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May 30, 2005
6 Weeks, Or 42 Days, To Go
So finally less than 50 days to go, and entering the realm of "Eep! only X days/weeks to go". It's weird when you've been looking at months to go, and now most of the time is behind you already, and you realise the general time crunch, and that there's only so much time and so much still left to do.
Technically in 3 weeks I'll be considered term, which raises the "Eep!" stakes a little higher. And if I consider that my mother gave birth to me 5 weeks early... well, you see where that's going ;)
This week I have a midwife's appointment, which is the one that was actually scheduled for before our Vegas trip (Friday the 13th) but it got cancelled because our midwife had a birth to attend and couldn't keep the appointment, and we were obviously gone for over a week. So by the time I get this appointment it'll be about 6 weeks since the last one (April 21) which is a bit longer than it should have been, since we were heading more towards a roughly every 2 weeks schedule. But it's not been an issue. If the glucose test I took at 28 weeks had shown any problems, I'm sure she'd have called me in sooner.
The trip to Vegas was perfectly timed. I don't think I would have wanted to do it any later. Small enough that I could basically do everything and be active without my condition restraining me. Well, except for the rollercoaster stuff, which really really bummed me out. I love rollercoasters, so not being able to go on any of them while in Vegas was a bit of a bummer. Needing to pee more often was a minor inconvenience, but nothing too major. Much later and I think I would have been annoying people during daytrips by even more frequent bathroom trips, for now it wasn't too bad.
Since the last status update a couple of things have changed. For one, the belly has finally started to really get in the way. It's harder to bend over, so sometimes getting into underwear can be annoying, ditto putting on socks or tying laces. It's uncomfortable and due to the compression of the midriff and such, breathing sometimes can be a bit of an issue. Clipping toenails earlier this week was a challenging endeavour, I have no idea what that'll be like a few more weeks down the track, and it'd be nice not to have to ask for help on such matters really. The belly in the way thing is also partially responsible for the alteration in the method of getting out of bed, that's harder now too, and generally I need to be on one side for that, which sometimes involves rolling, because while I can still sit up straight from being on my back, it's not always easy or very pleasant. Ah mobility, how I will miss you.
Fluid retention has started occuring a bit as well. I noticed it half way through our trip in Vegas, and it's possible that the heat played a part, as well as the fact that it was a lot harder to remain hydrated there. My own increase in body temperature could be a culprit too. So the wedding band is no longer on my finger, because at times it would just feel a bit uncomfortable, or it'd remind me too much of sausage links. I can tell my toes are a little puffier too, as well as my ankles, but only on the insides under the ball of the joint. At first I thought that might be attributable to the excessive amounts of walking we did in Vegas, but seeing as we've been home a week and it's not gone, I guess not. I'm hoping that I won't get too Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man before the end.
The baby is giving me no clear indication as to which way it's in there, so we'll have to wait and see what the midwife feels and says this week. There's a lot less kicking in there, and more pushing and rolling. The kicking though, when it happens, can sometimes be really forceful. One night as I was reading, and I had the book leaning gently on my belly, the baby kicked so hard it came about an inch or more off my belly. Very territorial this little one is... it's given PreZ such whallops upside the head on occasion when he's been trying to listen for a heartbeat.
The belly so far remains stretchmark free, but as someone in a community was happy to tell me, she didn't have any until 37 weeks when they burst across her abdomen. Not that I was counting myself home free by any stretch of the imagination, but so far I'm pretty happy about my luck, seeing as some people have had them since as early as 16 weeks or something. I do have a couple on my breasts though, as the third trimester has seen another influx in the tissue there, but nothing too major. It's not particularly pretty, but it's not massive and they will fade eventually I guess.
Heartburn on and off still, but also nothing too bad. Most of the physical discomforts are still relatively minor, to my own relief.
In about 2 weeks, and possibly even between now and then, we're going to start buying the various essential items from our registry so that they'll be here in time (hopefully). Weird that things that we've been considering and thinking about will finally get ordered and bought and such. The two week mark is our deadline mark for people pledging to buy the big ticket items from the registry, after that we'll disable the option that they can buy it for us, and just take donations towards the items.
And time marches onwards for us all...
Posted on 11:48 PM to: Pregnancy