28 Weeks - 3rd Trimester!

How far along?   28 weeks

Total weight gain:   +22

Maternity clothes?   No new maternity clothes. But please stop making me put on jeans – they are THE most uncomfortable thing to wear pregnant in the heat.  

Stretch marks?   None

Sleep:  On and off. I’ve been having a lot of cramps in my legs during the night which give me a harsh wake up. I have to do a lot of stretches and ankle rolling before I get in bed or it gets real bad.

Best moment this week:   Feeling our little guy move around so much and spending time with family that has been out of state. I spent some time holding my twin niece and nephew and getting used to the newborn babies… can’t wait to hold my own!

Miss Anything?    Having control of my own body. I miss it a lot this week… more to come on that later.  

Movement:   More than ever, he has quite the leg muscles! I was lying in bed the other night and jumped because he kicked me so hard.  I’ve been able to feel his arms and legs poking out… it’ll form this lump in my belly and I sit and rub it and try to figure out what part of him it is. A lot of times I can set me hand on my belly and he will rub up against it… so sweet!

Food cravings:   Not too many this week. Except I guess with the weather getting hotter, I have been craving snow cones super bad. How come they aren’t open yet?!

Anything making you queasy or sick:   Being sick makes me sick… 

Gender:   Boy.

Labor Signs:   Braxton hicks contractions I think? Not that that’s necessarily a sign of labor… but I think I’ve been able to feel those lately.

Symptoms:   I have third trimester pregnancy written all over me – read on.

Belly Button in or out?   Kind of flat? Kind of poking out on top?

Wedding rings on or off?   On.

Mood:   Happy, but tired this week. Once again – read on.  

Looking forward to:   40 weeks to come!!!!!!!!! Haha oh do I hope it comes quick.

Random Ramblings:

Well this week was an interesting one for sure. I have hit my point of wanting to reach the end. Pregnancy has been a lot different than I thought it would be…. I expected that I would LOVE being pregnant. I have really enjoyed pregnancy, but it has been rough recently and I don’t know that I can honestly say that I LOVE being pregnant at this point. I have been so used to being in control of my body and it’s been an eye opener that it is now not in my control. Saturday morning I woke up with a back ache. I had woken up to one like it before in my first trimester and so I rubbed it for a while to get it out like I had the first time. But it never went away. I took a warm bath, I massaged it, Gabe went out and bought me some heating patches to put on it, but the pain was even worse than what the heat could cover up. It started making me nauseous and I spent the morning on the bathroom floor with Gabe in the hallway keeping me company. It started to come in waves of pain and kept getting worse. The midwife clinic was closed on Saturday and I wasn’t sure if it was considered an “emergency” so I didn’t page them. It got so bad that I would be hunched over holding onto whatever I could to try and ease the pain. It was the most excruciating pain that I have ever experienced in my life. I started to be able to start timing when the waves of pain came and it was worrying me, so after my next round of sickness I told Gabe to call the hospital. We were admitted to labor and delivery at the orem hospital and they hooked me up to an IV and took all kinds of tests. They took a test to see if I had a chance of going into preterm labor and that came back negative. They didn’t think it was kidney stones or a bladder infection. My cervix was completely closed. They hooked a few straps around my midsection that recorded the baby’s heartbeat and any contractions I was having. It was fun to be able to listen to his heartbeat for so long… although they took it off at the end because he kept wiggling all over the place and they couldn’t hold it in one spot. I was having some sort of contractions so they gave me a few pills to calm them down. We were there for about 6 hours I think..? Gabe kept us entertained with Netflix on the iPad. Of course once we got there my symptoms weren’t present and I actually didn’t have any pain for a few hours. By the end when they came in and told me how they weren’t finding anything I started having bad back pain again. They monitored us for a while and the doctor prescribed something for the nausea and told me to take Tylenol for the pain. Thankful to have permission to take pain medication we spent the next night and day on the couch surrounded by pillows and all sorts of snacks. So I guess what was causing the pain is uterus contractions. The uterus is connected to my back with tendons and when my uterus contracts it sends the pain to my back. At least that’s the best I could get out of the doctors explanation.  So it sounds like I am doing all that I can and that it may or may not come back. (update: it has)

It has been a very humbling experience to make myself just let go. It’s a different experience to realize that I can’t control this and that my body is going to do whatever it wants. But to realize that it isn’t permanent, it’s only a few more months. My body can gain another hundred pounds if it wants. I can spend the next three months on the bathroom floor, my calves can swell to the size of bowling balls, my stomach can look like zebra stripes, I may not get any sleep, the house may become a mess and dinner may not always be made because I need to sit down to bear the pain. But you know what? All these things are leading up to what will be one of the happiest days of our lives. My body can do whatever it wants, it’s growing a baby and it will do whatever it needs to do. And I will deal with it. Just let it go… it’s out of my control. And cross my fingers that once the day comes, certain things will become a new normal and I can be comfortable with myself again.  We are in the end stretch!