Goodbye skinny jeans. Hello 3rd trimester!

Today marks my 27th week of pregnancy and boy am I beginning to feel the weight of it on me, no pun intended! The last few weeks I've marked several milestones in this pregnancy. I now need to take a breather between rolling from my left side, to my back, then eventually to my right side. I can barely tie my tennis shoes and the weight of my stomach feels like I've swallowed a bowling ball! In fact one of my customers, an elder gentleman who ironically nicknamed my formerly very small stature "fatso," informed me I now look like a bowling ball stuck to a telephone pole! Last night I even woke up every 2 hours to pee and roll over in hopes that that position will be more comfortable than the last.

I'm pretty sure Daisy's head down now! She had been breached, with her head to my right and butt to my left, but the other night as I lay down to sleep she was being quite the acrobat and ever since I have mainly only felt kicks above my belly button instead of below like before. I should actually be able to find this out on Tuesday as the doctor wants me to have another ultrasound because I am measuring small. She said it's nothing to cause concern or alarm right now, she'd just like to get another look at her and be reassured. She said it very well may be that I am measuring small just because I am petite. I certainly don't feel small at the moment, I've gained a total of 12 lbs so far and needless to say it's not all belly! Though hair ties have been my BFF and new accessory for every pair of jeans I wear sadly they can no longer keep me in my skinny jeans, not because my belly has out grown them no, but because my rear has! I wore them a few weeks ago to church and my husband informed me that was probably the last time my butt was going to fit in them for a while and being the stubborn girl that I am I wanted to prove him wrong, so I squeezed myself into them for a dreadfully long and uncomfortable day at work on a casual Friday. Needless to say I have come to grips with the fact that I will not be wearing those jeans for a very long time!

I've began to notice it takes more of an effort to stand from a seated position, and getting up from laying down is an exercise routine all on its own! My "waddle" is progressing at a rapid pace and as I get bigger the days seem to be getting longer.

Nothing like a night in the ER to wear a girl out!

I had my 25 week check up yesterday which included my glucose test. I thought the most excitement I'd encounter that day would be the nasty orange drink I had to keep down on an empty stomach. Boy was I wrong! Let me start off by saying baby and momma are fine and I passed my glucose and hemoglobin test with flying colors! All the drama started about 2 hours after leaving the doctor's office. My husband and I were on our way home from the chiropractor and I had to pee really bad! Nothing new there, except when I got home and went to the bathroom I wasn't able to urinate near as much as I felt like I needed to. I got up and a few minutes later felt like I was going to bust again! For the next 30 minutes I kept running to the bathroom feeling like I wasn't going to make it in time and pee all over myself and nothing but a few drops would come out and the pressure wouldn't release. I got a cramp in the lower right side of my back which made everything that much more uncomfortable. There is nothing I hate more than having to pee and not having a restroom to go in, let alone having one to go in and not being able to go! I tried drinking water and cranberry juice hoping that I would just overload my bladder so much that I wouldn't be able to help but empty it. No such luck. I finally called my mom and she said it sounds like a bladder infection. She suffers from them and in fact the first one she ever had was when she was pregnant with my older brother. So I called my doctor's office and left a message for the doctor on call. In the mean time I drew myself a warm bath hoping it would help with the pain in my back. The doctor called about an hour later and after I explained all my symptoms she told me it sounded like a bladder infection and she would call me in a prescription. She said if they're not caught soon enough it can lead to a kidney infection, so if I started vomiting or the pain in my back got worse to call her back. About 15 minutes later I started throwing up and was very uncomfortable. I called her back and she told me to come on in to the ER and she'd run a urine and blood test. And then the fun really started....

I threw up a little on the car ride to the hospital and winced at every turn we had to make on the curvy mountain roads between our house and the hospital. Finally Daniel and I get there and explain to the lady at the ER entrance that the doctor told us to come in here and be sent to labor and delivery where she could check me out. After a long trek through the hospital and up one floor we then get redirected back down to the ER to be admitted there. All the while I'm hunched over in pain and holding back vomit. Once we're back down to the ER they want us to fill out all sorts of paper work and then proceed to tell us we probably won't be going to the labor and delivery floor where the doctor told me she would see me. With this news I told the lady behind the desk I either needed a trash can or to be pointed to the nearest restroom because I was going to throw up! Once back at her desk to fill out the remainder of the paper work I had to answer all sorts of stupid questions like "when was your last menstrual cycle?" I wanted to scream "Lady I'm 25 weeks pregnant! Does it really matter? You do the math?!" After coming back from the bathroom a second time from throwing up Daniel told me they agreed to go ahead and take me up to labor and delivery where we could finish the rest of the paperwork. The tech that was to take me up thought the wheelchairs they had right there were too big for me so she wanted to find a smaller one. As if I wouldn't fit in the one of the big ones!!! Finally we get off the elevator on the second floor and there are 3 doors to choose from, one straight ahead, one to the left and one to the right. The tech informed us she wasn't quite sure which way to go! Not what I wanted to be hearing right then! So after door #1 to the left being wrong she left us in the hallway while she checked door #3 to the right, which thankfully turned out to be the right door! Thank goodness! Once to my room they gave me a gown to change into and hooked my belly up to the monitors so we could hear little Daisy's heart beat and see that everything was OK with her. Daniel filled out the rest of the paperwork and I managed to sign a signature that looks nothing like mine as the pain in my back got worse. They asked for a urine sample and they're lucky they got the teaspoon that they did. The nurse then drew some blood and was going to put in an IV except my vain blew. Attempt number 2 wasn't any better and just left me squirming on the bed as she wiggled the needle around in my arm and blew that vain also!

The doctor came in and let me know that my urine test came back perfect and I in fact didn't even have a bladder infection, but that didn't explain the pressure on my bladder, back pain and vomiting. She tapped on the back and told me the pain I was experiencing was too low to be my kidney, so that was good news, except that it didn't explain why I was having such terrible back pains! The pain was constant and they said I was right, I wasn't having contractions, but they wanted to check my cervix to make sure it wasn't dilating. My cervix was fine, no sign of dilation and the doctor did an in and out cath to see if she could release some of the pressure from by bladder. Amazingly enough my bladder was practically empty, nothing but a few drops came out! She said the baby may have just shifted positions and be sitting lower on it causing the full sensation. They gave me a shot of phenergran to help with the vomiting and hoped when it kicked in I'd be sleepy and not notice the back pains. After a few minutes of shut eye as the meds kicked in they decided to keep me over night just to monitor me and to keep an eye on Daisy. Once they got us to the room they'd keep us in overnight I was actually able to go to the bathroom normally, but still felt some pressure on my bladder. Thankfully we were able to get a decent nights sleep and by morning I was feeling much better! So even though we don't know what was wrong or how I could have all the symptoms of a bladder infection without actually having one, it is nice to know that nothing is alarmingly wrong, except that I might be just a little bit CRAZY!

At least now Daniel and I know our way around the hospital and best of all we got to fall asleep listening to the sound of our little girl's beating heart!

The belly ring vs the baby bump

I made reference in my last post to my nephew pointing at my belly ring and calling it "ouie!" and I figured this may be a helpful post to those mamas-to-be out there that have their belly button pierced and would like to keep it that way. I got my belly button pierced when I was 18 and that is something I never want to experience again! I am NOT a fan of needles! I am being optimistic in hoping that my belly will one day take a shape similar to it's pre-pregnancy growth spurt and a belly ring won't look completely ludacrous. Being that I do not want to get it re-pierced and am afraid of taking it out and risking it growing back together I searched for alternatives.

I found a couple pregnancy belly rings with cute "It's a boy!" and "It's a girl!" charms online but they ran upwards of $25! That seemed a little pricey to me, I figured there had to be a cheaper option. I went to the local tattoo parlor my husband and I use and I asked the owner if they carried anything like that or if they could order something from one of their catalogs. She had just the thing for me! It's a maternity belly ring kit! It cost $25 but gave more options than just one single ring for the same price! It took about a week for her to receive the order and it was well worth the wait! She cut me off a few loops of this flexible tubing and gave me several colored stone and solid silver balls. You just cut the tubing to the length you need based on how big your belly is, usually one length for 2nd trimester and a longer length for 3rd. Once you cut the tubing you use the balls to make the threads. Thankfully Daniel ingeniously thought about using a pair of flat nose pliers without the teeth to hold the tubing while threading the balls on. If you just tried holding the tubing while threading the balls on they both just seemed to slip and progress was very slow!

Ive been using this pregnancy belly ring since about 4 months as my belly started to get a lot tighter and my belly button quickly started turning into an outie! I'm pretty sure by the time I'm 9 months pregnant my belly button is going to look like the end of a balloon!

Neglect

I realized I have neglected my poor little blog! My husband and I have been fighting off some sinus/cold/allergy thing this last week and we're both just now starting to come around again. I have always had unpleasant sinus problems (thanks to my dad!) and having drainage in the mornings was always the biggest cause for my "early morning" morning sickness. The doctor has me on a low dose allergy medicine at night to help dry me up through the night so I don't have to deal with near as much drainage in the mornings. What ever this thing is that I am fighting rudely woke me up about 2 week ago with a terribly sore throat and a nose that couldn't decided if it wanted to be stuffed up or run! Thankfully I am on the back end of it now and feeling better every day! I'm trying to think back on all that I have done since I last posted...Sorry about that last little rant about baby registry and such! Daniel surprised me and painted the nursery before I got home from work one evening and it looks amazing!As I have posted before we wanted a rug for our nursery because we have wood floors. We came across a rug last week that is different from what I first had my heart set on, but one feel of this rug and I quickly changed my mind! I imagine this is what walking on a cloud will feel like! It is the most incredible shaggy goodness and I can't wait for Daisy to get a feel of this between her little toes!Even our dog Tinkerbell approves! She instantly laid down and started rolling around as soon as we unrolled it! I've even caught her playing in the nursery and snuggling up on this incredible rug!

We had a follow up ultrasound on Wednesday of last week and everything looked great! Daisy is weighing in at roughly 1 lb 6 oz and we double checked that she is in fact a SHE! Afterward Daniel and I went and registered for baby stuff and it wore us out! Nothing like looking at baby item after baby item and being in a daze the entire time. By the end of the day we found ourselves scanning everything we might even remotely be interested in so that I could edit the registry online at another time when I felt like I had a few more brain cells!

Last weekend my sister-in-law Betsy brought my 2 year old niece and nephew to town and my mom and I went with them to a local water park. I wore a bikini and graced everyone with my bulging belly and enjoyed every moment of it! If we asked Hannah where Daisy was she would pat my belly and Eli would point at my belly ring and say "ouie!" We had so much fun playing in the kiddie area, floating the lazy river and getting smacked by a few waves in the wave pool. After just a few hours there I was ready to sleep my afternoon away! Nothing like sun, water, pregnancy, and 2 year old twins to wear a girl out!