This past week has been a long one. Last Tuesday night I came down with a cold, which really only lasted a few days cold wise. It was your pretty standard cold: sore throat, sinus congestion, headache, sneezes, etc. I had trouble sleeping for a few days, but thanks to a TON of sinus rinses it didn’t last too long. What is lasting, is the bronchitis it seems to have turned into. 

I’ve developed that stupid ‘bullfrog’ type cough which is extremely annoying for someone who actually needs to have productive coughs. An inflamed bronchial passage is the last thing I need right now. I have my pulmonary CF clinic appointment next Tuesday so hopefully if it doesn’t dissipate by then, we can come up with a plan. 

It’s making me feel tired and run down, although I’m sure little miss packing on the pounds hasn’t helped my energy levels. I’ve gotten to the point this week where most of my shirts leave me with the Smee belly syndrome. I have a few extra long tanks that have helped bridge that awkward skin gap. Thankfully it’s been pretty warm here recently so I’ve been cozy in my maxi dresses. 

Last Thursday in the midst of my cold, we thought Little Ninja had dropped! In fact, Kyle and I pretty much agree that she did drop and then scooted her way back up overnight. I had written a whole extra post about it, and I even took comparison belly photos (the next morning) only to realize that my belly looked the same. Thursday night she was hanging super low and my belly looked awfully different. I was discouraged by the belly comparison  and the fact that I was again short of breath (grr! That one night of easy breathing was bliss!) so the post was never posted. 

I’ve been having some on and off Braxton Hicks contractions which I think has helped this little lady stay head down. I had my second NonStressTest (NST) today and it went just about the same as the last one. The little jelly bean was jumping all around though! She had started with her back on my right side, only to flip over to my left side since she apparently isn’t a fan of having a hockey puck disk strapped to her back for a half hour. I don’t blame her! The machine records her movement as little dots and dashes; I think she was trying to send me a message in morse code she was moving so frequently! 

Remote malfunctions capture beauties like these

I’ve started packing a hospital bag, and it’s probably one of the weirdest things for me so far. I’m a pro at hospital packing, but this bag really wins for being the weirdest to pack. I’m usually packing for a two week stay, but this stay will only be a few days. Plus it’s the only time I’ve ever had to pack little newborn hats, socks, and a few sleeper onsies in my hospital bag. We’re getting close folks! 

34 Weeks

Shelves

Part of me wonders if it’s due to all my continuous coughing that my ab muscles are much more toned than most and so when I actually do have a contraction it just doesn’t register on my own personal scale since the muscle at the top of my uterus are used to much more abuse than my ‘practice contractions.’

In other news, the little miss was head down today! Thank goodness. She was breech last Tuesday so I got the talk about what would happen if she didn’t flip by 36 weeks. Basically a breech presenting baby is an automatic C-section. There’s an external version they can perform after the 36th week if she’s still breech where they manually turn the baby by manipulating her from the outside of the belly. Since there’s a slight risk of placenta abruption it’s only done after the baby has hit the full-term mark in case an emergency C-Section is required. All I can say is that I’m super happy that she flipped back down and I hope she stays that way for good!

Over the weekend Kyle and I put up some abstract art and some rustic style shelves in the nursery. I also cleaned and organized the closet and did some more laundry since we received some more hand-me-downs. We’re getting close folks! Hard to believe she’s going to be here soon.

This week has flown by! The days are getting warmer and longer, while I’m getting bigger and more tired! I’m trying to recall what went on this week and well, I’ll be darned if I can’t remember a single thing.

We tried to go yard-sale(ing) again this past weekend, but it ended up being a huge bust. There was another nice community with fancy signs up all week for their community yard sale, but on the actual day there were only about 3-4 sales with nothing but junk. We dragged our friends so I felt terrible for having them get up so early only to go to the saddest yard sale of all time. At least the weather was very nice and it made for an enjoyable morning walk.

Kyle and I also did some shopping at Babies-R-US since we had bit of a carseat snafu. The Graco seat we registered for and received as a gift came with the newest model base and it didn’t fit in the Prius! When we registered for it, I was assuming the base was the same size as the old Graco Snug-Ride that I had used with my charge, which fit in the Prius, but alas, the new base was much bigger. I even had a hard time fitting it comfortably in my Altima. So, we spent the weekend trying out carseats in the Prius to find one that fit comfortably. It took a lot of trials but we ended up finding one that worked out wonderfully! Thankfully Babies-R-Us was great; in exchange for leaving our license up at the front desk, we could take out any carseat to try to fit it in our car, when we came back with the seat our license was returned. It was very, very helpful to test them all out to find the one that fit the best.

The stroller finally was taken out of the box and assembled- which took all of 5 minutes. Quickest,  most fool-proof assembly ever. I wanted to take it out of a spin but Kyle said unless there was a baby in it, we were not going to be “those weirdos.” haha Fair enough, husband, fair enough.

I have an ultrasound and my regular OB appointment in a couple of hours. I plan on asking my OB about eating while laboring. Usually they have a no eating or drinking policy, but I’m afraid my chances of a cesarean would increase dramatically if that is the case for me. I exert so much energy just on a daily basis due to my CF, that I cannot imagine trying to labor for hours on end with just a saline/glucose IV drip to fuel my body. Worse case scenario they still say no, and I’m no worse off. I think if they do say no, I’m going to try to stay home as long as possible so I can have the freedom of eating and drinking as needed. We live an easy 15 minute drive – 25 in rush hour traffic- from the hospital, that I’m not too concerned about ‘getting there.’ We also live 3 minutes (in traffic) from the nearest hospital incase of an absolute emergency. We’ll just have to see what the OB team thinks.

Since I have to leave for my appointment in about a half hour, I don’t have time for pictures at this point. Check back tomorrow or later tonight for some 33 week belly pictures! I’m at that point where even I’m starting to feel like I look big! My reflection sometimes catches me off guard since it looks like I’ve just stuffed a basketball under my shirt. haha

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.