Hi Friends!

Normally my weekly post goes up on Tuesday afternoons, but instead I got to take an unexpected trip to my dentist… nice.  Hopefully tomorrow my face will no longer be aching and I will have the weekly pregnancy update for everyone; until then, here’s my tooth saga:

I dreamt I had a toothache on Monday only to wake up at 3am with a throbbing face. I figured I had just spent the past few hours grinding my teeth so after getting up, eating leftovers, loading the dishwasher and a quick puppy snuggle, I went back to bed figuring I could just sleep it off.

If only it was that easy. I spent the next 2 hour tossing and turning while my lower jaw throbbed. I slept for about 20 minutes before the pain woke me up again. I ended up taking some tylenol around 6:30 and fell back asleep around 7:30. Waking up around 10:30 my face was no longer throbbing but it was still pretty achey. I spent the rest of the day hoping the pain would just go away, but to no avail. While the pain was no longer as intense as it was at 3 am, I was still pretty miserable.

If you don’t know, I hate the dentist. I loathe any and all dental work. I used to cry every.single.time. I was at the dentist until about the age of 22. I wish I was kidding. I take really good care of my teeth, in fact I floss twice a day, use a flouride rinse, and brush regularly, but alas, the meds that keep my lungs healthy also destroy my poor teeth.

I called my OB’s office to get their opinion on getting fillings while pregnant. I had a feeling one of my many fillings may have cracked. The last thing I wanted to happen was have my fillings fall out so that eating hurt– I have enough trouble eating as it is, never mind adding in some mouth pain!

OB said to get it fixed and said if I needed something stronger than tylenol for pain I could call them back and they could call something in. The high risk OB’s are so relaxed, sometimes annoyingly so! Next call was to the dentist where we scheduled an appointment for today.

I saw the dentist today and it turns out I was most likely grinding my teeth/clenching my jaw during sleeping, but it looks like it had irritated an air pocket that had formed when a slight piece of composite chipped out of a filling. She was able to drill the surrounding composite and refilled it with some ketac – which doesn’t expand and contract like composite does (it also happens to be extremely bright white!).

The dentist also filed down the tooth next to the fixed composite tooth since it looked like that was where my teeth hit the hardest when biting down. Basically, she made my bite a little more even. She also checked all surrounding teeth for any signs of decay which I had none- there’s a first time for everything I suppose!

The goal should be to not have any pain in a few days and then after the baby is born I can return and she’ll file away some of the ketac and place tooth-colored composite over it. And if the pain lingers? I’ll try a mouth guard at night and if that doesn’t help… well, looks like I’ll just have to make another date to my favorite place in the world.

Yesterday I had my 2 week OB appointment. I met another doctor. I’d say at this point I’ve met close to 10 of the 17 high risk OB’s. This particular doctor has a way he likes to do things — including going over every single medicine in detail. While slightly annoying, I recognized it as an opportunity for him to better be acquainted with my regiment and file so if he’s on while I deliver he’ll know who I am. He also said he recognized me from seeing me in passing – so I guess I have one of those faces? He tried to figure out where little ninja was hanging out in my belly but she was too wiggly. Pure ninja style of course.

It’s been a long week this week. So long that I forgot it was Tuesday and didn’t even realize until my father asked where my weekly update was. Hence, no picture today. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow.

This is going to be a loooooong post!

Here goes:

I had my OB appointment last Tuesday where I was given a TDAP shot. When I was getting it done, I was surprised at how high the nurse jabbed my arm. I wouldn’t even have called it my arm at that point, it was more like my shoulder.

Now, I know tetanus shots have a reputation for being pretty harsh when it comes to making your arm muscle kill for the next few days, so I expected nothing less. What I didn’t expect was the fact that my muscle felt fine after a couple of days but my shoulder joint continues to kill me. I’m having trouble sleeping, getting dressed and anything that involves the rotation of my shoulder where she jabbed me.

I thought it was getting better, but today it was hurting so much that I ended up taking some Tylenol to try to alleviate some of the pain. I’m not even sure it helped. I would have much rather had some ibuprofen since I’m sure I have some inflammation of the joint, but ibuprofen isn’t allowed during pregnancy.

Then I had someone come by to take a look at the bathroom for a renovation quote. He was so large he almost didn’t fit in the tiny bathroom. And then he almost broke the toilet by leaning against the tank with so much weight that it started leaking. Needless to say, regardless of the good reviews his company has we’ll be going with someone else. He also questioned my design choices, out-loud – which struck me as very unprofessional.

In other “it’s been a long week” news, Kyle took me shoe shopping on Sunday since my feet are getting squashed and uncomfortable in my old shoes so I needed some new ‘sneaks. While shopping he points out this lump on my leg. It was about the size of quarter and close to my ankle, and above it on my calf another pea sized lump.

We went home, and while Kyle made and packed some snacks, I called the labor and delivery department to see explain the mysterious lump and get confirmation that I should come in. (No surprise there, they said yes.) While I was skeptical that it wasn’t a clot (no tenderness, redness, etc.) we still wanted to be sure.

We get there and they strap me up to the monitors and take some vitals. I’m hooked up to a fetal doppler to monitor Ninja’s heart rate and a contraction monitor, all as protocol dictates when you’re admitted into L&D triage. We ended up waiting for about 30-40 minutes when finally a doctor comes in to ask if I’ve been feeling any contractions.

Nope, feeling fine. Ninja was trying her best to escape having a big ‘ole hockey puck sized monitor squashed on her head, but besides her squirming all around I didn’t feel a thing. I let them know that the monitor was most likely just recording my coughing fits as contractions since when coughing I tighten up all my ab muscles. So I demonstrated a few coughs while she watched the machine.

Yes, the machine does pick up my cough but it looks like a cough, and not like the contractions the monitor had apparently been picking up. Nurse and doctor quietly talk over the long trail of monitor paper pointing out peaks and talking about numbers and whatnot.

They decide they’d like to check my cervix and make sure that I just have an irritable uterus and that I’m not actually going into preterm labor.

“You know I came in because I have a lump on my leg, right? Not because I was contracting or anything?”

“Yup, but you’re contracting.”

I’m checked and my cervix is fine: no thinning, dilating or showing any signs of going into early labor. They want to keep me hooked up for 2 more hours, then recheck to make sure my cervix hasn’t changed. Fine by me, but would you look at my leg?

“Looks like a varicose vein, we’ll give you some compression socks.”

About 20 minutes after they leave (and telling me to ‘try and keep still’) I turn to Kyle and say, “Um, I think I may be having a contraction? My belly feels a little bit tight, it’s weird.”

Sure enough we turn to the monitor and I’ve got a huge peak going on. We’re no doctors but we both decided that yup, that’s what’s happening. And now we’re both worried.

They continue for about 20 or so more minutes on and off and the nurse comes back in. “Are you still not feeling these?” To which I let her know that I have started to feel a few, (I think) since my belly feels like it tightens up a little bit.   I also let her know that I’m feeling lightheaded and hungry since we’ve now been there for a few hours and I haven’t been allowed to eat or drink (stupidest rules ever). I check my blood sugar levels while she’s there and I’m just under 70 – which is considered low. I let her know that if I can’t eat or drink anything, I’ll most likely be in the 50’s/40’s in about 15 minutes.

I get apple juice and I feel better. Still contracting every once in a while, but feeling better. Doctor comes back in and checks me again – still no signs of labor, but she reassures me that I’m not just having ‘braxton hicks’ like I questioned and that they were actual contractions. My response is “but I’m hardly even feeling them?” Doctor says it could just be sign that I have a high pain threshold. Well, I’ll take that.

They decide to give me a bolus of IV fluids – since I let them know I threw up twice that day and was walking around a lot, and didn’t have enough fluid intake, and now was made to fast for 4 hours…

Took the nurse two tries to get my IV in (and that was using a 20, and for labor they use an 18 gauge needle- I really missed the IV team at that point) but half a huge bag of saline later the contractions are gone and I still feel fine. They keep me a little while longer, but decide that I was just most likely dehydrated. They give me some compression socks (for my vein) and send me home.

Weirdest day ever.  Long week.

I have no restrictions, and I was told to just “take it easy for 24 hours and make sure I’m getting enough fluids.” It’s not uncommon for dehydration to cause contractions so I’ll just have to be extra diligent about my fluids – especially now that it’s warming up.

Then to top off the week, our baby classes were supposed to start last night (Monday’s at 7) and we show up only to find that it’s been pushed back a week and no one let me know. I emailed the instructor and STILL haven’t heard back from her. This is the second time she’s left a bad taste in my mouth and I’m already disappointed and I haven’t even started the class yet! We might try to find some last minute class we can join instead of taking this one and ask for our money back. It was one of those things that just soured my mood for the whole night.

On the bright side? The weather has been absolutely WONDERFUL this week.  We hit the mid-high 70’s 3-4 days in a row.

In summary:
* My shoulder joint really aches & affects my sleep
* Varicose vein in my leg so I need to wear compression socks
* Baby is doing just fine and doesn’t have any plans to make her appearance anytime soon (she was quite high up in my uterus)
* I need to be more aware of my fluid intake
* Contractions are weird, but now I know what they feel like for future reference.
* Baby class was rescheduled so I’m looking into finding a new one

Today marks the start of the 29th week of being pregnant. I had my OB appointment today as well as my ultrasound so it was a long morning. My weight checked in at 130, so in the last 4 weeks I’ve managed to put on 6 pounds. Hooray! Everyone was happy with that and things are looking good.

My blood sugars are still on track but I will continue to monitor them, and they will continue to monitor little miss Overdeep’s growth to keep an eye on her weight gain too. Having diabetes involvement you run the risk of having a big baby. So far she’s right on the average track. Her arm bones, head and kidneys are all measuring a few days behind and her belly is measuring exactly 29 weeks.  Measurements like that have a week on either side buffer that is considered ‘normal’ – anything outside that buffer is cause for concern, or reevaluation of your due date.

The little ninja was head up today, which explains the karate kick to the bladder I’ve been feeling lately, and she weighed in at 2 pounds 11 oz.  (estimated of course)

I haven’t had too many pregnancy symptoms although I have started to notice my feet are getting pretty cramped in most of my shoes! Getting a new pair of flats and sneakers are on my list of things to do this week since wearing shoes has become somewhat uncomfortable.

I’ve officially reached the “I can now use my belly as a shelf to hold my ice cream bowl” stage. It’s fantastic.

I’ve been overall feeling much better this week. I started a new inhaled antibiotic and it seems to be really helping. I’ll continue on it for 3 more weeks to really give my lungs a good boost.

I still can’t believe the end is nearing! Only 11 more weeks to go, and that’s if they let me go to 40 weeks. If little miss ninja has other plans, or they feel they need to induce me at the diabetes planned 38 weeks- it could be even less than that! How is it going by so quickly??

There are some things I didn’t expect to happen while being pregnant. In fact, you might say these are the things I’m going to miss when I’m no longer lugging a baby around in my belly.

Look at those babies! If I were to curl them they tend to touch my brow. Insanity.

The eyelashes. DUDE, the lashes. They’re out of control. I’m not sure why, or what it is, but I swipe on a coat or two of mascara and it looks like I’ve donned falsies. I am loving it!

Very similar is my hair. I wouldn’t say it’s growing any faster, but I’m definitely not losing it like I use to. (The drain is very happy about this too!) I hear around 4 months postpartum is you’ll start to shed your glorious locks, but until then, I will continue to stroke my luxuriously thick locks.

My skin is pretty awesome these days. When I first got pregnant I was worried about getting the dreaded pregnancy acne since I always get hormone related pimples in real life anyway. The last thing I wanted was a face full of acne to bring my perceived age back down to 15. While this is sometimes the case for some women, I’ve lucked out! My monthly cycle pimples are gone, and my skin has never been clearer! It does come with a price though, and it’s been drier than the Sahara. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve just taken to smearing coconut oil on my face each day, and then lotion throughout the day. If I don’t it starts to flake. Gross. Overall I’m claiming this as a win! Plus, I found what helps my keratosis pilaris due to my liberal use of coconut oil during pregnancy.

My nails stopped being so flimsy. For a bit. This one is hit and miss. The first trimester was so kind to my nails. They stopped splitting, peeling, and just generally sucking. For the first time, ever, I could shape them and paint them and they looked semi-normal! Then I caught the flu and got sick and went on all these antibiotics. I think that really depletes my vitamin levels and my body concentrates on giving the vitamins to the places that really need it, and my nails didn’t make that list.  They went back to splitting, peeling and just generally being bad. I’m a few weeks off of IV’s and they’re starting to grow out a little stronger.

Coffee has become FAR more delicious than I ever remember it to be. This is one of those things that I did not expect in the slightest. I haven’t had any real cravings like I had imagined I might, but somewhere around the end of the first trimester I started craving coffee. I drank decaf, so I knew I wasn’t becoming addicted to the caffeine. I started craving coffee so much so that I bought myself a single serve coffee maker. I almost never drank coffee before. Sure, I’d have half a small iced coffee in the summer here and there, but I’m at the point where I crave a coffee every day. Something about that bitter, creaminess keeps calling me back. I wouldn’t be upset if my craving for coffee continued past birth. I’ve been loading each cup up with about 3 TBSP of heavy cream (for an additional 150 calories and 15g of fat) so it’s been a big help in gaining weight.

My husband gives me countless backrubs. He has yet to deny me of any back-rub deliciousness if I ask and sometimes even offers! He always has spoiled me, but he’s really outdone himself on this one. Daily backrubs are going to be hard to give up. I may end up missing this one the most!

All in all there are some things that are making this pregnancy hard  which is to be expected with any pregnancy really, but I feel that the perks of pregnancy get overlooked so easily! Now excuse me while I go oogle my lashes for the 3rd time today while sipping my afternoon coffee.

For my birthday my lovely hubby bought me some flowers and a camera remote. I went a little crazy with the thing and ended up taking almost 150 pictures in under 30 minutes. I tried walking shots, twirling shot and even through in some jumping shots. It’s safe to say that I love my little camera remote! I can’t wait to try my hand at taking some family pictures with the bump. We’ll see what my photo-hating husband has to say about that one. =)


As far as symptoms go I’ve been hit this week with exhaustion. There have been a couple of days where I’ve woken up with absolutely no energy to do anything! By the time I’m done eating breakfast, doing my vest and meds I’m ready to go back to bed! 

They say it’s common to experience exhaustion during the third trimester but I am hard pressed to believe that it would kick in so soon! I have a feeling that this little girl hanging out in my belly maybe going through a growth spurt. I’ve had an itchy belly and I’ve put on just shy of another pound since last week! 

Another symptom I’ve been experience is shortness of breath. Having CF this isn’t unusual- especially with the weather. We are fluctuating between mid 60’s and low 20’s. I kid you not. Saturday was a wonderful 67 degrees and then Sunday- high of 40.  We’re getting snow all day tomorrow, and then by the end of the week will see the 60’s again. This kind of fluctuation really takes a toll on my asthmatic lungs. I breathe much easier in the warmer weather, so to have them going from relaxed to tight in such rapid succession has resulted in a lot of huffing and puffing on my end. 

I still feel like little nugget has yet to really reach the stage where she starts pressing on my diaphragm and lungs. I feel like my coughing is still forceful and productive (sorry little baby! You’re still getting lots of ‘momma hugs.’) It’s only a matter of time until that no longer is the case. 

Since I spend a decent amount of the day chatting to little Overdeep, Kyle has taken it upon himself to read to her at night. Normally I think people read stories along the lines of Peter Rabbit, or maybe even Harry Potter, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we are not following that trend. To be fair, I did look for my collection of Beatrix Potter books but it’s lost among the shuffle. Next best book, Norse Mythology. I kid you not, our child is already listening to Odin and the AEsir. She always kicks and rolls around when listening to her daddy read.

Baby O. got really excited last night listening to Kyle explain the newest physics news. We may have a future scientist on our hands. Judging by the amount of kicks, rolls, and punches she was delivering to my gut while listening to the exciting physics news, I can only imagine they were caused by excitement. 

Speaking of excitement, now that the room is really coming together and all the large things are done we can start the next phase: decorating! I’d like to install some shelves to the wall left of the crib, add some art on the opposite wall, create a mobile, add curtains, sew a crib skirt, etc. etc. Kyle let it slip that he was probably more excited for the decorating stage than the actual painting stage. Such a cutie. 

Have a great week everyone! 

Total weight gain/loss: I gained 2 pounds this week! Hooray! Brings my total up to 12 lbs. I just need to keep gaining each week and I’ll be golden!
Maternity clothes? Yes and no. If I want to wear skinny jeans I’ll pull the belly band out and rock  these Lucky jeans my sister passed on to me. I can’t wait until it’s warm enough to wear my Maxi dresses again!

Stretch marks? None yet. I definitely feel periods of where my belly feels very ‘stretched’ but so far no marks. 
Sleep: Sleeping pretty well this past week– minus last night where Oliver kept waking me up. And then there was having to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at 5 am…

Best moment this week: We had a nice lunch visit with Meghan and she felt some little ninja kicks while she was here! Always so exciting that other people get to feel little miss move around. 

Movement: Little lady loves to dance. She’s changed her sleeping habits so now she’s awake more so when I’m up. She also wakes up and moves around when we listen to music or read aloud.
Food Cravings: Strawberries! I bought a package this past week and they were perfection. I’m headed out later today to pick up more. =) 

Tried to take a silhouette type picture…

Anything making you queasy or sick?  Finally feeling pretty good! I’ve been feeling pretty short of breath lately but I believe it’s a combo of the weather changes (60 degrees to snowing?) and getting further along in pregnancy. It causes me to have an asthmatic type cough which is unproductive and highly annoying. Besides that and some round ligament pain, I’m feeling good! 

Labor signs: None

Belly button in or out? Whatever it is, it’s weird. Take my word for it. 

Happy or moody most of the time? Happy camper this week. Gaining weight has really taken a lot of my anxiety away. My ultrasound on Friday also helped ease a lot of my ‘weight gain’ anxiety. Little Lady is right on track and weighs about 1 lb 8 oz. She was head down with her feet up towards my right ribs. I theorize that she likes to be head down so I don’t squash her head everytime I cough. I’ve been telling her that I’m just “hugging her” when I cough. She gets hugged A LOT. =D

Looking forward to:  Lot’s to look forward to: I’m turning 25 tomorrow, my father’s coming down for a visit, and of course I’m looking forward to setting up that crib! 

How far along? 25 weeks – only 15 more to go!
Total weight gain/loss: Total gain of only 10 lbs so far. Had a long chat with my nutritionists at my last visit. I’m just not eating enough calories. I need at least 3500 calories if not more, depending on activity level and health.  Currently I’ve had a good eating day if I hit 2500. Little ninja will obviously take what she needs from me, but we don’t want me wasting away in the process! I’ve been trying very hard to up my calorie intake, but it’s proving pretty difficult. Eating when you’re not hungry is stressful. 
Maternity clothes?  This lovely ensemble is all non-maternity. My pair of “big jeans” held together via hair elastic and a Target clearance tee in a few sizes up. 
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: My tailbone is starting to feel better so I’m finally sleeping through the night again! Glorious sleep. 
Best moment this week: Getting outside for some exercise and vitamin D since we’ve hit the 60’s the last few days!
Miss Anything? 
Movement: I’m feeling less kicks and more wiggles these days. As she gets bigger I can really feel her rolling around. 
Food Cravings: No real food cravings this week. 

Anything making you queasy or sick? Nothing really comes to mind. Now if this darn tailbone would just heal all the way I’d be a happy camper. 
Gender: I bought the cutest pair of mint polkadotted pants for little miss, so she better still be a she! 
Labor signs: Negative
Belly button in or out? It’s visible through my shirts now. I think I might officially declare it an outie. 

Happy or moody most of the time? I’ve been loving the warmer weather, but had one emotional day when I was feeling down about not gaining weight. It’s just stressful to have a nutritionist talk at you about how to boost your caloric intake when you’ve heard it all your life, and you know it by heart, but you just aren’t hungry. 
Looking forward to: Sister-in-law is swinging by for a quick lunch visit while she’s in town for work! I’m also looking forward to my Friday ultrasound as it’s always reassuring and fun to see my little girl wiggling away on the screen!