A Rough Night

Week 27 has transitioned to week 28 and all has been mostly uneventful, until last night. I woke up around 3 with intense pains in my upper abdomen, below my ribs. The pain was off and on for a couple of hours, I wasn't sure if I was having preterm labor or what it could be. In the meantime, LBH was going nuts. She was dancing and practicing her soccer kick and perhaps doing a little kickboxing in there for good measure. I kept thinking, there can't be a problem if she's so active. I was also thinking, this is nothing like the contraction pain I've read about, the pains aren't lasting long enough and they're too high to be true contractions. But the pain wouldn't go away. Around 4:15am, the power goes out and scares the crap out of me. The good news is that it woke up Paul so I wasn't worried about preterm labor all on my own. I decided to call the doctor who called me back immediately but couldn't really tell me much over the phone. She said that it could possibly be gall bladder pain or indigestion (for the record, I hadn't actually had anything spicy for dinner) and to wait an hour or so. If the pain got worse then I should go to the hospital otherwise go back to sleep. I guess I eventually fell back to sleep but it was a rough night. I'm glad that all seems ok but you know I'll be paranoid about every ache and pain.

The home stretch

It's the home stretch. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. It's the final countdown. What am I talking about? Well, depending on what website/book you read, I'm officially in my third trimester. And since I'm only 27 weeks, that means that light is very weak but it's there.

The prospect of being 2/3 of the way through this journey is pretty daunting and a little stressful. OK, a lot stressful but it sure is exciting. I'm not really sure where the 27 weeks have gone, it seems like only yesterday that I found out I was pregnant and LBH was the size of a raisin. Now she's a full-fledged person measuring in at 15 inches from head to toe. FIFTEEN INCHES!!! I certainly hope she doesn't decide to stretch out, arms reaching over her head!!

Other than this irritating pain in my ass, I've enjoyed being pregnant. I love feeling her moving around in my stomach and I can sit and stare at my stomach for hours. It's really quite amazing. However, as much as I've enjoyed that, I really can't wait to meet her!!

Knocked up...Or is it laid up

I was "cleaning" last night as we were having an out of town guest over for dinner. Cleaning to me means I was taking all the crap lying around and throwing it in closets and behind closed cabinets to create the appearance that we're neat people. (If you ever come over, please don't open anything as you could get injured.) Anyway, my "house cleaning" techniques aside, I was pretty uncomfortable yesterday - pain in my back, butt and down my left leg. I put some crap in the ottoman and clearly bent over wrong because all of a sudden I was seeing stars and could hardly walk. I was doubled over in pain and almost in tears. The remainder of my evening was all downhill from there. I've never experienced pain quite like that (well, maybe when I dislocated my elbow but they gave me drugs for that), it was awful. I spent the night in pain, rolling over was excruciating, I couldn't get comfortable and this morning I could hardly walk.

First thing this morning I got on the phone to a chiropractor. I spent some time on ice (icing the wrong body part) and headed to the doctor. Of course, this is all very common, it happens to pregnant women all the time. He bended me and twisted me and flipped me all over the place. I don't know if it helped but the short term assessment is that it didn't. I do have to go back tomorrow. And then probably all the time for the next 3 months. Whatever. As long as I can walk and sleep, I'll do whatever it takes.

Oh, a dream note. I don't remember the dream and what it was about but I do remember a heaping plate of bacon, eggs, potatoes, and toast. Hmmmm, gooood.

Pain in the a**

Wow, am I uncomfortable. My butt is killing me! I met with my trainer today and he had me lunging all over the place and no matter what kind of torture faces I made, he wouldn't cave. I was uncomfortable before I got there and spent an hour or so last night with the heating pad. I have a feeling that tonight I'll be moaning and groaning on the couch and every time I get up to pee, it's going to be excruciating. What I don't understand is that LBH is what, 2 pounds or so, and I'm already this uncomfortable. How does that happen?

Last night was a rough night for me, as seems to be the norm these days. Actually, my nights seem to get worse every night. For starters, I couldn't fall asleep. Too much on my mind, I guess. And then, at 4:45 there was this beeping noise and it was progressively getting louder and louder. I thought for sure someone was walking down the hall and they were going to chop us up with a beeping machete or something. But no, it was the alarm clock in the bathroom. The cleaning people were at the house on Friday and must have inadvertently turned it on for Monday morning at 4:45 sharp. But by the time I figured out what it was, I was already having heart palpitations and was about to duck under the bed. (Not that I'd fit under the bed...) From that point on I was having weird dreams (why did FedEx show up at 3 in the morning? Oh wait, that was a dream.) and couldn't get comfortable. I know this is all my bodies way of getting me ready for the big day but I could use 2 more months of sleep before I need to start getting ready.

The dreams just get weirder

I almost wonder if I'm better off not sleeping at night. My dreams are just getting stranger and stranger and sometimes very disturbing. For example: I had a dream that my friends husband killed someone but she didn't want to turn him in. As he was the father of her children, she was happy just divorcing him and keeping him out of jail. All for the sake of the children. Another odd dream: I was in a sketchy neighborhood with some people that I new and we were in some car, in a very scary house. And something about my friend was gay but then he wasn't anymore but his partner didn't know and I wasn't allowed to tell him. And then the bad dream: Hunter (my wonderful dog) was in the pool and he drown. There was a ladder in the pool and you could tell that he was trying to get out via the ladder but he wasn't successful (why would he be able to climb a ladder anyway?) and he died. I was not a fan of that one.

With dreams like that, would you sleep well?

Getting ready

It was a busy weekend in the Holder house this past weekend. And in an attempt to be 100% transparent, I didn’t do much of anything. Paul was a busy man though. He emptied the office of all kinds of crap and moved it all to the basement. He then broke down the guest room and moved that to the office, only to have to move it again when we decided the furniture was too large for the room. I’m not sure if it was my panic attack last week or all the people asking us how we were coming along with the nursery but he completely knocked it out. The next step is for our “do anything guy” to come in and paint it and put up crown molding. And then we can tackle the nursery furniture!!

We went to a neighborhood party over the weekend and it was quite the eye-opener to see how many kids there are in our neighborhood!! We had no idea. Lots of toddlers and babies running around (ok, the toddlers were running, not the babies). LBH will make baby #5 for 2008, the 4th girl just this year! There’s definitely something in the water in our neighborhood so be careful if you come and visit!!

24 weeks

I had my latest doctors appointment today, it was a thrill a minute. I had the glucose test today, testing for gestational diabetes. I had to drink this concoction that I think they were trying to mask as fruit punch but it was certainly not fruit punch. The appointment went fine, I don't get the results for 7 - 10 days or so, so we'll see about that. I did get to hear the heartbeat, which was strong at 130 bpm. I'm right on track, no issues no problems.

I did learn something a little unnerving today though. The midwife told me that she'll see me again in 4 weeks and then after that, I got every TWO weeks!! I do that for a few visits and then I go EVERY WEEK!!! OMG! Already? Am I already so far along that I'm approaching the 2 week stage? I can't believe I'm that far along, it's almost the home stretch. Can I even begin to tell you all the things that we have to do to get ready? OK, kind of freaking out. (I also realized that we have something every weekend in October which cuts out on all kinds of prep time...)

Maybe I'll go buy some paint for the room....