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December 18, 2003
Attack of the Third Trimester: December 18, 2003
It has been way too long since my last pregnancy-related entry and of course, a million things have happened since then. I’m over 30 weeks along, so I’m more than five weeks behind. I was really hoping to catch up to the present, but I can post this today if I stop here at week 29. It looks like my December 8th and December 22nd prenatals will end up on the same entry. Oh well.
Weeks 26 and 27
I finished up the second trimester and life was happy and good. Around 26 weeks, my belly must have grown overnight. Suddenly, every co-worker who walked by asked me how I was doing. It’s nice to have so many people care about my well-being, but I wish every one of them didn’t ask how I was feeling. It makes me feel like I’m enduring a long-term illness. And if I said anything other than “fine, thanks”, I bet they wouldn’t want to hear it. The silly thing is that I do the same thing when I encounter other pregnant women. The world needs to come up with something better to say to preggos.
I had a slight cold that began around the 26 week mark. Since my nose has been continually runny since the baby took over my body, the only noticeable annoyance was that my ears were plugged for a few weeks. Around the same time, little things started causing my heart rate to speed up. The combination of racing heart and plugged ears meant that I could hear my heart beat in my ears and it was spooky. The first morning I encountered this, it freaked me out enough that I had someone from work walk with me to the fire station to get my blood pressure checked. After waiting around for the firemen to come back from a run, I found out that my b/p was 108/58. I felt silly for bothering them when that’s lower than the average person’s, but it was comforting to know that my body hadn’t suddenly gone haywire. It made me very grateful that the every-two-week prenatals would begin the next week. I also realized that I’ve got a great group of co-workers. One guy who has three daughters my age let me know that he’d always be willing to go with me to the fire station or doctor or wherever else if something came up during the work day. Another guy nearer my age with two young sons walked me there this time and has been very gracious and understanding about sitting next to a preggo for months. I know I won’t hear any infuriating comments from his direction. Even the younger DINKS I sit by have asked reasonable questions and don’t think I’m completely insane for planning a homebirth.
So it Begins
At 27 days and 2 weeks, I happened to notice something in the mirror as I hiked up my pants. Were those stretch marks? Seeing anything just below my belly button requires some leaning and stretching so it was tricky to get a good look. I’d already seen little stretch marks on my chest and others on my hips and rear end, and those didn’t bother me much since no one should see bare skin there anyway. I had questioned my mom and grandmas, and they all claimed to be stretch-mark free. Apparently, I was getting a little over-confident in my body’s ability to avoid them on my belly at least because those three lines looked pretty suspicious. Distinguishing between stretch marks and the imprint of my clothes wasn’t terribly clear, though, so I couldn’t tell for sure. I did feel the need to examine them every time I walked by a mirror for the rest of the day.
November 24th Prenatal (later that day)
We arrived early to our 4pm appointment --that’s a big accomplishment for us! Jeanne was running late, so we hung out in her living room for twenty minutes until her previous client’s appointment was done. Kim wasn’t able to get a babysitter for her kids, so we just saw Jeanne this time. She's sort of the primary midwife anyway, and we knew Kim wasn't going to be around as much through the end of the year. Dan was bummed to not see Kim though, since he missed the one appointment when they were both there and hasn't seen her since our interview in September.
I was finally getting the hang of doing the preliminary stuff—checking my protein and glucose with the pee sticks and stepping on the scale. I was up 21 pounds—that’s 12 additional pounds since I hit the 20 week mark seven weeks ago. I was happy to hear that I could skip the finger prick this time. My blood pressure was 94/60, which is slightly low for me, if anything.
I asked whether I should start taking iron supplements since I'd heard that it's hard to get enough iron no matter how much I consume at this stage of pregnancy. She said it wasn't crucial, but my hemoglobin (I think that’s the right term) would drop in the next few weeks as my blood volume increases, so it wouldn't hurt to be pro-active and take a supplement. We talked about eating habits and how we've been working on it. She didn't tell us that I wasn't up to snuff--just encouraged us to do what we could. She reiterated that getting enough protein makes a huge difference in reducing toxemia and is really the easiest way to increase your chances of a healthy baby. If there is any recurring theme to my prenatals and Bradley classes, it’s that sufficient protein will improve nearly every aspect of pregnancy. I guess they realize that preggo brains can only keep track of one thing at a time, and that’s the topic they’re trying to imprint on my brain.
As she measured my fundus (26 cm) she commented on the now-definitive stretch marks. No denying it now, that’s what they are. Now I feel like I'm going to wake up and BOOM! Be covered in dark purple lines. She said that I might as well buy cocoa butter to rub on them, but I’ve just been using normal lotion. I asked around on my fertilityfriend board, and it sounds like most people who get the big scary ones get them by month five. Jeanne said if they stay little like this, they'll fade quickly. She claims that good nutrition helps that too. We'll see, I suppose. 3 months to go...
Another thing I noticed that morning was that my belly didn't seem like the same shape--it seemed to go less out and more up and down. The kicks had moved around over the weekend, too, but I wasn't sure if I was imagining it. When she felt the baby, she verified my suspicions--the baby finally moved out of his/her transverse position. She found his head down low, the spine along my left side, and his legs/feet along the top above my belly button. Nifty, huh? Apparently, that position is LOA, which is the ideal birthing position, so now the baby just has to stay put for three months. There still seems to be plenty of space in there--there's not much in my right side. She had Dan feel all the parts and he was able to find the baby's head again that night, so now we ought to be able to tell for ourselves where the kid is hanging out.
His/her heart rate was easy to find and measured 144 bpm. Dan could hear it in the fetoscope, but with my clogged ears I couldn't hear a darn thing =( It was the first time Dan got to hear it, so that was neat. I get a bigger kick out of determining the baby's position anyway.
Weeks 28 and 29
---The Fun Symptoms (ha!)
A few days after my prenatal, I noticed that my first four stretch marks had invited some friends to join them. These were paler and less distinct, but higher and up near my belly button. The skin under my belly button had been looking a little goofy for awhile, but it took until the third trimester for the stretch marks to finally show up. At least they don’t itch.
Just about that same time, I developed a lovely acidic feeling in my throat from time to time. It’s not immediately after eating—more like five hours later. After four months of a relatively normal appetite and eating schedule, standard sized meals aren’t going to work anymore. Thanksgiving was this same week and I worried that eating two dinners that day would have me curled up in pain. I managed to turn down seconds of everything but my uncle’s homemade rolls, and took a nap right after dinner and seemed to escape the worst of it. Then we arrived at Dan’s parents’ house and had only dessert there. I’m still not sure what the difference between heartburn and acid reflux is, but I’m definitely afflicted by one of them. I’m not sure if I figured out how to avoid it by eating smaller portions or if I just got lucky, but after Thanksgiving week, it took a two week hiatus before returning.
Dan seems to be freaking out that we aren't practicing our Bradley relaxation and exercises. I've been making more of an effort to do Kegels, and I try to remember to squat instead of bending over, but that's about it. We decided that my stressing out about our not fitting Bradley practice in would just stress me out more, but Dan should read the workbook so he feels more confident, and we'll try to practice the relaxation methods when it's convenient. We'll step up the practicing in mid-December when Bradley is done and his class finishes so our schedule isn't so jammed. Maybe I should be more worried about labor, but I feel like my body will figure out what to do. Dan hasn’t been reading pregnancy diaries for ages and I forget that sometimes. Also, my body will do what it has to, but his helping me could realistically be less clear. If he can figure out now what relaxes me and what doesn’t, he’ll be able to do more during labor. So, practicing Bradley stuff would be useful, but finding the time to do it isn’t so easy at the moment.
---Homeowner Hubbub
The Friday before Thanksgiving, the cabinet store guy came to measure our kitchen. I’ve really, really wanted to have our kitchen done with time to spare before the baby’s arrival, and it suddenly occurred to me that time was quickly getting away from us. We arranged for our contractor to come look at the soffit that Tuesday. Both Dan and I left work early to meet him, but he hadn’t yet arrived when I got home 20 minutes after our appointment. He then called to check our address again and said he’d be there shortly. 40 minutes after the original time, he called again and said that one of his properties had been broken into and he needed to deal with that. He was talking to Dan and they decided to determine a good time to show up the next week. When he got off the phone and explained this to me, I broke down bawling. It seemed to me that this delay would guarantee that the kitchen wouldn’t be done by the end of January and we’d be still putting things together when the baby came. Ah, pregnancy irrationality. That night, Dan called him back and arranged for him to come Thanksgiving morning.
The meeting with the contractor went very well, once he got to our house. He had a style of tile in mind for the backsplash, we decided to leave the soffit alone (very high chance of it containing asbestos-covered pipes), he gave us more ideas for the counters (it seems like we have more possibilities than we did two months ago), and suggested a painter. Finally it feels like we’re narrowing down to brands and styles and not just talking about generalizations. He also told us how much it would cost to put custom-designed, built-in bookshelves in the baby’s room—a lot. Putting shelves in the living room would be both quick and cheap, though. I realized after he left that I had the same idea in mind for both places, which hopefully means that the bookshelves won’t actually cost more than the cabinets. If possible, I’d like to get those done before the kitchen work so I can really begin to prepare the baby’s room.
We spent some time talking about our pathetic doors, too. Our back, back door (from the lean-to to the backyard) is about as tall as me and it was made from an indoor door. It swings out, and the hinges are on the outside, so it’s both non-weatherproof and friendly to thieves. Good thing we only keep our recycling, GoodWill stuff, and spices out there. Our kitchen-to-lean-to door hits the floor and isn’t anywhere near level. The spring broke on our front porch door, and I think I’ve mentioned how our real front door from the porch to the entry way has broken hinges and needs to be lifted as it’s opened. We’re thinking we’ll replace all four of these at once. Raj, the contractor, recommended having a storm door custom-made for the lean-to door, keeping the back kitchen door but having it leveled, and using new screws and some sealant to temporarily fix the front door. I think we can handle replacing the porch door on our own. He suggested waiting until spring to deal with all but the front door quick-fix since the dry winter weather throws things off (and it’s COLD out there!). A few weeks later, Dan did fix the front door. We’re still nervous, but so far so good.
It’s looking like the cabinet-counter-sink replacement will be cheaper than our original budget, but we’ll pay enough for bookshelves and doors to make it even out. Heaven forbid I think about less than three things at a time—I’ve started gathering ideas for the bathroom already.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we drove to outer suburbia to make our order with the cabinet store. Perhaps I should have called and checked their holiday hours first. My pregnancy-induced insanity was lower than usual and we managed to laugh off our mistake. The next Monday, we took off work early and tried again. This time we were successful. Here’s a link to our cabinet style-- http://www.rivieracabinets.com/pics/collections_bc_doors_standard_shaker_sm.jpg. My indecision over how many cutting boards to include and how many drawers to have was amazing. I didn’t realize I was capable of being so indecisive. The approximate ship date is January 7th. Depending on the type of counters we go with, the re-do should be finished one to three weeks after that. Just in time for February!
---So, Is This What they Call Nesting?
The night before Thanksgiving, my sister came over to help me organize the basement. I’d been itching to sort through everything, but the task was too big to undergo on my own. The women in my family (when they aren’t pregnant at least) have more of a list-making, organize-everything bent to them then the average folks, and I knew Dan would view it as a painful chore. Indeed, Kelsey was happy and excited to help me out. We started with the Christmas stuff. She wanted to start displaying things, but I held her back. We realized we had two tree stands, and the ornaments, lights, and knick-knacks were in grocery bags all over the place. After starting a GoodWill pile (one of these days we’ll actually bring all that stuff to them—we’ve set aside eight boxes since we moved), we figured out that one big bin should hold everything. Since the Christmas paraphernalia went so quickly, we kept going through the rest of the basement boxes. We sorted all my clothes and added the straggling non-maternity stuff that hadn’t made its way downstairs yet. Dan’s parents recently forced him to empty his old bedroom closet, so he had a couple piles downstairs, too. Once we’d inventoried all this stuff, we went to Target and picked up $80 worth of clear, plastic bins. Balancing them all in and on one cart was quite the feat. My clothes got five bins, Dan’s childhood memories had one, our sports gear had another, everything Christmasy fit into one really big one, and my quilting cotton and knitting yarn got a bin each. The only stuff we didn’t sort through were my childhood things. It turns out that those were only the iceberg of toys and projects that my parents have kept over the years, so it’s probably better that we didn’t bother. Kelsey carried the full bins all over the house and let me show her where to put everything. Our basement still looks crazy, but I can tell the difference =) My goal is to have everything of value in plastic bins in case our foundation isn’t as leak-proof as we hope it is.
That Saturday, after the cabinet store mishap, we went to my parents’ on the opposite side of town. Dan watched his Two Towers DVD (our DVD player died mysteriously this fall and we’re waiting until Christmas to replace it) and I began throwing out old photos. I have approximately 25 full-size (300 each) photo albums that I’ve filled over the years, and it occurred to me that this fact is completely ridiculous. I got my first camera at age six and never put it down since. Those photos I took out the car window at age eight leave something to be desired, and I decided it was time to clear things out. I kept lots, mind you, especially photos of people I knew, but dumped anything I didn’t recognize or had multiple near-identical copies of. This led to emptying two of my first six albums, leaving four reasonably filled instead of their original over-stuffed. It helps that those albums are being stored on the bookshelf in the baby’s room that I want to get rid of. The fewer that remain, the less I need to find a new home for.
I want to note that the blanket for Allisun that I mentioned back in my Montreal entry and again for Chicago was finally finished the first week in December and sent on its merry way. I didn’t plan on it being a Christmas present, but oh well. Finishing that allowed me to go back to the knitting store and pick yarn for my first knitting project for MY baby. I’ve made quite a few baby garments over the past five years, and it’s exciting to finally be knitting something for my own child. It’s a hat and sweater set, nothing too detailed or fancy, in an orangey-red yarn. I’m using tiny needles (sizes 0 and 2), so the hat took a week and the sweater’s still in process. But they’re coming.
TTM: When did nesting come during your pregnancies? What form did it take? Do you have any suggestions for my recurring acid reflux?
I’m going to be optimistic and hope I get an up-to-date entry out in the next week, so I’ll hold off on holiday wishes this time around.
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