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2006-03-08 - 11.32pm��previous entry��next entry
27 weeks - Happy 3rd Trimester to meeee!! :)
Another week has gone by already! I'm 27 weeks pregnant today, and officially into my third trimester! Wowee. I am really beginning to FEEL different this past week. It's strange how it's coincided with the start of my 3rd trimester! I still have a way to go yet though, so I am hoping my body is going to adjust and then it'll ease off again. I hope.
I have been feeling somewhat nauseous again this past week, mostly in the evenings. Yesterday I felt sick as a dog ALL DAY LONG. Urgh. It was hard to eat anything. I have also been having headaches the last two days. Yesterday's headache seemed to spark the all-day nausea, and it got bad enough that I even took my blood pressure to see if that was the cause, but it was around 130/65. The top number is a little high for me, but nothing worrysome at all, and the bottom number (more important) is as low as is normal for me. So it wasn't that, which was a relief. But yeurgh.
The main thing is that I just feel so physically bone tired suddenly, all the time. I feel so heavy and like my bump is pulling on parts of my body I didn't even know I had! I feel an achy tiring pull on my lungs somehow, like it makes me feel tired to hold my torso right and breathe deeply. Things ache in my torso that I can't put my finger on. I can almost say, "Oh my side aches" or "My back aches" or "My ribs ache" but that never pinpoints it exactly. It's like the pull is on ligaments attached to those parts, so those parts feel some of the ache. Or something. Anyway, it makes my whole body feel tired and achy and pulled-on. I have to hold my bump to stand up from sitting or to go upstairs or downstairs and it just feels like Matthew is ALL outside of my frame, on my front, like none of his weight is being carried where it's comfortable, inside of my body's own frame. It feels so heavy and achy to carry around, and more so when I am climbing stairs or straining to get up.
It is getting to be much more of a strain to get up. I can't crunch my tummy anymore to help me get up, even slightly! There's no tummy to crunch! The instant I tighten my abs even slightly, my bump crushes into my ribs and that feels tender. I also found this week that I can no longer put socks on or tie my shoes without a huge breathless and undignified palava! I have to sit on the sofa looking for all the world like I am in an excellent birthing position, with my ankles wrenched up either side of my butt! Then I can slightly twist sideways and get my socks on that way! So undignified! And yet I'm only going to get more ungainly!
BUT, I still LOVE it :) Yay for being huge-with-child! Such a blessing!
Today I have had a headache again but not felt sick, which is a relief. I was beginning to worry that I was going to get another round of morning sickness, which I have heard CAN happen to some women late in pregnancy. Urgh. But I feel okay today so maybe my body just got tooooooo tired and that was the result? I have also noticed just in the last few days that I have felt ill in my whole body if it gets to 10pm and I am not in bed yet. I am permanently exhausted since having Arthur, since he has interrupted my sleep every night since he has been born, usually several times! But this exhaustion seems different. I think maybe it's the 3rd trimester type of exhaustion that my pregnancy books keep telling me about. I guess last pregnancy I just rested or slept whenever I felt like it, but it's impossible to even get enough sleep for a non-pregnant me, with Arthur and the way he still sleeps at night. He is so active during the day that it's sometimes almost impossible to even sit down. I need to force myself to though, I think, if this is my body telling me I have no choice.
So yesterday I napped when Arthur napped during the day, and thankfully he napped 45 minutes (I got 30 minutes of that as sleep for myself) and then he went back to sleep when I nursed him for another 45 minutes, so I got almost an hour and a quarter in total. I felt more human after that. Today I wanted to eat lunch and sew during his naptime, but I felt so totally wiped out by the time I had given him his lunch, that I had to nap with him today as well. I got 30 minutes before he woke and then 15 minutes after he resettled for a while, and felt better for it. So I guess I will have to start napping when he does. I just have to eat my lunch later. Sleep comes first at the moment!
Bedtime sucks because suddenly I can't seem to get to sleep for hours! Last night it was after 1am before I got to sleep. It's so crazy of my body to do that when it's also telling me how much it NEEDS to go to sleep!! So annoying! But oh well. I am also noticing an increasing intolerance of Arthur disturbing my sleep. Sometimes I don't want him to even touch me, it gives me such a huge wave of irritability. I read that I should be prepared for that in the Tandem Nursing book I have, so it's not too much of a horrible surprise, but I don't like the feeling. I think my body is just starting to shift to the extremes being placed on it by the new baby and starting to send out messages prioritising the new baby for now. Or at least prioritising the work I'm doing in housing and nourishing this baby!
But other than that I am still doing fine. I made my 28 week appt with the midwife, which is Tuesday 14th (next week), the day before I am 28 weeks. I have to get my first Anti-D injection. Fun, fun. I hope she will tell me what position Matthew is in as well. I like to hear what he's up to in there! He is extremely active these days, and kicks me hard. Arthur was resting his head and arms over my bump the other day, watching a storytime programme on TV (WAY more TV than I would like is being watched at the moment, due to complete knackeredness on my part!), and Matthew kicked so hard that Arthur's elbow was jumping off my belly! He didn't even register it! Arthur is so laid-back. He doesn't get jumpy about strange parts leaping out at him from Mummy's tummy, for some reason! He just continued resting and watching while his elbow danced a little jig on my belly, hehe!
Oooh, I mentioned it in my normal diary, but I want to say here too - congratulations to Jemma on the birth of her baby boy, Jove!!!! He came slightly early but he seems to be a great weight (6lbs 10oz!) and healthy and well, so that is WONDERFUL!!! Jemma's news gave me a plethra of weird feelings that I totally didn't expect. Maybe it's because it was a bit unexpected (timing-wise)? Firstly, it makes me the next person to have their baby of my internet friends who are pregnant. Yikes! Seeing the photo of Jove made me feel simultaneously jealous that her little one is here already and I am still waiting a while for mine, and also CRAZY petrified that, oh my crumpet, that is really going to happen to me!!! I mean, a real live baby is going to happen, in an rapidly decreasing amount of time, and then what on earth am I going to DO?!!! I suddenly can't fathom how on earth I'm going to manage Arthur (who is becoming increasingly demanding - an age thing methinks) AND a tiny and extremely needy baby, on my own all day with Neil at work?! I mean, HOW? And night times - how is that going to be possible? I feel like I nearly did not survive the sleep deprivation with Arthur, which to some degree still continues 16 months later, and now I'm going to make it a double-whammy of a situation. How am I going to get Arthur to nap on my own with Matthew crying for mama milk? Or what if Matthew has colic?!!! I think I might just curl up and die if that happens. I don't know how I can physically give both my boys what they need with just my one person, and that scares me because I definitely don't want to give them anything LESS than that. Jemma's baby actually appearing, all real and squirmy and permanent (!!) really made all this hit home for me. Scary. Sometimes I feel like I just don't want things to change. I just want it to be me and Arthur, and to watch him grow up without any pull in another direction, but WITHOUT wanting Matthew any less. It's such a conflicting way to feel. I feel sure it has to be vaguely normal (!) but it's just not that nice.
Anyway. Yay for Jemma and Stu and Jaya and JOVE though!! :D
Today I got some books in the post from Amazon that I have wanted to get for ages. They are four books for Arthur about having a new baby. One of them (Hello Baby) was recommended to me by Jemma and it's all about preparing your toddler for a homebirth, so I was excited to get that one! It's such a lovely book!! And I also got "Waiting For Baby", which is a board book with just pictures, "My New Baby", by the same people as the Waiting For Baby book, and "There's a House Inside My Mummy", which is just lovely pictures and a long poem from a little one's point of view about how his Mummy is going to have a baby :)
Anyway I LOVE them, and I took ages choosing which ones to buy for Arthur. But I can't read them to him!!! They seem to poke at just the wrong (right?!) spot on my hormones and I literally cannot get past page one of each book without crying! I am hoping I can get better at it soon! They are just so touching and lovely. I don't know why they make me SO emotional though.
Okay Neil has made me a lovely dinner :) I will be back after I eat it!
Back, but it's sooooo late, urgh. I can't remember what else I wanted to say. Ohhh yes I have a TON of stuff I needed to get off my chest about planning for the birth. Suddenly it seems urgent that I sort this kind of thing out in my head, I don't know why. Before now, it has felt as relevant as planning Arthur's 12th birthday party! It seemed so far away and so impossible to think about. Now suddenly it feels urgent and imminent, and I need my plans fixed NOW or else I feel unsettled about it. But that would take me too long now, so I'll have to write about that another time.
Yesterday was the 7th, so that marked exactly 3 months to go! Which means that today there are less than 3 months. Yikes. Suddenly it all seems to be getting close so fast, and I feel like I am not anywhere NEAR ready enough! I know I have time, but man I'm going to need it!
What else did I want to say this entry? Ohhh thank you for the lovely messages and notes about my latest belly pic! :) I am really happy with my bump! Also Esther, I wish I could describe what baby hiccups feel like.... Matthew hasn't hiccuped yet and my memory of Arthur's hiccups is getting a little bit faded for a good description when someone asks. Hmmm. It sort of feels like a rhythmic tapping in the same spot, maybe once per second - quite fast, but not soft tapping, very jerky and regular. With Arthur it would last 20 minutes usually, but sometimes he would tap me with his hands rhythmically a few times and I'd wonder if that was the start of hiccups, but if it didn't last longer than 5 or 6 taps then it pretty much wasn't actually hiccups. If the baby's kicks are still feeling only like taps then it's probably hard to tell the difference, but my boys seem to wallop me with heavy kicks that are very clearly different to hiccups! So I guess it's easier for me to tell. Anyway, still no hics from my littlest one!
Talking of my tiny one, he is really growing! He should now be around the 2lb mark - yay! Babycenter.com says 1.9lbs but Arthur was above the average so I'm sure Matthew is at least that too. He might even be as heavy as 2.5lbs by now, but probably more like 2lbs today. Anyway, yay, another lb for my little man! He has also grown another cm since last week, making him aboug 36.6cm or 14.4 inches from head to heel (Arthur was average length so this is probably pretty accurate for Matthew right now). By next week he will have reached his first kg mark! One whole kilogram. Wow. I was only 2.5kg when I was born (5lbs 10oz) so 1kg feels like he's really getting somewhere!
I know there was a ton more stuff I meant to write about. Poo. But it's just too late and I need my sleep. Ohh that's one of the things - I am getting soooo uncomfy at night now. I can't lie on my back any more - well, I haven't been able to for weeks, because I feel yucky and stuff on my back almost straight away. I guess my womb is really weighing down on my vena cava when I lie on my back now. It's odd though, because I remember having no problems lying on my back with Arthur, even late in pregnancy. Oh well. So I can't lie for any time on my back. My sides are okay, but I can't get my legs in a comfy position any more. My bump is big enough so that it lies right on the mattress and doesn't need supporting, but my legs just make my pelvis feel wonky or pulled on by one or both of them. My pelvis is getting really picky about being straight all the time! I am getting more and more trouble with pain in my pubic bone on one side again, exactly the same place as with Arthur's pregnancy. I don't want it to get as bad as it did last time, so I'm trying to get in a position that doesn't make it hurt, but those are hard to find.
So last night at 1am after tossing and turning and doing all manner of things with my legs (!!), I finally pulled out one of my body-length maternity pillows - the type that are filled with teeny tiny polystyrene balls and just mould to your shape. I have two, but one of them is being used as a bumper between the wall and Arthur on our big family floor bed! So I have one, but that's fine. I currently sleep every night in the spare bedroom, because I just can't get comfy easily and I seem to sleep so much better with some space to fidget and get myself in the best positions with my bump. I figured I would end up at least half my pregnancy in the spare room! But that's fine. When Arthur wakes in the night I go in and lie with him till he's asleep again, and sometimes fall asleep there with him. I have WAY more trouble from my Restless Leg Syndrome when I am pregnant so it is better all round for me to be in the spare bed!
Anyway I can not believe I left it so long to get that maternity pillow out! It made SUCH a huge difference and I can't wait to snuggle in bed with it tonight! It supports my legs whichever way I need it to and my pelvis can relax more. But I still wake with pain in the pubic bone somehow. Anyway, yay! I will definitely be needing that from now on!
MUST go to bed! I'll update asap. If I'm extra tired I might not get a chance to as much as normal, but I'll try. I need to offload in my diaries! Sorry that it means I am neglecting other online things somewhat - emails, notes, etc. I am crap at those at the best of times, but I apologise in advance anyway!
But yay for the 3rd trimester! I can't believe my second trimester and gone and is in the past! This trimester is the home stretch. How amazing that I'm here already!
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