Hi again. Lumpy and I still seem to be doing fine. This month’s highlights, in no particular order:
I’m actually at about 35 weeks now - almost 8 months. Which means one more mid-month update in a few weeks and I’m done! Well, except for the follow-up “Ask the Chick Who Just Had a Baby” thread. With pictures!
I’ve started having terrible heartburn. Apparently this is because a) I’m producing hormones that help soften and relax my cervix (yay!) but also wind up softening and relaxing a bunch of other things, too (boo!), like the muscle that keeps stomach acid from backing up into my esophagus, and b) all my internal organs (including my stomach) are being pushed up into my armpits.
It seems that “b)” is also why I have to have the extender on my bra strap at the very farthest setting, even though my cup size hasn’t budged. Fortunately, you can’t tell that my ribcage is so distended, because my belly is so e-frickin’-normous. I should be getting some relief from this soon; I found out that Lumpy will probably start getting into position shortly, and my organs will start moving back down into their normal location.
I’m also constipated. That just sucks. On the other hand, my rosacea has largely cleared up. It’s not gone entirely, but I’m not a mass of pustules like I’ve been for the last several months, either.
I took a long plane trip at around 32 weeks, and it was totally fine. I was fully expecting to swell up like a balloon, and was on high alert for any sign of a blood clot, but it went like gangbusters.
Lumpy has been getting more and more active, but may have reached his peak. He seems to be a little more sedate now. I think he’s just running out of room. I did get some fantastic video of my belly undulating the other day. It’s really freaky-looking and awesome; I’ll try to post it later. Also, today, I discovered Lumpy has a new trick: if I’m not mistaken, I can feel him breathing! He’s been doing “practice-breathing” for a while now, as babies do. But this afternoon, I rested my hand on my belly, and noticed that I could see and feel it moving in and out, just a little bit, very smoothly and regularly, for several minutes. It was totally rad. Then, he got the hiccups.
I’m constantly spilling stuff on my belly, and almost every one of my shirts has stains on it now. I feel so pretty!
I’m probably having Braxton-Hicks contractions now and then, but I’m not sure. It’s hard to tell whether it’s Lumpy pushing hard against my uterus or vice versa.
Have you had any crazy dreams? With my second, I dreamed that at ultrasound, we saw a little baby monkey in a cage, and the doctor said this happens sometimes, and they’re called “simian babies”. I was mortified.
But don’t worry, I’m sure this almost never happens in real life!
Oh, god yes! The other night, I dreamed that we were baking Lumpy in the oven, and I opened it to turn him over, since he wasn’t done yet. My husband reached in with a utensil and scooped off a little portion of the “sauce” surrounding him, and I realized I could see bones. I yelled, “Oh, crap! I think you cut off his spine!” and I was devestated because we had just ruined our baby and wasted all that time and effort we had put into everything.
I also dreamed - in a separate dream - that the doctors were concerned about Lumpy, so they took him out of me to check on him. He looked cute and healthy to me, but there was apparently something wrong with him - they kept saying his “ratios” were bad - but they wouldn’t tell me what the problem was. That one wasn’t that weird, though. I guess the only odd part was that they were planning to put him back into me when they were done examining him and let him finish developing.
Oh, and I think a while back, there was one where Lumpy turned out to be a cat. But he was fine, otherwise.
Heh, I did an Ask The thread back when I was 8mos pregnant with my first. It’s always fun to poke…er, ask questions of…a pregnant lady, so I’d love to hear your answers as well.
So–same to assume this is your first?
What is your family’s delivery history? Do women in your fam tend to deliver early, on time, later? All the women in my family (my mother and two sisters, as well as myself) don’t go over 40 weeks–in fact, my sisters and I never went past 38 weeks with our combined 5 children.
What is a rough sketch of your birth plan?
What things are strangers/friends/coworkers doing that most annoy you right now? (If I heard one more, “Wow, you’re HUGE!” I was going to kill someone. And eat them.)
Anyone else have sex dreams while pregnant? I can only assume it was the crazy rush of hormones, but man were those some awesome dreams. I would literally wake up in the middle of a big O.
Do you wake up with such sore knuckles in the middle of the night that you can’t even bend your fingers enough to rearrange your pillows? Are you starting to discover what SPD and pelvic pain actually mean as opposed to abstract words in a book?
Or is that just me… (26 weeks and suspecting the fun trimester is over!)
I find that a box of Ritz crackers next to the bed and sleeping semi-upright on a big pile of pillows helps me to sleep when the heartburn’s playing up. Otherwise, the acid all seems to rush up and head for my throat as soon as I lie down
I’ll be 33 weeks on Friday, so just a bit behind you. Any predictions on when the baby will arrive? Have you noticed that you can feel actual baby parts at times? I think that’s the most amazing thing to me right now. Sometimes when the baby pushes out I feel her body parts. I’m not sure exactly what parts they are, but sometimes I think I can feel a leg, or a butt. I made my husband feel it the other night and he said, “I’m not gonna lie … that’s pretty weird!”
I totally did. I was feeling back to my old self for most of the second trimester. I’m starting to lose the energy again, though. I’ve sort of resigned myself to the fact that my schedule is: get up/go to work/come home/eat dinner/go to bed.
Nice! Great thread! I didn’t get all the way through, but I’ll have fun reading it at lunch.
Yep, first kid.
Unfortunately, I have no idea about my family’s delivery history. My mom died a couple of years ago, and she never really discussed these kinds of things. And my sister’s never been pregnant. I have a couple of female cousins on my mom’s side that I could ask, but I’m not sure how informative that would be.
I do think I’m not likely to go over 40 weeks, and may well deliver early. Long story short, I’d been tracking my ovulation three different ways, and it was always very late in my cycle. The month I got pregnant, it was later than ever - basically on the day my period was supposed to start. So although we’re “officially” going with that date, the docs have been somewhat dubious and suspect I may be at least a week sooner. Lumpy has been measuring about a week bigger, too, so we’re preparing for early arrival.
My birth plan is basically, “We’ll see how it goes.” I’m not going to automatically ask for an epidural, but I’m not going to refuse one, either, if I feel I need it. I’ve discussed that and other contingencies - IV, fetal monitor, drugs, episiotomy, etc. - with my OB. Her stance is basically that none of these things have to happen, she’ll only suggest them if she feels they’re warranted, and she won’t push them if I refuse. I trust her judgment, and I’m not opposed to medical intervention, so I’ll probably follow her lead on that stuff.
Beyond that, we’ve been taking childbirth classes and learning pain management techniques, and the hospital is awesome - they have all kinds of amenities, and encourage women to labor and even deliver in whatever position is most comfortable. They’ll basically help me do whatever I feel I need to do. So while I’m not looking forward to labor, exactly, I think it will probably be fine. Excruciatingly painful and exhausting, but fine.
Oh, and yes! Dear everyone: please stop telling me how big I am, and that I’m getting bigger every day. I know. In fact, I’m exactly the weight I should be, but even if I weren’t - especially if I weren’t - I’d already be well aware. Thanks. Beyond that, I’ve been pretty lucky to have relatively few commenters (even my weird-but-well-meaning coworker has run out of fun things to say, it seems), and so far no unwanted touching, BobLibDem (knock wood!).
Heh. I used to think that, until I saw some actual pictures of women who didn’t know they were pregnant, taken just before they gave birth. And then I met a bunch of girls in college who had various menstrual issues: they’d only have a few periods a year, at most, or their periods would be regular, but so light and short that sometimes they weren’t sure they had them. And I discovered that these issues were surprisingly common. And as for me personally, beyond the obvious belly and significant baby movement, I’ve had *no *symptoms that would necessarily indicate pregnancy. So if you hit the trifecta - not showing (which would also likely mean the baby can’t move around much), irregular periods, and no typical pregnancy symptoms - I can totally see how you could not know.
I was thinking about this in Target just the other day. The cashier asked when I was due, I told her, and then she said, “Oh, I’m not due until December.” I was like, “Oh, that’s ni- wait… what?!” She’s apparently five months pregnant, and had no belly whatsoever. Less belly than I have when I’m not pregnant. And she was tiny, too - you’d certainly think you’d notice an extra five pounds on her, let alone a five-month old baby. I mean, sure - there’s a big difference between five months and nine months, but it was still striking.
I’ve had a couple of those. I’d gladly take them over the baby-disaster ones.
Yee-ikes! I had never even heard of SPD. That sounds awful, I’m sorry. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have very little pain or swelling at all. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll end up having back labor to make up for it.
Man, they’re no fun at all!:
That’s basically my whole diet right there. Screw that. But I’m basically following all their other advice, and it definitely helps. And the heartburn may get better shortly, when Lumpy engages launch position.
Yes! I feel like I can totally tell the difference between, say, a knee and a butt. And my husband’s the same way - I think he’s simultaneously fascinated and repulsed. When he feels or sees a big movement, sometimes he feels for more, and sometimes, he shudders and goes, “Eeeeuh!” Hee hee. But he’s also afraid of spiders, so. I mean, I agree; it’s freaky. But that’s what makes it so cool!
This sounds stupid, but it’s based on humiliating personal experience: Does Mr. Dorkness know how the car seat works?
I ask because our BIL, who was already a parent, put ours in for us, with my wife but not me watching. I hadn’t even touched it when it came time for us to check out of the hospital with our first. It turns out the mechanism by which the bucket is released from the base is… not obvious. After a ridiculously long time of me fiddling with stuff, accidentally unclipping the whole base from the anchor, and getting increasingly frustrated, my wife called me on the cell phone, wanting to know what the deal was, and finally just told me to just come get them. We actually drove away without the baby strapped in and just went to a nearby shady parking lot, where my wife figured the whole thing out.
In my defense, I should point out that she told me I was looking for a red (it was gray) button (it wasn’t a button) on the front (it was on the back) of the seat, under some fabric (it wasn’t under fabric). And I was on two straight nights of no sleep and a lot of adrenaline, too. But still, it was not my most shining moment.
So that’s my main advice for any dad-to-be: be sure to take a practice run or two with the car seat before you’re at the hospital.
Yes, we’re both very well-versed in our car seat’s mechanics, now - thanks to your comment in my last thread, actually. I mean, we were planning to get it all sorted in advance, but you gave us the kick in the pants to get it done. So we’re all set. We’ve got the bases installed in both our cars (we’ll also be going to the county’s regular car seat installation check events, just to be sure), and we’re totally pros at getting the seat in and out again. And it turns out our “system” is pretty cool, and very easy to use. The seat is multi-purpose: it can be used alone as a carrier, snapped into a car seat base, or attached to a stroller base. I heart clever engineering.
Have you got the nursery ready? All painted and decorated? The wife and I managed to borrow most of our nursery stuff from family members. Crib, changing table, baby clothes etc. We got a lot of essentials at my wife’s baby shower. We had a three month supply of diapers.
Oops. Well, it’s nice to confirm that my annoying tendency to tell the same story repeatedly extends to my on-line presence as well. :rolleyes: at myself for that. But, still, yes, I’m glad you’ve got it figured out.
The only other practical advice I have is to say no to the roving photographer in the maternity ward, if there is one. You can get baby pics at Sears for WAY cheaper, even if the 8x10 print and the home photography session are offered free.
35 weeks is, like, practically done. Looking forward to the Ask the New Mom thread!
I should probably ask you this in the New Mom thread instead of this one, but why is the baby carrier + baby like 15 times heavier than the weight of either component alone? Hell, it’s probably 15 times heavier than the weight of carrier + the weight of baby. You’d think you could just add the weights together, but nope. It’s way more.
It’s because the baby carseats are just about the worst things to carry ever. I don’t know if it’s impossible to design one with good weight distribution or a comfortable handle or what, but they suck.
And I have a five-month-old who weighs over seventeen pounds. Oof. I usually just transfer him to the bjorn or ergo carrier rather than hefting the damn seat.
