Monday, October 24, 2011

Some Stuff

So Friday I noticed the baby has dropped. And it seems like once that happened stuff just started happening.

On Saturday I was in town with a friend. I didn't do much walking but what little I did was difficult because of the pain just below my stomach but above my pubic bone. I couldn't stand up straight or else it would hurt more. When I got home I noticed some blood, just enough to tinge the tissue a bit. But it was like that every time I went to the bathroom for a few hours. And then there were the two Braxton Hicks contractions I had that day. That makes three that I know of.

Sunday everything seemed fine, didn't have any pain or bleeding or contractions.

And I was pretty tired last night so I went to bed around 11:55pm. I woke up a few times and I could have gotten up but I felt just tired enough to roll over and go back to sleep.

Annoying part about sleeping, though, was the dreams. I've had a few dreams this pregnancy that have annoyed me. Last night had about three though I can only remember two.

One had me talking to my mom who was sitting on the couch and I showed her something on her computer. Since I was so close she leaned back a bit and managed to grab the right side of my belly and my right side between her shoulder and head and she started squeezing. It was uncomfortable at first and then just became painful. The feeling kind of like something heavy is sitting on your chest and slowly bearing down. I was yelling at her to stop when I finally woke up and I believe I'd been holding my breath. My belly felt odd so I might've been having a contraction, which could have been what prompted my mom squeezing my belly and side in the first place in the dream.

The other one I remember I was in a car, can't remember if I was driving or a passenger, but there was suddenly a kid in the road in front of us. We were going through a parking lot so we were going very fast but the brakes were applied quickly and it set off the adrenaline in me which caused me to wake up with a spasm in my tummy. That was the last one because I was getting tired of waking up feeling my stomach tighten because of the adrenaline released because of the dreams I was having. By that time it was just past 5am.

When I went to the bathroom then I noticed a bit of blood. Some ask me if it might be the whole bloody show but I don't think it is. That's usually the mucus plug and from the pictures I've seen, there's no way it's that. The closest thing I could find that fit (cause the other stuff was all for horrible things that also came with other symptoms) was that blood vessels break as the uterus contracts and the cervix dilates, causing some blood to appear. And since it seems I am having this bleeding shortly after my stomach has tightened for one reason or another, I'm thinking that's what's going on.

Now, at my last appointment, I declined getting a cervical check again until I'm at the hospital in labor. It just hurt too much to have to deal with it again before absolutely necessary. But I'm thinking I'm going to have the NMW check this Thursday at my 38 week appointment. Just to see if there've been any changes. If there has, then I won't get checked again until at the hospital because then I'll know what's causing the bleeding. I'm not looking forward to it, but I think it has to be done.

And now for some fun stuff! Yesterday and today the baby has taken to hanging out on my left side. Since then I've been able to feel its feet, at least one at a time, pressing against my right side. I never really had this when the baby was on my right. But it's so cute! XD I'll feel the foot against my side and put my hand there and I can make out the heel. It's so tiny! I can't wait to get to hold my little one. After being well acquainted with baby's little rear as it's shoved up into my ribs before the baby dropped, I'm going to be so silly having giggle fits when I get to see that little rump and pat it directly lol. And now that I've been able to feel the foot I can't wait to touch it for real.

Only 12 more days until my due date!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Residual Emotions

I'm not sure if this has an actual name but residual emotion is the best name for it. You know when you have a dream and something in it happens that makes you feel an emotion very strongly, then you wake up really soon after and you still feel that emotion for a while after waking up? That's residual emotion.

The reason why I'm talking about it is because during a nap I had a dream where I was meeting up with some chicks I hadn't seen in a while. Some were women I knew in school and some were my middle sister's old friends. They exclaimed over my belly and I enjoyed all the talk about how cute I looked and all.

One of my sister's friends wanted to see if she could feel parts of the baby through my stomach. With the way my dream was, I could actually feel my baby's arm so I showed her where it was. She grabbed it suddenly and kind of pinched it, startling my little one.

This made me mad and feel super protective of my baby. When I got up I was still feeling a bit pissed and wished I could hold my baby in my arms.

I've had the whole residual stuff with a few other dreams but I pretty much always have it after baby dreams.

I can't wait to meet my baby. Two weeks and two days until my due date.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Getting Closer

So Saturday marked week 37 for me. Today makes only 19 days until my estimated due date. My little one seems perfectly content to stay there for a while longer, which is good but I am definitely getting antsy. I can't wait to see what my baby looks like! Also can't wait to hold the little one.

Went to a baby shower on Saturday and one of the other guests brought her 2-week-old with her. He was just adorable! Completely zonked out, too. I could have just stared at him forever! So incredibly sweet and when he stretched and scrunched up his face because people were too crowded around him or messing with him too much, I just wanted to melt!

Now, if only my nesting instinct would kick in so I could figure out what to do with the stuffed animals I put in the pack n play. Luckily I don't have my entire collection with me or else there'd be no room for anything. If the heat wasn't floor heating I could just set them in a neat pile on the floor between the bed and the outside wall, but I've gotta leave the floor as uncovered as I can or else it won't be warm enough for me and baby. This is a problem.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Braxton Hicks

Contractions. Yup. Well, one that I know of. I tried going to bed a little after midnight today because I felt really tired. The three hours of sleep were awful. I mean, I was sleeping, but for some reason just kept waking up uncomfortable and couldn't tell why. I wasn't hurting, I was just restless.

Finally a little after 3am I said forget it and got up, knowing I'd be up for a few hours, thus messing up my schedule even more. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom and then went into the kitchen to look for a snack. I was incredibly uncomfortable walking around. It felt like my baby was sitting way high up, pushing against the top of my uterus as hard as it could. The baby normally likes to do that while I'm sitting, but this was a bit different. It was more uncomfortable than it normally is.

They say with a BH your entire stomach gets super hard. Well the top was but along the sides and on the bottom it's harder to tell because of the little bit of fat on the sides and then the thicker layer on the bottom of my stomach.

After I sat back in bed the hardness on top continued, as did the discomfort. But after a little bit I realized I wasn't so uncomfortable anymore and I felt my stomach and all around it was much softer. That's when I realized I must have had a BH contraction. It's the only one that I know of, I might have had others because lately my naps and sometimes my sleep at night I'm restless and uncomfortable and just don't know why. I couldn't tell where the discomfort was coming from this morning until I got out of bed so I'm thinking I've probably been having them for a bit now.

I've got 3 more weeks as of tomorrow. I've felt a bit more change in me today, can't explain it though so I'm not going to try, but it's just...different.

And according to the birthing class info, a woman can be in early labor for hours, days, even weeks. They consider early labor 0-3cm dilation with sporadic contractions. I think I had an actual contraction during the last day of the class. Everyone keeps saying an actual contraction feels like a period cramp, starting in that area down there and growing steadily stronger to the peak and then slowly subsiding and your stomach gets hard. I had a cramp-like pain during the last class that did get worse for a bit and then it subsided. I tried moving around a little to make it stop and it didn't do anything. Just had to get through it. It wasn't painful exactly, just super annoying. I mean, I've been through period cramps before that were the same level of intensity as this so I can deal, but it's not fun having them in public. At least it'll be a bit before I experience the cramp feeling like the cramps I during my last period. I've never been in so much pain before. The period lasted 3 days and the first two days I was in so much pain I had to take a vicodin to help. When the pain stopped after taking stuff I wanted to cry it was such a relief. Not looking forward to that kind of pain, but at least this time it'll be worth it.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

36 Week Update

Today I'm 36 weeks and 5 days so it's not right on the mark but meh.

So nothing much different. Still annoyed with the GD diet and all. Though I'm not as strict as I was in the beginning. And thanks to last week's birthing class and then my mom's hubby being gone from Thursday until Monday evening, there was a lot of food eaten that wasn't made at home.

Let's see there was twice I had a personal pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut thanks to my oldest sister sending me and awesome $30 gift certificate. There was an Asian bowl meal from the grocery store deli and a little bit of regular soda. There was Taco Bell, more pizza hut, and I think the last Thursday in September my mom and I went to a Thai place for lunch.

So it's not surprising that my weight today at the OB clinic was up 5lbs from two weeks ago. It's no big deal to me. I know about a pound of that is all baby and some of it is water weight and I'm glad to not have lost anything. I was stuck at having only gained 12lbs for 4 weeks because I was losing weight but my baby was gaining it.

Yeah there was birthing class last week. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 6pm-8:30pm. Though every single class ended at 10pm. -_-' I learned a lot about what the hospital in town here does and so I'm not bothered by giving birth there anymore. They want the women to give birth on their own and by that I mean they prefer to not do inductions or c-sections unless medically necessary. They will put the monitors on you and whatnot but they have monitors for if you want to walk around the hall, so if you don't get an epidural, or until you get an epidural, you aren't stuck in your bed.

My mom realized even more so that I would need a doula at my delivery. We had to have our partners in the class try out some of the back labor relief stuff on us and it requires some strength that my mom just barely has and wouldn't be able to use it for more than a few seconds.

I got in contact with one doula yesterday and she said she couldn't take me on because she was 37 weeks pregnant but she did want my permission to send my e-mail I sent her to her friend who is a doula and has the same amount of experience. I said sure and I've already been contacted by her, just need to reply. So with luck I'll have a doula soon and that's good since I've got just over 3 weeks to go until my due date.

Today I had my 36 week appointment with the nurse midwife- and dang I forgot to get him to give me the rhogam shot! Oh well, next week. Anyway since it's 36 weeks I got the lovely group B strep swab.

So any of you who have not looked into what important tests are done during your third trimester, ooooh you need to go look. No one tells you these things! But I will! Still, go look. The group B strep swab is to check to see if you are negative or positive for group B strep. This isn't something that will harm you. It's something to do with an overabundance of the bacteria down there or something.

To get the culture, your vagina and your anus have to be swabbed. That's right, it's bad enough someone's gotta see your hoo-ha but now they get to look especially at your butt! For me it was super awkward cause I've really gotta spread my legs since I've got some thighs or else whatever professional needs to get there has to deal with moving lips aside down there and it's not fun for me.

But, I will tell you I would rather deal with the awkwardness from that every single week than deal with getting my cervix checked. Holy cow did that hurt! Well I mean it was super uncomfortable with a pinching sensation and then you've got the whole awkward factor of the person sticking their fingers right up in you. You don't have to deal with that during paps. They may have to stick them in a little while they do that thing where they feel around on the outside of your as well, but a cervical check means fingers all the way in.

This is why I don't care for male professionals in that area. It just adds to the awkwardness. *shudder*

Well as I already figured, the NMW said that the baby seems pretty in there and most likely won't be coming out too soon. I'm only 1cm dilated but most women are by this time in the pregnancy. My cervix ripened weeks ago so it's not a surprise. Oh, did I tell you about the cervix ripening? Yet another thing they don't tell you and I wish they did. I'll get to it in a bit.

NMW also said he liked where my blood sugars have been at after meals and he gave me a quick ultrasound. There aren't any more good pictures because baby is just so big there's not enough room to really see much. But you can make out all the stuff. So I got a lovely little picture of my baby's super chubby cheeks and his hand in front of his nose. If I had been able to find my DVD for this, I could have gotten the shot of the baby's hair. Yup! Despite not having really any heartburn, my baby's going to have a nice amount of hair. It was really cute cause it was standing on end haha!

So it's all pretty normal. Only a few more weeks and my baby will be in my arms and I can't wait! My mom says the women in our family tend to give birth within a few days of the due date so my little one should be right about on time.

Now, as for the cervical ripening. I had never heard of this until some of the women in the forum I go to were talking about their cervix being checked and whatnot. And I realized I hadn't felt mine in ages. If you're a woman and have never felt your cervix, you should try, it's interesting. Someone said it's got the give in it like the soft spot between the thumb and index finger and I don't know what they were talking about. It's harder than that, almost like your gums but it does have a little give.

Well I figured I'd just check it, see if maybe it had shortened any, though that's hard to tell because sitting different ways can make it easier to get to or harder. The next time I went to the bathroom, after I cleaned up and all, I checked and was incredibly grossed out. Where my nice smooth, hard cervix should was was this very squishy, kind of wrinkly feeling thing. The best word to describe it would be soggy. It felt soggy. Bleh!

I could tell it was my cervix cause it was in the right place and then I could feel the place where the hole is. Yeah, I was super grossed out and a little freaked because no one told me this would happen. Of course the women on the board were no help. I put up a thread asking about it and the only person to reply was someone from another due date club and only after I resorted to Google and already found out.

So, ladies, I'm not sure when it's supposed to happen, I think it's different for each woman, but near or in your third trimester, your cervix will ripen. It will become super soft so it's easier for it to dilate. It's really gross feeling, at least in my opinion anyway. But it's normal. So if you feel the need to try feeling for your cervix during the end of pregnancy, don't be surprised at what's there.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Something Interesting and Something Annoying

Well as of today I have 5 weeks (35 days) to go until my due date. Crazy! I can't believe how fast time has gone.

So the interesting thing is...wait lol, I suddenly really want Pizza Hut -_-' Yeah this is what happens to me. And no, this isn't the interesting thing. It's like my nose has gone haywire all pregnancy. I'll suddenly get a whiff of something and it'll smell like some really delicious food. Right now I'm smelling the scent of the crust on a Pizza Hut pizza. It's not fun. I have no money to go and get even a $4.48 personal pan and there's no way I can get my mom to give me the money to go get it. *sigh*

Okay, back to the interesting thing. And this will help any of you pregnant women who may stumble across this blog who have been experiencing the same thing and are wondering what the hell it is.

About once a day, when the baby is moving around, I'll hear what sounds like knuckles cracking. But the sound is so soft it's more like when you curl your toes and a joint in your big toe cracks. It's just a little click noise coming from my tummy. It's uncommon apparently, but still common enough. Though it's not common enough for medical people to really try and figure out what it is. They just take an educated guess.

Based on the way it sounds and that it happens when the baby is moving, they say it's most likely just the baby's joints clicking. I mean, it sounds like knuckles cracking, and it only happens when the baby moves, so it makes sense. The good thing is that it's perfectly harmless, whatever it is. So if you've been hearing clicks and cracks from your little one, don't worry.

And the annoying thing? The fact that after some hours of lying in bed trying to get some decent sleep, there's a spot between the bottom of my tummy and the top of the pubic bone that freaking hurts! No position can fix it. The only way to fix it is to actually stop trying to sleep. I have to get up and move around for it to stop. Then I can go back to the bed and sit up in it on the computer and I'm fine. I'm thinking part of the pain comes from just the way the baby has settled in the night and the moving around gets the little one out of the way.

Normally it only starts to happen after abut 8 hour in bed. But not today. Just over 5 hours and it came on full force. I tried to ignore it but it just got worse until I felt that a knife to that spot would hurt much less. I haven't thought about a knife to that spot since January when I had my last period. That was the worst period I've ever experienced. I needed vicodin to take the pain away. Normally my cramps are uncomfortable, but they're never excruciating. Those were. I remember saying something like, "If these hurt, and being in labor hurts worse, I don't know how I'll deal when I have a child." And lo and behold just two weeks later I conceive. I swear January was full of premonitions about my having a child.