Posts Tagged ‘pregnancy symptoms’

The Saga of the Crampy Legs

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Last Thursday I had what we’ll call The Worst Night of Sleep of My Entire Life. Shelton didn’t sleep a wink that night either because I was so restless. In fact, I probably disturbed the entire cul-de-sac. I had charlie horses, heartburn, muscle cramps, couldn’t find a comfortable position, tossed this way, tossed that way, nightmares… you name it. It was miserable.

I chalked it up to the fact that we’d finished a big Mexican meal at 9:00pm, and then went to bed at 10:00. A huge no-no under any circumstances. But when Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights played out (more…)

Pregnancy Week 15

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Our second week in to the second trimester and I actually started feeling normal, for the first time since we got pregnant. Still tired, I feel like that part’s not going to shake. Twelve hours of sleep a night is not abnormal for me and something I actually crave by the time I crawl all limp-eyed into bed at night. But when I’m awake during the day I have more energy than I have had, which is a really nice feeling. I also don’t feel the nagging, constant hunger that has taken up residency in my gut since August. When I do eat, I’m eating less as I fill up more quickly. But the between meal snacking isn’t as persistent as before, and again, it feels nice.

Unfortunately, new symptoms arrived this week. I thought the aches and pains weren’t supposed to show up until much later, but I guess that’s happening now. I think it was Thursday night that I literally had the worst night of sleep of my entire life. It didn’t matter how I positioned myself, nothing was comfortable. I had charlie horses, nightmares, heartburn, aches, pains, and apparently a conversation with Shelton about kids and marshmallows. It was miserable. During the day, I’m just achy. If Shelton places his hand on my back in the evening I feel like I could swallow his hand with my muscles – the pressure feels that good.

Some days the achiness radiates more from between my shoulders than elsewhere. I attribute that to the new set of breasts I’m hauling around. Last week I bought my first double-D bra. And unfortunately I feel like that’s not the end of the growth spurt I’m experiencing. Other times the pain radiates from my tailbone/lower back, and that’s the pain that feels nearly impossible to get rid of. It gets to the point where it hurts to walk, and of course sitting doesn’t help. This morning Shelton commented that the shape and curve of my back had changed. Clearly my body is shifting and changing in ways neither of us expected.

That was really about all that happened in week 15. Today we began week 16 and hoping that it goes just as smoothly.

Lee Press-on Nails and Porn Star Boobs

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Ahhh, the changes your body goes through to make a baby. It’s glorious, isn’t it? Everyone’s always talking about this miracle and the process. Please! This is such an inconvenience. (not the baby, the body)

Look, no one can appreciate being pregnant more than me. I don’t take one ounce of this for granted and I truly am embracing this entire experience because it’s never ever happening again. (Unless this “miracle” baby Shelton keeps talking about happens. You know, the day after our kid moves to college we find out we’re pregnant!)

But does it have to be like this? This week I’ve entered the achy phase. Isn’t it too soon for this? Nothing is comfortable. Lying down, sitting up, on my butt, on my knees, to the left, to the right, this chair, that chair, that couch, the floor, the hearth, pillows propped, ….. NOTHING is comfortable. My back, shoulders, tailbone, hips, pelvis, legs, head, they all hurt and ache constantly. I had a little realization last night that maybe my hips/pelvis are starting to shift. But again I ask, this early?

Shelton said I’ve been groaning in my sleep. Clearly uncomfortable.

Part of the problem I can state for a fact are my new porn star boobs. A while back I mentioned getting reacquainted with my breasts (such a delicate word). If only I’d known then what I know now. These are straight-up porn boobs. And being that the majority of my adult life I’ve carried a respectable set of Ds, I had no need nor interest in gaining anything else. I can understand how a girl with As or even Bs might be ecstatic about this new addition to her anatomy. But I’m not impressed. To be perfectly honest I’m overwhelmed. What in the hell am I supposed to do with these things??? Surely they are creating some of the strain my back.

I’m in awe. Brava Mother Nature, Brava! Now, we’ve seen what you can do, clean up your mess!

One change that I’m not too disgruntled about are my fingernails. In a few recent photos my fingernails have been in the shot for whatever reason and I’ve really been caught by how nice they look. These are long and strong and look like girl fingernails (something I can’t usually say for my kindergartner hands). Kudos to you prenatal vitamins and pregnancy hormones. I can remember when the Lee Press-on nails came out when I was a kid. I used to tell my grandmother, who has the best nails in the world, that’s what I thought her nails were. So I guess I finally got my Lees as well!

Pregnancy Week 14

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

OK, so it’s official, we are in the second trimester. Woo woo! Huge relief. We both feel like a bit of weight has been lifted, and yet we know we’ve still got a long way to go.

The whole thing is still unbelievably surreal to us both. The only thing that slaps us into reality is my ever-expanding belly. Yes, it’s getting rounder and rounder by the day. For now it’s a perfect little bump, nicely centered. I do hope it doesn’t expand on a horizontal plane. Nevertheless, being pregnant still feels foreign and intangible to me at times, and I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever get past that. I think of everything we’ve done and where are lives have gone in the five years we wanted/tried to have a baby. It’s then that I realize how truly long we really did wait to get here.

So we embrace. I just keep reminding myself that this is all worth it.

I do have a new pet peeve (as if my list had room for any more!). The psuedo “I told you so comments.” For instance, I say I’m so hungry all the time. And people reply with – well, this is what you asked for. I say I have heartburn that would make a dragon cry. And people reply that this is what I signed up for. I mention that none of my clothes fit. And people kindly remind that I knew what I was getting myself in to.

“No shit!” is what I want to scream back. As if I needed a snarky reminder of exactly what it is we got ourselves in to. I’m pretty sure I was there the day I handed the clinic two credit cards and a check to make our lump payment of more than $10,000. So, I’m pretty sure I knew as she was swiping and stamping that I wouldn’t feel well, that my skinny jeans wouldn’t fit for a while and that I might be all around uncomfortable for a period of time. But again, I also know just how very worth it all of this is.

Anyhow, can anyone else tell the hormones arrived? I laugh and I cry and I get really, REALLY frustrated.

We did have an appointment last week (read week 14 OB appointment) and got the a-OK from the doctor. My weight is progressing normally and everything else checked out perfectly. You can’t ask for more than that. And I started pre-natal yoga which I’m so pumped about and will take every Monday.

It was a fairly uneventful week. I just keep growing, and eating, and sleeping, and popping Tums like Halloween candy.

Pregnancy Week 12

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Week 12 started on a low note, but ended high. My morning sickness returned. I had several people say they’d never heard of that before, but I had no other explanation. I spent the first half of the week just feeling classically pregnant sick. This entire pregnancy so far, as soon as I wake in the morning, I have about a five-minute countdown to get food in my system or I’m miserable the rest of the day. So each morning last week I jumped out of bed to fix a bowl of cereal or eggs and toast. Within an hour, I’d lose it. By mid-week I started taking my nausea pill before I’d eat anything and managed to get through the end of the week without getting sick.

Everyone asked/argued if it was the flu. And it was not. Definitely morning sickness and I’m sticking to it. There were no other symptoms at all.

My fatigue continues. I’m easily getting ten hours of sleep a night, with 12 on the weekends. My mid-afternoon, I’d give someone $5 and a candy bar to let me take a nap. A simple trip to the grocery store leaves me worthless the rest of the evening. Shelton’s schedule has been so insane lately that having him tag along hasn’t really been an option. So either save errands for when he is around, or just write them off as not that important.

This has left me fairly “homebound” lately and it’s making me mental. I work at home, so my 8-5 is in the same place my 5-10 and Zss are. I’ve been trying to make a point of getting out at least once a day – a walk to the mailbox, a lunch with a friend, working the afternoon from a wifi coffee shop. Just something that changes my environment a bit.

Which brings me to exercise. No, I have not partaken (partook) in any exercise since the start of my pregnancy. With the blood clot, I just couldn’t bare the thought of doing anything that might put me or the baby in some kind of jeopardy. And while the doctor told me I didn’t need to lie flat on my back staring at the four walls until it passed, I just couldn’t do it. However, I’m so unbelievably excited that next week will start my second trimester, for all intents and purposes the bleeding is gone, and I can start prenatal yoga! A woman I work with is a yoga guru, so I had her shop all the Wichita yoga classes and she found one with an instructor who sound just right. Classes are super cheap, about $60 for a month of once-per-week sessions. Everything I’ve read about the benefits yoga lends to pregnant women makes me want to run not walk to my first class.

I’ve only taken yoga once in my life, years ago. And I got the giggles when people tooted and what not, because hidden inside me is a 14-year-old boy that I can’t shake at times. Plus my mother-in-law was attending the class with me and was ultra-bendy and six-packed, and was/am not, so I stopped going. I’m a completely different person now and I’m actually anxious to embrace these prenatal yoga classes, and will of course keep you posted on how I feel about what I’m gaining from them.

In other BIG news this past week, I’m full-on showing. I’ve had a minor bump for a few weeks now, really only noticeable to myself or Shelton (and my sister). But I swear I went to bed one night and woke up the next day and BAM there was a belly. There’s no denying it now. I can’t get over it. I can’t stop rubbing it or holding it. The feeling is so much different than the 12 pounds of chubby tire I lost a couple years ago. It’s solid and round and centered. And that’s the part I can’t get over, is that I keep thinking it’s going to squish or wobble or whatever like love handles. But it’s not. It will continue to get bigger and I cannot wait!

Speaking of “how I’m carrying,” I’ve yet to talk to a single person who thinks this is a boy. Every vote so far has been cast as a girl. Neither Shelton nor I have an inkling of what it could be. Frankly, we don’t care. I’d prefer not the hermaphrodite I dreamt about a few nights ago, but otherwise we’re open to whatever we get. My sister, and the “women’s contingent” in my family have decided that I’m “carrying high” and “all in my belly” and “nothing in my back” and the “wind’s blowing from the east,” and so on – all apparently meaning that I’m having a girl. When and if we decide to find out before this baby arrives, we’ve still got a long way to go.

Other than that, I’m excited that this begins the final week of our first trimester. What a relief it is to get to this point. I’ll spending this week in NYC, currently sitting on a three-and-a-half hour flight. On the downside, my flight was delayed; on the upside, that meant I got to eat! I had to SWEAR and PROMISE Shelton that I would take it easy on myself and try not to push myself; I made him SWEAR and PROMISE not to worry. The only thing I can SWEAR and PROMISE is that neither of us is likely to hold up our end of the deal.

Pregnancy Dreams, or Rather Nightmares

Friday, October 16th, 2009

My entire life I’ve had the most vivid, active, and bizarre dreams. I swear, any psychoanalysts out there who need a person’s dreams to study, not only am I game, but I’m available. For the bulk of my childhood and teen years my dreams included the deaths of nearly every single loved one I had. My mom sank in quicksand. My dad ran over my baby brother. A family friend was the Knight Rider guy and was shot. WEIRDNESS!!!

Since I’ve gotten pregnant, I feel like my dreams have turned in to a science experiment. I wish I could hit a record button before I go to sleep and replay them for you because my descriptions never do them justice. Partly because my descriptions are based on my shadowy remembrance. They’re almost like walking in to a house where you’ve left the door unlocked, and the space feels eerily violated and you know someone has been there, but you can’t quite identify what is specifically wrong. My REM cycles have been violated.

I’ve had a lot of dreams about the baby… or a baby. There’s an old wives’ tale that if you dream about your baby while pregnant, and that baby has an identifiable gender, then that’s what you’re going to have. So far my dreams have included a boy, a girl, and a hermaphrodite.

Yes, last night the herme entered the equation. After the baby was born I opened its diaper to confirm the sex and there was a tiny vagina with a penis on top. And I was horrified.

Not only was my newborn baby a hermaphrodite, but it was part werewolf. The baby was born with full facial hair. A thick man beard.

So a little furry hermaphrodite. And it was not a face only a mother could love. I don’t know that anyone could love that baby.

The pregnancy ‘mones are beginning to eat my brain. I’m at a loss for the other frightening dreams I’ve had recently, or I’d share them. Frankly, I wake up every morning completely freaked out.