36 & 37 Weeks Pregnant

I am full term this week! Yay!

And baby girl is as big as a.....

An oddly shaped watermelon! I seriously don't know how she can get much bigger in there. I do not have anymore room. According to most pregnancy resources her movement should be slowing because she's so squished, not my  little one! She's as active as ever and doesn't care that my skin only stretches so much. I've got limbs popping out all the time. I freak everyone out around me because I'm randomly gasping when she does a big sudden kick. I often feel like I'm just going to fall over.

So here's a brief summary of week 36. I spent most of that week being worried about the baby's well being and trying to get everything ready in time for her to be here. I was itchy and nauseated all of the time. I also had some crazy stuff happen on top of the Cholestasis. Like for instance my dad had a heart attack. For those of you who know my dad you know my dad does not treat his body well. He is a hard worker and he will work and work and work until he literally has to spend the next day recovering on the couch because he pushed himself to hard. For years he's been drinking and smoking too much in attempts to try and ignore some of the serious physical pains that he goes through so that he can keep on working and working. He's retired by the way he just couldn't stop working. And after an especially bad busy week he suffered from a heart attack for 3 days straight. Thankfully the heart attack was minor but it was definitely a wake up call and my dad is now taking care of himself. I was terrified of losing my dad, and scared that my daughter wouldn't have her grandfather. The whole incident made me more appreciative of my dad, my family and my pregnancy. But it's been a serious emotional roller coaster for me.

So since I found out I had Obstetric Cholestasis I've changed my diet to less that 40 grams of fat per day, increased my seafood intake, pumped up my fruit intake even more somehow and started drinking hot water with lemon in the mornings and the evenings to help cleanse my liver. And it worked. My last 3 blood tests have come back not only normal but with the lowest possible bile acid score on the scale. My most recent blood test showed that not only were my bile acids perfect but every liver/gall function test was perfect as well. My Dr couldn't believe it and even asked my for my "secrets." He said I pretty much cured myself.

What does that mean exactly? I am still being closely 2 doctors appointments per week, 2 NSTs, blood tests and once per week an ultrasound. But as long as everything keeps coming back normal I WILL NOT be induced! I am so excited to most likely be allowed to have the natural birth that I've always wanted.

And other good news, I have almost all of the signs of prelabor. Which I'm hoping means she's coming sooner than expected anyway. I also have an appointment this Thursday with my masseuse to do some reflexology that supposedly can get me moving along towards labor and delivery.

I still haven't gained any more weight so I'm at a grand total of 32 lbs. I did however notice 3 tiny stretch marks on the underside of my belly and the stretch marks on my hips from puberty have expanded slightly. I've got a few on my thighs as well. If that's all I get I'll consider myself very lucky. Here's the belly the last 2 weeks.

Week 36

Week 37

<3

34 Weeks Pregnant

34 weeks! I feel so close to meeting her and I'm so excited!

Baby is as big as a....

Yes a Butternut Squash..

And I wouldn't be surprised if she was longer than one. Her head is way way low and her feet mostly reside in my rib cage :)

This week the baby can actually recognize songs that I play around her and react to them. Super neat! Also kind of gross: she's peeing about a pint a day all around herself! lol.

So in week 34 I got over my kidney infection. Yay! Nick and I focused pretty hard on getting the baby room ready. Buying all the stuff we didn't get from the showers and putting it together. There are a few tiny things that need to get done before I can post pictures of the nursery. But I just love it. It's my favorite room in the house and Nick worked so hard to make it perfect I feel so lucky that our daughter gets to be in such an amazing environment with so many cool things.

This week I had a weird pregnancy symptom (itching all over) so I ended up calling the Dr about it and I set up to have blood work this past Friday. It turns out my bile acids are elevated indicating that I have Cholestasis of Pregnancy. This effects aprox. 1 in 1000 pregnancies and is kind of scary. Basically what's happening is my liver is not functioning correctly. My body is producing bile and my liver can not process it so the extra bile stays in my blood stream and can move through the placenta to the baby. Baby's liver can not handle the bile so it can lead to some issues. Overall it's not super dangerous it just changes some things... I need to maintain a healthy low fat diet, I am no longer going to be able to have a natural occurring labor, I will have to be induced, I am not allowed to birth in the natural birthing suite that I had planned on, I am still seeing my midwives but start seeing a new ob in addition to them on Friday, I got for non stress tests twice a week as well as once a week blood draws, I get an ultrasound once per week starting Friday and baby girl will definitely be an October baby.

Not going to lie, this news has been rough. But I'm starting to realize that life does not give a shit about my plan and I need to accept that. I'm working on it. I want what is best for Arya. What's best for her would have been a normal pregnancy and a completely unmedicated natural birth. But under  these circumstances we are now considered high risk and I'm willing to do anything/go through anything to get her out and into our arms okay.

During my kidney infection my weight jumped up pretty high, but it has dropped back down. I was really swollen during that time so I'm guessing it was just water weight. My total pregnancy weight gain so far is 32lbs. I haven't been exercising much at all except for cleaning my house and constantly running errands. And the last time I measured my waist was 44 inches around, prepregnancy was 29 so that's quite a difference!

Here is my belly this week on the left is my belly from Saturday and the right is my belly on Sunday. It appears as though she is starting to drop!

<3

Weeks 32 & 33

Holy crap I'm 33 weeks. It's insane actually typing that.

This week baby is as big as a....

Can you believe it folks? As big as a weird looking fruit?

She feels super long recently her feets are always hanging out in my ribs or on my stomach or what I imagine is my stomach. This week she's coordinated her breathing and sucking motions. She also keep her pretty little eyes open when she's awake now. D'awwww.

So week 32 & 33 were full of exhaustion and pain and itching.

Week 32 was pretty great it was a little painful and a lot stressful as it was my second baby shower which was mom and sister funded but I had a crap ton of work to do for it. Thanks to Aud and Katrina we got everything done. But I definitely over did myself on the days leading up to the shower. So I wasn't surprised that the day after the shower I was in a lot of pain and super tired.

That Monday I was pushing through the pain as was expected of me and going on with my normal day to day responsibilities. Tuesday I woke up in worse pain but I figured I just pulled my back out and kept going and going. That is until my body physically wouldn't let me. The pain was getting worse and worse and I finally couldn't even get out of bed. That night was a cycle of me being in pain and tolerating it for about an hour then crying for a half an hour then taking a hot bath then falling asleep for 30 min then starting all over again. My mom came over the next morning to help me with the pets. But being the person I am I still ended up doing my dishes and some straightening even though I was in excruciating pain. I had a 12:30 chiropractic appt that day and could not wait to get some relief from what I thought was maybe me "overdoing it." When Katrina called at 11:30 to ask how I was doing she noticed that I was bawling my eye balls out. So she offered to drive me and after refusing her a few times I finally accepted.

When I got to the chiropractor she wanted me to get my massage first to relieve my pain. Bad idea. It was one of my most painful experiences ever and I literally threw up on the table. Which was incredibly embarrassing. When it came to my adjustment Dr Rose felt how cold and shaky I was. She also noticed I was pale and texted my midwife. And they decided I should go to the hospital.

I am so thankful that someone recognized that I was seriously ill. I guess I got so used to pushing through the pain and brushing it off. So sick of annoying people with my complaints and questions that I ignored my own body and kept pushing through. Because hey I'm pregnant but all pregnant people deal with this so shut up and stop complaining and just do what has to be done. I had apparently lost the ability to advocate for myself.

I got wheeled up to triage and the first thing the nurse told me was, "I hate to break it to you, but back pain is a normal part of pregnancy. I had it, you have it and so does every other pregnant person ever." I listened to her tell me techniques to ease the "normal" back pain of pregnancy... And then there came the strong mama lion that had been pushed away by so many, too many dismissals by so many people who I don't even care about. "Excuse me I don't think you quite understand me. This pain is at a 9 or a 10. I may seem calm and collected because I am good about pain but on the inside I am in so much pain I can not stand it. And by the way have any of you even spoken to my Dr? The person who sent me here in the first place? Clearly she thinks that something serious is going on and I'm not just here because this is where I choose to spend my evenings." The nurse did not say anything again until she took my temp and realized that I had a 101.2 fever and that my heart rate was 150 and the baby's was 180+. "Oh looks like you and baby are tacky and have a fever. Maybe there is something going on here," she said and I wanted to punch her in her stupid bitch face.

I was admitted and didn't have to deal with that bitch again thankfully. The actual birthing staff was amazing and helpful and caring. But boy do those triage nurses suck. I mean really really suck.

Turned out I had a kidney infection. Which means that I also had a UTI for quite sometime that went unnoticed because I began to tell myself everything was normal normal normal. Because I let the opinions of others interfere with my well being, which I don't plan on doing again. So after 2 nights at the hospital I was released and sent home with antibiotics to finish up.

Moral of the story: fuck other people's opinions if you feel like something isn't right then something probably isn't right. And also that I need to slow down. I need to take care of myself and my baby girl better. It is extremely hard because Nick works soooo much and it sucks sooo bad that adding on extra for him to do when he comes home is horrible. My mom has been helping more which is amazing and I really appreciate but I have a really hard time excepting help. I feel like such a burden these days and I know it's not going to get any easier any time soon.

Despite all of the bad this week I am still thankful for my life. I have an amazing husband, a few totally awesome friends, a set of parents who want to see me happy, the most incredible sister to ever grace the planet and... The most important thing in my world, my growing happy active baby girl.

Some good moments...

Me and baby enjoyed the most delectable treat in the world together. 

Thinking about baby Arya and soon to be her best friend <3

Belly Pictures....

week 32

week 32

week 33

week 33

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26 Weeks Pregnant....

Boy do I feel pregnant this week! My tummy is getting huge! Baby is getting huge too, she's as big as a....

She's been super active this week. Kicking me so much it keeps me awake sometimes in the middle of the night. Which brings me to my biggest symptom of the week... EXHAUSTION. I feel like I'm waking up with a hangover everyday. It's hard to get things done when most the time it takes all my will power just to get out of bed. And my sweet baby girl has also found my beloved bladder to kick. It must be super fun because she just can't get enough while I'm trying to go to sleep. Alright enough complaining.

Here's some video I captured of baby kicking. It's the first time I've been able to catch her! I apologize for the awkward breathing in the video but when I take deep breaths she seems to kick more.

She's pretty impressive huh?

Despite my fatigue this week I managed to make it on 3 dog walks and do my pregnancy fitness routine 5 times! Not too bad! I've been focusing more on eating healthy this week as well. Nick just started a new nutrition plan so it's made me more aware of the ratios of protein/fat/carbs I'm taking in.

This week I'm up a total of 20.5lbs so far and my stomach has grown 10 inches around! But I'm trying not to sweat it because I'm pregnant and that's that.

Speaking of which here's my big ole baby belly this week!

<3