7/15/10 :: day 252

Yesterday I went to the doc’s for my 1st weekly exam, and didn’t leave as excited as I entered.  Even though I am not technically “full-term” I was hoping for some good news in the cervix area.  But alas….I am still carrying this little bean high and am zero centimeters dilated. I guess I should be happy that I haven’t had any problems during my pregnancy, and that my baby is happy as a clam living inside of me, but I just really want to meet him.  These last few weeks, because I can almost reach out and taste my due date, have been unbearable.  And the next 3.5 I imagine will be worse.  I think another part of me has mentally checked out of work already, and it’s torture having to sit in a cubicle all day when there are soooo many other things I need to be doing in preparation of Mr. Bean.

Last night and this morning haven’t been any better.  I awoke at 2:30am having to pee and couldn’t fall back asleep till 5:30am.  My alarm goes off at 5:50am.  JOY!

7/19/10 :: day 256

I’ve been sleeping better these days.  Well, about as well as you can sleep 9 months pregnant.

I am being blessed with some nasty gas pain or contractions this morning.  I am thinking it’s a little of both.  Oh joy!

(2:19pm)  I wouldn’t call my BH intense, but I would say that they are quite uncomfortable.  I make certain to drink plenty of water.  And thank goodness for that it has helped keep me regular.  I do not even want to think about being pregnant & backed up…if you catch my drift.  When the BH contractions come on I do my best to get up and take a stroll around the parking lot or walk to a co-worker’s desk, but that doesn’t always do away with them.  WAIT!!!  I just remembered only BH contractions go away with walking and water.  Am I in early labor????  Oh geez!  I guess I will find out on Wednesday. I’m not even going to begin to get excited about that though, because I’m sure he will tell me that nothing has changed and we are still on track for August 12th.  BOO!

7/20/10 :: day 257

(1:03pm) My stomach has the hiccups so hard core right now I kind of feel like I have the hiccups too.  Maybe he caught the hiccups I had at lunch?!?

7/8/10 :: day 245

I read somewhere this morning of someone explaining 1st trimester exhaustion as being almost coma like, and I totally agree with that.

(10:35am)  I am so tired today.  I got somewhat of a decent night’s sleep last night, but I think all of the mid-night potty breaks and lugging around a medicine ball in my belly all day is really starting to wear this little girl down.

Have I mentioned that my hips hurt.  And I’m not just talking about the sides…even the back portion of my hips hurt.  I don’t think that part even moves.  How in the world can it hurt?  I am constantly hearing bones move and often feel them shifting as I walk.  On occasion, I can hear my left hip click when I walk.  Thanks relaxin!  By the end of the day I am walking around with my back a bit hunched and waddling around the house.  I look a bit like a hunchback named Egor.

7/10/10 :: day 247

Dang!  I’m really feeling the weight of this big ole fat baby now.  I’ve learned or discovered in the past two days that I can no longer stand from a sitting position with in a few seconds, even IF I have help getting out of the chair.  There is so much weight in my belly that once I’m on my feet I have to stay hunched over for a moment and slowly straighten out my body until completely upright.

My sciatica is back!  It went away for a few weeks when the kid moved up in my abdomen and into my rib cage, but he didn’t stay there for long.  No sir.  He is slowly beginning to drop.  I wouldn’t quite call it lightening yet, but his shimmying his way downtown.  Oh yeah, back to the sciatica.  Now that he is moving his way back down into my pelvis he has landed once again on my sciatic nerve causing momma a bit of numbness.  Since there are only two positions I can sleep in now, my right side and my left side, I try to give each side a fare shot in sleeping time.  However, sleeping on my right side causes this little boy to press extra hard on that nerve and I typically wake up do to a funny feeling in my leg or foot.  Typically that feeling is numbness.  It’s not your typical numbness though.  I don’t get the exterior numbness that is usually associated with your leg being asleep.  It’s almost an internal thing.  When I touch my skin I can feel my fingers, but just below that layer of skin is where the numbness kicks in.  Often times it just my heel that numbs out on me.

In fact just the other morning I awoke to the front part of my lower leg an foot on my right side feeling this way.  It stayed that way for a couple of hours.  I guess Grayson wasn’t ready to scooch himself off that nerve quite yet.

7/13/10 :: day 250

Last night when I was trying to fall asleep I started feeling some light, but sharp pains in my upper belly.  They didn’t bother me if I laid completely still, but being as pregnant as I am that didn’t work for me.

This morning when I got out of the shower I noticed a sharp pain on the left side of my temporary baby housing place, and now at 9:10am it is still there.  It comes and goes.  I wonder if you can have or just feel contractions on only one side of your belly?

(9:52am)  The pains in my left side are gone, but I am now having Braxton Hicks contractions that I tried to walk off.  It helped a little.

Saturday night making it’s way into Sunday morning I awoke to stomach pains.  I was dreaming about the pain so it must have been going on for a while.  While I was dreaming I was aware of the pain in my dream.  As I began to wake up I was not certain what was going on or why I was waking up.  I was confused.  Then it hit me…I was in PAIN.  It felt like severe stomach cramps.  I remembered that with Braxton Hicks contractions you are supposed to change whatever activity you are doing.  If you are sleeping/lying down…get up and walk around, etc.  So I did.  I stood up and walked around my room while attempting to stretch my belly a bit.  I figured since I was awake I might as well use this opportunity to go tinkle.  It was 4am in the morning and not my usual 1:30am or 3am potty time, but I figured why the heck not.

(4:33pm)  I have been having some light BH contractions all day today.  It’s kind of exciting, but also quite scary.  I go to the docs tomorrow to have one of those “fun” exams.  Maybe I’m in early labor.  That would be awesome!  But if I am I just hope he holds out one more week so he will not be considered premature.

7/1/10:: day 238

(9:51am) My tummy has the hiccups again.  Love it!

My nails seem to be growing like weeds, but they are still quite thin and bendy.  Sometimes they get so long that I will hit them on something and they bed back causing me horrible pain.  I’ve done it to about 5-6 nails.  That generally tells me that my nails are too long and need to be trimmed ASAP.  I am kind of enjoying having long nails, but I sure don’t like constantly having to clean under them. Short nails are much less time consuming.

(2:33pm) My little guy is wiggling in my belly right now.  I love this.  When you are spending a boring day at work and it looks like there is no end it sight; all of a sudden you feel a little wiggle in your belly and it reminds you that you are not alone.  Not for one second!

7/2/10 :: day 239

I’m not 100% certain, but I think Grayson has dropped.  The past two days it seems like he is lower.  I have been feeling just a slight bit more weight down “below”, and I feels like his legs and butt are further away from my ribs now.  I don’t quite think it’s the “lightening” I keep reading about, but I think he is headed (pardon the pun) in that direction.

6/25/10 :: day 232

Lately this little boy has been getting the hiccups, and Derek and I LOVE it!  Whenever I feel my belly bumping I call Derek over and we get the biggest kick out of feeling him hiccup.  The best way I can explain how his hiccups feel is that they are like feeling your heart beat with your hand on your chest, but just a little bit stronger.

(1:00pm) Note to self: do not eat Bogie’s Deli while pregnant.  It really tears up your stomach.  It causes you to have to do things at work you never wanted to do.  That’s an at home only activity PEOPLE!

(2:04pm) My stomach has the hiccups.  I love it!

Super scooper excited about tomorrow.  Tomorrow I have my second baby shower for Grayson and on Sunday…a third.  We are so lucky to be loved by so many people.

6/29/10 :: day 236

I have decided my most hated part of pregnancy right now is getting in and out of the car.  When I sit in the car it’s more like I just fall or plop into the seat, and trying to get out….that’s….  Trying to get out of the car is worse than getting/plopping in the dang thing.  I have to rock myself and find something to give me leverage like the center console or the steering wheel.  While doing this I have to be careful not to push on anything too hard, too much, or else I’ll end up bending or breaking something.

Over the weekend I had two showers, and although the showers were amazing they wore my butt out!  Seriously, Saturday was the 1st shower and I was pooped that night.  The next morning at church I could barely stay awake.  I had to come home and take a nap before my shower that afternoon.  After the shower on Sunday afternoon, I was wiped.  I haven’t been that pooped since my 1st trimester.  Let’s put it this way…I was still so tired on Monday I called into work.  Functioning was not going to happen that day.

6/30/10 :: day 237

Bending over is becoming a HUGE task for me these days.  I find myself depending on Derek to help me out with simple tasks more and more.  Sometimes I am so pooped when it’s time to get out of the car I have to call him over and have him offer me his hand like Prince Charming helping Cinderella out of the carriage.  And it totally looks just like that except for the fact that Cinderell-i is knocked up.  Maybe that’s why her wicked step mother locked her in the attic.

6/17/10 :: day 224

Over the past week I have noticed that my stomach muscles and skin feel like they are stretched to their limit.  They are not sore, but tired.  It feels like I’ve been keeping my muscles tensed all day and finally relaxing them and feeling worn out in my abdomen, due to the tension I kept on them all day.  The thing is, I haven’t been keeping them flexed.  I wish I could that would actually feel marvelous.  I love being pregnant, but when my stomach muscles feel worn out like this I long for the days of being able to flex my stomach muscles and use them to support my body.

6/18/10 :: day 225

(10:00am) I don’t know if it’s the pants I’m wearing today, but this little guy in my tummy has been wigging all morning.  I felt him wake up on the drive to work.  It was pretty cute.

6/21/10 :: day 228

Why do I have the feeling that the 1st week of having my own child will feel like the craziest most insane babysitting job I ever had?  You know, the job where the baby won’t stop crying and you are afraid that any second the parents are going to walk through the front door and wonder why their sweet little precious baby is crying in arms of what they thought to be a capable teenager.  The 16 year old version of me was quite good with infants, but there were those jobs when the baby just was FUSSY.

(11:18am)  One of my favorite thing these days isn’t feeling my little guy move, don’t get me wrong…I still adore that, but feeling his little body parts under my skin.  Like when he stretches or changes position I can actually FEEL him with my hand.  It’s the closest I can get right now to touching his sweet soft baby skin.

6/22/10 :: day 229

(8:27am) I am already worn out today.  Just getting ready this morning took it out of me.  I walked to the cafeteria with Derek for breakfast and I was mildly sweating once we got to his office. Now I’m at work and just sitting in my chair is wearing me out.  Geez!

6/10/10 :: day 217

This little guy was up early this morning.  He was flipping around in my belly a full hour before his normal 9:30am playtime.

6/11/10 :: day 218

Today I have the pleasure of enjoying some Braxton Hicks contractions.  This is only the second time I have noticed having them.  They really don’t hurt, but they do feel like you are flexing your stomach muscles and they won’t un-flex.  Just a tiny bit uncomfortable.  It feels much better when I get up and walk around.  So, I just took a little stroll around the parking lot here at work.  It seemed to have helped.

I’m totally sure I will regret saying this one day soon, but I kind of like having them.  It’s like a little note from your body saying “it’s almost time, so I’m gonna start practicing.”

Last night in our baby class I ran into an old high school friend who is expecting her 1st baby 11 days before me on August 1st.  She having a little girl.  It was so exciting to see her that when she walked in the door to our classroom I yelled out her name (and pointed). I was a bit red in the face after that one, but during breaks in the class and after we had the chance to catch up.  She is actually a labor and delivery nurse, so she has seen it all before.  It would be great if she were my nurse on the day I deliver, but since she is due before me I doubt that will happen.  Bummer.

(8:05pm) Right now I am laying on the couch trying not to use my stomach muscles, because it feels like I just did a million gazillion sit-ups.  My stomach muscles are soooo freggin’ sore.  They started to feel sore just before I left work.  I don’t know if it’s from the BH contractions earlier today or from my belly constantly running into my desk at work.  Whatever is causing the soreness I hope it goes away soon, because I am useless right now.

6/15/10 :: day 222

(7:43am) Wow!  This little boy is super wiggly this morning. I still believe he is head down most of the time because I feel most of the activity just below my ribs; meaning his little legs are just kicking up a storm.

• nausea
  • I only threw up twice the entire pregnancy (w/ light nausea through out the day)
• fatigue
  • during my 1st trimester (weeks 6-12) I was extremely fatigued.  I was spacey during the day but not sleepy.  Around 6pm each night I would crash.  If I stayed up past 9pm Derek generally would have to help me to bed. I couldn’t do it myself.  Once I hit my second trimester I began to get that second wind they speak about.
• leg cramps
  • a few sporadic leg cramps, typically when I wake in the middle of the night (3rd trimester)
• hip pain
  • towards the end of my 2nd trimester I had a touch of sciatica. This caused me to have hip pain from sleeping on one hip that occasionally lasted into the mid morning.
• back pain
  • My 2nd trimester and the beginning of my 3rd I experience back pain.  Some days were bad enough to stay home from work.  The most sever back pain was located just below/between my shoulder blades.
• dizziness
  • only one issue with dizziness in the middle of my 3rd trimester.  My doc said most likely it had to do with low blood sugar.
• constipation
  • been pretty regular.  Only one or two real issues with this.  Nothing to get worried over.  I’ve been drinking a ton of water.  I think it helps.
• nose bleeds
  • only two nose bleeds….very minor
• trouble breathing
  • began during my second trimester.  This is not too bad, just occasional spurts of shortness of breath due to Grayson pushing on my diaphragm.
• pregnancy dreams
  • only one baby dream (3rd trimester), somewhat frequent “bow chick a wow wow” dreams (all 3 trimesters)
• swelling
  • no swelling of anything so far  (fingers crossed)
• blood pressure
  • during my entire pregnancy I have had wonderful blood pressure.  I am quite proud of myself considering that shortly before I got pregnant it was a tad elevated.  I think I took care of that issue before the pregnancy began.
• heartburn/indigestion
  • none of this nasty stuff so far

6/16/10 :: day 223

(3:57pm) Well, well, well…we have an afternoon wiggler.  Gray moves more often during the morning than the afternoon, but not today.  It must be because I had pizza for lunch.  This kid ALWAYS moves after pizza.  Especially Memphis Pizza Cafe pizza.

6/3/10 :: day 210

Wow….30 weeks!  That’s a lot of pregnant.  It still seems like there is way too much time before I meet my little guy, but not enough time to prepare our lives for his arrival.  Today has been not fun.  I woke up with stomach and shoulder pain, so I stayed home from work….again.  I’m sure they are loving all of my time off.  Sorry dudes…I’m preggo.

Just after I finished lunch, I stood up and jabbed my stomach into the super sharp corner of our kitchen island.  I didn’t think it did much damage until I started feeling a few sharp pains when I moved in that exact spot.  I was lucky and no real damage was done.  If the pain had continued I would have headed on into the doctors, but no bleeding and no pain (never any bleeding) after an hour or so.  One thing that was weird was that I thew up in my mouth (just a tiny bit) twice today.  Gross!!!

We had baby class tonight.  Both Derek and I were super excited about this class, because it was “Baby Basics”.  We learned how to give bathes, how to swaddle, the best ways to administer meds, and many many other useful tips.  They provided everyone in the class with a baby doll to practice on.  Mine really did look like it was the Mail Man’s kid.  Although our baby doll didn’t quite look like us he was super cute and had little tiny beads in his booty.  Which I loved.  It made his fanny so squishy.

6/5/10 :: day 212

I am dizzy as dizzy can be today.  I can’t sit on the couch without feeling the world spin.  I read that pregnant people get dizzy spells, but come on!  This has been going on for the past hour.  I feel totally fine otherwise.  If the dizzies continue much longer I think I may call the doctor just to be sure it’s not a sign of anything bad.

This little boy has been all up in my rib cage today.  I was driving to the store this morning and I had to put pressure on the top of my belly just to keep him out of my ribs and off of my diaphragm.  It’s not a jungle gym kiddo…lay off!

6/7/10 :: day 214

I went to the doctor today and told him about my dizzy spell on Saturday.  He said it is most likely a drop in my blood sugar.  He told me to watch out for another one of those and if I do have one that cannot be fixed by a Coke or a piece of candy to give him a call.  I haven’t had one yet.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Grayson is loving this rib cage playground he discovered on Saturday.  Mommy is not liking it so much.  I have to recline back quite far to keep myself comfortable when crams himself in there.

6/8/10 :: day 215

Last night was just horrible; at 4am I awoke due to discomfort.  I thought I would give sleeping a go without the pillow between my legs.  I grabbed the pillow that was nestled under the my legs and tied up in 10,000 blankets, or so it seemed, and pulled.  I pulled so hard that my hand, and the pillow, flew way back and hit my nightstand and knocked EVERYTHING over….including my almost full cup of water.  You see on most nights I would have already finished that cup of water sitting on my nightstand, but oh no not this night.  This night it was just about full, and I whacked it!  Water went everywhere….  All over our wedding picture I have sitting on my nightstand, all over the outlet and other electrics, and all over the book that Derek and I read to Grayson to get him use to our voices.

Having the water all over the electrics and the carpet didn’t bother me, but the second I noticed it on Grayson’s book…I lost it.  I started sobbing!  I cried the entire time I was cleaning.  Yes, at 4am.  Boo!

Once I got back in bed I realized that I still wasn’t comfortable so I moved my butt to the couch.  I have found that I sleep like a baby on our new super comfy couch.  It is amazing!  I racked out for another 5 hours.  I would sleep on the couch every night until I deliver, but I prefer to sleep next to Derek.  It’s that sense of comfort and protection thing.  Plus, his back is super comfy too.

6/9/10 :: day 216

Last night this little guy had the hiccups for about 10 minutes.  It was pretty funny.