Welcome to the third trimester. The days of “oh, this pregnancy has been so easy” are behind
me and with the 25 plus pounds I’ve gained so far (the plus may or may not be 5
or more pounds) my body is starting to feel the little aches and pains of being
pregnant. Sleeping, surprisingly, is one of the things that I have the most difficulty
with now. I’ve gotten used to getting up to pee every few hours and the random
bouts of insomnia are pretty manageable. Usually, I just get up and walk around
aimlessly in the dark for a while, drink some water, maybe have a bowl of
cereal, fiddle around with the baby registry, or if Moncho is on call (sleeping
at the hospital) I might even turn on the early morning BBC news…that usually
puts me to sleep pretty quickly. The thing about sleeping that is most
difficult is the fact that I’m usually a back or stomach sleeper and after a
full night of trying to stay on my side I’m waking up with achy hips and
shoulders. While the achy hips and shoulders kind of suck, it’s definitely a
good excuse to try to hustle some shoulder massages out of Moncho! Moncho has
been a very good husband through my pregnancy and even gave me an unsolicited
foot massage the other day.
Another new development, as Anabelle is growing, so are the
alternating feelings of excitement and anxiety. Sometimes it feels as though I
can’t wait another minute for her to get here and at other times the weeks seem
like they couldn’t possibly be going by any faster. Usually, I like to feel
like I’m at least a little bit in control of what is going on in my life so not
knowing if Anabelle is okay inside my belly makes me worry at times. Worrying
seems like the only thing I do have control over sometimes when it comes to
being pregnant. Is she moving enough? Am I drinking enough water? Am I exercising
enough or too much? And upon reading
some random pregnancy website, Why didn’t my doctor tell me not to do [insert
obscure pregnancy restriction here]?
At my last doctor’s appointment I mentioned that I hadn’t
been feeling Anabelle kicking or moving around that much. I, of course, had
been reading “what to expect when you’re expecting” and got to a section describing
how I should be feeling my baby’s movements more frequently and stronger now
which made me realize I was only noticing subtle movements every once in a
while. My doctor said I should do an NST (which I later figured out was a non-stress
test) and strapped me up to a fetal heart monitor. I sat in a room and listened
to her heart beat for about 45 minutes and was instructed to push a button
anytime I felt movement. I got excited when about 20 minutes into the test I started
to feel what I thought was a lot of movement…I was quickly corrected by the
nurse who told me those were hiccups. They noticed some instances where
Anabelle’s heart rate had dropped and decided to do a BPP (which I later
learned stood for bio-physical profile) where they would do an ultrasound to
look to see if her diaphragm was moving indicating she was taking practice
breaths among other indicators of health. At the end of the day I was told
everything looked fine and was instructed to do my “kick counts” every day and
call right away if for some reason I did not feel her move 10 times within a
two hour period…YAY something else to worry about!
The next few days I was glued to the “Kick Count” app on my
iPhone counting every nudge, roll, or flutter that I felt. After a few days of obsessive
behavior I started to find ways to not worry, like thinking about those girls
from the show “I didn’t know I was pregnant” who SOMEHOW get through a whole pregnancy
without knowing anything or worrying about anything. If those girls can deliver
healthy babies without prenatal care or counting kicks (all the while drinking
and smoking) a little lack of movement from my baby is probably okay…right?
Nothing like a little downward comparison to help you feel better about
yourself! The good news is that there are only 10 more weeks left until my due
date so I will soon be able to balance my (new) worries with the joys of
holding my girl.
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| Craving for Italian food = good excuse for date night! |
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| 30 week belly |
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| counting kicks on the couch |
