stomach a bit queasy and an hour-ish after downing it my blood was drawn. When the results come back if I'm not in the normal range I will have a 3-hour screening to better determine if I have diabetes. I'm hoping I'm in the normal range!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Pondering
Sometimes I sit at the computer and visit my own blog to watch the baby widget. I click on the days to review how many days and weeks it has been so far and then how much longer the baby needs to grow with me. I sit there and just watch it slowly move around in the bubble, knowing that it looks something like that.
It seems like such a dorky thing to do, to watch a widget, but I think it is also something that a mother might do. Since I'm the baby's mother, I guess it is appropriate. I am used being pregnant and I can imagine having the baby here with me after it is born, but it still seems weird to think of myself as a mother. It is exciting and I know that I will like it because I'm sure that I will like as well as love the baby.
I remember when my sister was pregnant the first time and it seemed so strange to see her belly grow, knowing that her identity would never be quite the same again. She was no longer my big sister and someone who looked after me when I needed her; she was going to have someone who depended on her for everything, needed her more than I did, and was more important to her than me - she was going to be a mother. While she always did take care of me more than may have been her responsibility as a sibling, it was a new dynamic. Now, as the mother of four children, being a mother is such a huge part of who she is and it fits her. So I know that it will seem strange for a while that I am the mother, but once it finally sinks in I'm sure that it will fit just fine.
I think that being pregnant helps me get used to the idea that the baby will be there all the time and I will always need to make sure it is looked after. It is never going to just take care of itself - make itself a sandwich when it's hungry like Josh does - someone, usually me, will have to make sure that everything is taken care of for it. Maybe that is why some people get a pet before having a baby - but I'm not interested in having something that sheds hair worse than I do!
It seems like such a dorky thing to do, to watch a widget, but I think it is also something that a mother might do. Since I'm the baby's mother, I guess it is appropriate. I am used being pregnant and I can imagine having the baby here with me after it is born, but it still seems weird to think of myself as a mother. It is exciting and I know that I will like it because I'm sure that I will like as well as love the baby.
I remember when my sister was pregnant the first time and it seemed so strange to see her belly grow, knowing that her identity would never be quite the same again. She was no longer my big sister and someone who looked after me when I needed her; she was going to have someone who depended on her for everything, needed her more than I did, and was more important to her than me - she was going to be a mother. While she always did take care of me more than may have been her responsibility as a sibling, it was a new dynamic. Now, as the mother of four children, being a mother is such a huge part of who she is and it fits her. So I know that it will seem strange for a while that I am the mother, but once it finally sinks in I'm sure that it will fit just fine.
I think that being pregnant helps me get used to the idea that the baby will be there all the time and I will always need to make sure it is looked after. It is never going to just take care of itself - make itself a sandwich when it's hungry like Josh does - someone, usually me, will have to make sure that everything is taken care of for it. Maybe that is why some people get a pet before having a baby - but I'm not interested in having something that sheds hair worse than I do!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)