Some things I've noticed, part five

  I will start with a warning - some of this stuff falls squarely in the "TMI" category.  That being said, the first one in particular caught me quite off guard so if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant in the future you should know.
  Last week (which would put me at around 27.5 weeks) seemingly overnight I got really weird sore.  I woke up and felt like I had ridden a horse for hours and hours.  I figured I had probably done something work related that I shouldn't have the day before and just assumed that I was getting out of shape...but what could have possibly caused horse-riding soreness?!  It got a bit worse throughout the day and hung around for a few days and nights.  My back joined in for a day or two as well and one night I was sure I wouldn't get a wink of sleep because I couldn't find a position where my back didn't feel like I had a pinched nerve.  I asked a friend if the soreness was baby related and did some research to find that the answer is YES.  Essentially my joints and ligaments are already loosing in preparation to get him OUT.  It has gone away for now but I'm sure it'll revisit several times in the next few weeks.  The back seems to be tied to how much I do or don't take it easy.  A big day of just standing (or cleaning) seems to lead to more back pain at night.  I guess that makes sense.
  Second, my hips are gone.  I noticed a while back that while the outward growth is pretty much concentrated throughout the front of me I've gone from a noticeable inward/outward curve where my jeans (used to) sit to nearly a straight line from top to bottom.  My hips are joining in the loosing - a little weird and creepy but also truly amazing 1) that my body KNOWS what to do and 2) that my body is capable of doing it (and all in perfect timing).
  Third, I rest my arm on top of my belly without realizing I'm doing it.  I've been comforted by watching other pregnant women and seeing them do the same thing.  It happens when I sit and when I stand.  Maybe since my hips have disappeared I just naturally found something else to rest on (instead of hand on hip it's arm across belly).  In the same vein, I also almost always put my hand on my belly to feel him moving once he starts moving.  I love to feel it inside and outside at the same time.  I love imagining him happy as a clam floating and twisting around in there without a care in the world.
  Fourth, I think I've covered this before, I am SO congested!  I haven't noticed swelling anywhere else really but my nasal membranes must be all kinds of swollen because I wake up totally stopped up most of the time and it continues throughout the day.
  Fifth, I haven't determined if this is pregnancy related but we'll say yes.  I have been getting so many ingrown hairs it's ridiculous.  My right armpit looks like it has teenage acne.  It's gross.  And it hurts.  I've also gotten them on my legs. A friend who is a pharmacist recommended ichthammol and after a bit of a search I found a CVS that had some in stock.  The directions say to put it on a bandage or gauze once or twice a day and not to rub it in.  It was CERTAINLY not what I expected!  It's a black paste that looks like tar and smells....awful...instant gagging kind of awful (James says like axle grease...I'll take his word for it).  He helped me bandage up my pit and then I tried to sleep with my nose as far away from that armpit as possible.  I'm pretty sure I actually woke myself up at one point because I changed positions and got a whiff of it.  I am happy to report however that she did not lead me astray.  Even after one night it looks better and has continued to look better.  I haven't mustered up the courage to do it again but I will in the next week or so because my dress for Jill's wedding is a halter and enough attention will be drawn to me as it is without having pit zits.  Gross.  Moving on.
  Sixth, it is unfortunately true that some bladder control is lost during pregnancy.  I have to squeeze my legs together when I sneeze or cough because I know there is a possibility I might get more than I bargained for.  This phenomenon used to be hilarious to me.  It is no longer funny at all.  Joining club sneeze-and-pee is definitely an unfortunate side effect of carrying this little man around.  And before you even ask, I'm trying to do Kegels but I still don't think I'm doing it right so it just feels like a waste of time and effort.  And it INSTANTLY makes me have to pee...which circles us around to the original problem...without proper bladder control it is not in my best interest to do anything to make me have to go even more than I already do.
  Finally, I think I've completely lost my ability to balance my focus.  I'm either floating off in lala land not accomplishing anything (unless someone added staring into space or walking around aimlessly to my to do list) or checking things off the list with laser beam focus and lightning speed.  Checking things off is great but those trips to lala land are costing me valuable time that I don't really have to waste.
  I know I already said "finally" but this last thing isn't really something I've noticed, it's just something that happened.  I closed the door on my belly today at the doctor's office.  STILL not aware of how far I'm sticking out.  I mean really - closing a finger in the door I understand but a whole belly?!  Guess I need to start over exaggerating what I do so that he doesn't come out black and blue and dented (James is convinced he's coming out dented anyway because of how much I poke him to get him to move :)

Week 28

 
  Baby boy and I are both 28!  The difference is that he weighs more than 2 pounds/less than 3 pounds and I weigh....more than 3 pounds :-)  But to be fair his weight is ADDING to mine so that should count for something.  I won't even bother telling you that the weight comparison is to that of a Chinese cabbage because...lame.  He is tipping the rulers at about 15 inches and in a week or 2 he'll be within 3 or so inches of his BIRTH LENGTH!  Then he'll start getting fatter instead of longer every week.  I did feel the hiccups briefly again this morning and even though it was the second time I was still surprised by how fast they were.  He now has eye lashes and "blinks", adding to his ever growing list of tricks: "breathing", coughing, sucking and hiccupping. 
  We went to Charlotte for Christa's 2nd birthday party this weekend and the whole Hull clan got plenty of opportunities to feel him not only kicking/punching but also doing that weird drag-a-body-part-across-the-belly thing.  Even dad felt it while making comments about how weird it was.  It appears he is also competing with me for "biggest belly"...no further comments necessary there:

  This week is a big one - glucose test tomorrow and 3D/4D ultrasound with the family in attendance on Thursday.  Will hopefully have time to post about stuff as it happens so be on the lookout.  The crib is also ready to be picked up at Babies R Us so I'm looking forward to seeing it put together!  Will share pics when that happens.  Other than that not much to report except that we did get Time Warner out here last week and moved the office completely out of the nursery.  Hooray!

We have a glider!!

I was so excited last night that I quite possibly could have peed myself (and look out for my next edition of "some things I've noticed" coming soon, it's a wonder I DIDN'T ;-P)
I'll start at the very beginning (a very good place to start).  James and I started our Babies R Us registry after we found out that baby D was a boy and one of the things we put on it was a glider and ottoman.  I'd say a pretty common thing to want in a nursery.  What I didn't know is how important certain glider features will be.  Jill called me after seeing which one we registered for and told me that I simply must have a glider that also reclines.  So I thought, "no problem, I'll just log on, find one on the website and change the registry"...WRONG!  Turns out that gliders that recline are like delicious low-calorie ice cream...they are pretty much impossible to find.  I did find one or two brands that offered them but once you added that feature the price jumped up to at least $400...some of them more around the $600-$800 range.  We, like most people, simply couldnot/wouldnot spend that much on a chair.  So after I pouted for a bit I started thinking about what to do next.  By that time it had been made clear to me by more than one person that I simply MUST have a glider that reclines...and while my rational side knew that I would surely survive if we ended up with a glider like most everyone else has, my non-rational pregnant brain was shut down to the idea of anything LESS than the $400-$800 chairs I had in my sights.
So, what do non-millionaires who want something expensive do??  We go in search of millionaires who are tired of their expensive toys and looking to get rid of them at normal people prices...TO CRAIGSLIST!  I've been searching a specific brand (Dutailier) for at least a month and have found a few (though most are light or dark wood, not very many white ones) but they sell so quickly I couldn't ever even make an appointment to go see one.  Until yesterday that is!  I e-mailed a non-descriptive post and it turned out it was white and still available.  I asked if we could come last night to see it and she lives in the neighborhood behind ours!  Side note- she also knows a lot of people we know...small small world.  Anyhow, we got there and it was out in her garage - it needs a good cleaning and I need to either recover the cushions or get new ones but this model retails for $650...has all the options (glide, recline, multi-position lock and swivel) including a gliding and locking ottoman and we picked it up for $150!!!  Including the cost of changing the cushions it will end up costing us about the same as the one we originally registered for that didn't have any cool features!  I had no idea I could be THIS excited about a piece of furniture but I am by-golly and I'm even excited about cleaning it!

It may not look like much (and, I know, those cushions...) but trust me, it's like sitting on a cloud surrounded by harp playing angels while eating ice cream that won't make you fat.  If you don't believe me you should come over and give it a glide - but please call first, I might be busy gliding in it myself :-)

Hiccups!

This morning James got up to take Madigan out a little after 6 and apparently I was in a coma-type sleep because I didn't hear her at all.  I woke up when he got up and while he was downstairs I realized that something was going on in my belly.  It almost felt like a heartbeat but when I put my hand on it I could feel it that way too.  It took me a minute to realize that it might be the hiccups for three reasons- 1) I was still half asleep 2) it was MUCH faster than I thought it would be 3) it lasted longer than I thought it would.  We're talking a jolt almost every second for well over 5 minutes.  But it was very rhythmic and I can't imagine what else it could have been.  James did get to feel it for a minute.  It was also an interesting way to see how much he is really moving around in there!  The jolts moved from spot to spot and were "harder" and "softer" depending (I assume) on how he was positioned.  It will be interesting to see how often he hiccups now :-)

Welcome to the family you giant....Durango

After 2 months (more than 2 months...he started looking well before we actually sold my car) of searching, scouring, debating, weeding out and compromising (with himself) James has FINALLY chosen the Driscoll's "new" car!  Dodge-check.  Blue-check  3rd row seat-check.  Less than 100K miles-check.  Hemi-ugh.check.  Less than what we sold my car for-barely but check.  Built in navigation with screen and DVD player-bonus!  Ultimately it's a perfectly fine car.  James will take it to work so we can save the miles on the Nitro.  I'm just glad to have a car again.  One MAJOR "to do" checked off the list of "MUST be done before December 10th!"  Good job babe...I know it took you a lot of time and I know you had to compromise a bit...we love you!

Week 27 - the 3rd and final trimester begins!

  I canNOT believe we are starting the 3rd trimester this week.  The past 27 (actually 23 since we found out...see this post for an elongated description of the nonsense that is pregnancy timing) weeks have absolutely flown by.  While it makes me a little sad that we're getting so close so fast to the end of me being pregnant I do realize that the end of me being pregnant means meeting our little guy and starting our life as a family of 3 (FOUR....of 4...sorry Madigan).
  This week baby D is, depending on which source you use, between almost 2 pounds and over 2 pounds.  Would you believe that this week he weighs as much as a head of cauliflower?!  That's something I've actually held before!  It's a baby/vegetable miracle!  He is between 14.5 and 15 inches long and some days I'm certain, stretched out that long.  The big body part that we concluded was probably his butt has moved on from my mid-right side.  It was there for several days and a very noticeable hard spot on my somewhat squishy belly.  I had a friend pushing around trying to ID body parts on Friday night (she is pregnant with her 3rd child...an expert to say the least) and she thinks at that point his spine was up against my belly.  He's still wiggling and making tons of waves and I still love every single second of it.  I'm going to guess that will be one of the things I miss most after he's born because it's just so cool.  He supposedly has a waking/sleeping cycle now but I've noticed that sometimes I'm not paying attention and I'll think "I haven't felt him in a while!" and always within the next 5 minutes I'll feel him.  Which leads me to believe that I've already acquired the power of tuning him out ;-P  I'm assuming he wiggles throughout the night but he still isn't waking me up so I don't know.
  Just for the record I hovered at 15 pounds up between week 24 and 26.5.  I've gone up another pound or two in the past few days so around 16-17 pounds total.  On a worrisome note, I seem to fit quite perfectly in my bridesmaids dress for Jill's wedding NOW...which would be great except we're still about 4 weeks away from the wedding.  Ummmm, I'll let you know how that works out, but if I end up walking around with my dress only half zipped don't judge me - pay attention to Jill...she'll look GREAT in her dress :-)
  And finally - I have HAD IT with not having any jeans.  People, I LIVE in jeans.  It really doesn't matter how hot it is outside, I love to wear jeans.  James and I went out to dinner tonight (thank you Groupon) and were right near a Kohl's so I decided to see if they had any maternity stuff.  And wouldn't you know, they had one dark pair in my size and they were on typical Kohl's sale!  Original price: $64 ... marked sale price: $45 ... final sale price: $36!  I have no idea why they were marked down further but I didn't ask questions.  I promise to get $36 worth of wear out of these things in the next 3 (+?) months...check out how cute they are!

The only time it's even remotely acceptable to talk about boy parts....

...and I almost miss it!  I forgot to put in the week 26 post that baby D's "testicles are beginning to descend into his scrotum — a trip that will take two to three days."  I feel like I'm taking on the job of embarrassing my baby boy before he's even around for his little cheeks to turn red.  I also think there are a lot of jokes to be made around this particular milestone but I'll leave them to you.  Our boy is becoming a .... boy!!