30 & 31 Weeks Pregnant

Today I am 31 weeks pregnant! Wow.

Baby is as big as...

Weeks 30 & 31 were pretty similar. After weeks of seeing the chiropractor my hips are finally aligned! Rejoice!!! I can definitely feel the difference. I only have really bad pain when I'm on my feet for a long period of time or when I get up from bed or sitting. So now I only have to go once per week which is awesome because I only have 30 visits covered so I should be good as long as I keep going and don't let them get completely out of whack again.

 I'm really happy that I did not just accept what my Dr first told me about my pain and did my own research and got help. I could not imagine how much pain I would be in on a daily basis now that my bump is this big on top of a completely misaligned pelvis. Take my advice, if you feel like something isn't normal get a second opinion, it can't hurt.

Baby girl has been super active the past 2 weeks which is fun to watch and interact with.  She's been busy developing her brain more and accumulating more fat. Sounds totally rad in there.

I've been feeling really motivated the past 2 weeks, I guess I'm "nesting." I've been organizing and working more. I managed to finish a rough draft of my first paper of the term! I also dedicated some time to my art work these past two weeks....

Going to be split into 2 frames for Arya's room.

A few details left to do but I'm pretty proud of it!

My total pregnancy weight gain is now 30lbs! Whoa!! I'm actually not too concerned because I know that I'm getting the nutrition that I need and that I'm staying as active as I can. No stretch marks yet! But my belly is getting super duper itchy. I have to apply my belly oil 3+ times a day now. Also I don't know if everyone who had a navel piercing had this but the old piercing area is extraordinarily itchy and also sometimes red and burny feeling. It's not so bad that I think infection I'm guessing maybe the scar tissue just isn't stretching very easily?

Here are belly pics for these 2 weeks!

30 weeks

30 weeks

30 weeks. D'awww. 

31 weeks. Looking like my mama here.

31 weeks

31 weeks

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29 Weeks Pregnant & Reflections

I'm 29 weeks pregnant! WOOoooOOOOOooo!

Baby is the size of a...

This week has been pretty good! I can tell baby is much bigger she must of had a big growth spurt over week 29. Her movements are big and sometimes painful but stinking adorable. This week shes mostly just working on plumping up in there and her body is making some big strides in brain development right now.

Oh and I don't have gestational diabetes! Yay! Look out doughnuts and cider! Which brings me to....

Fall is coming! What does that mean for me? That a lot of my time is going to be looking like this...

I attended Master's school orientation this week and came home pumped and excited about the insane work load that I have ahead of me. I really enjoyed meeting some class mates and hearing about how they got to where they are. I was surprised by a lot of things. I learned at the orientation that out of the whole entire Education Masters School I was 1 of 6 people who were first generation graduates. Out of about 120 students. That made me really proud knowing that I was one of the few who came from a home of GEDs and ended up getting into the masters program of my dreams.

It reminded me how far I've come, how hard I've worked and how much I deserve it. I should never doubt myself or my capabilities because I've made it. And I've done it all on my own. My parents didn't know anything about college or the process or really why anyone should/would want to go. I'm proud of my teenage self for deciding the kind of future I wanted and going for it. The whole academic journey was filled with moments of doubt and uncertainty. But I didn't rely on anyone but myself to figure it out. I'm really proud of myself and I'm really looking forward to once again proving how determined and successful I can be. And not to mention being a good example for my daughter and providing a great life for my family.

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. I'm soooo happy my daughter is lucky enough to be a fall baby like her momma. September makes me super sentimental. I start thinking of all of the amazing memories I have from childhood and as an adult in the autumn. The cider mill, carving pumpkins, long walks in cozy sweaters and crunchy leaves, cuddling under a blanket with candles lit and a crisp cool breeze seeping in through the open windows. I could go on forever and I can't wait to experience all of these things with my little one.

This week I've been super emotional! It's kind of out of control I've cried every single day, for happy and sad things. Or just because I can't get the lid off of a jar.... It's kind of hilarious. I've had what I guess you might refer as heart burn except it's really not that uncomfortable I'll just randomly have vomit come up my throat and into my mouth. No warning, no heaving, no fuss, it just comes right up. It doesn't taste great but I'm getting used to being a big giant gross mess. As far as my SPD goes this week has had it's ups and downs. I'm starting to handle the pain way better and it seems like the chiropractor has helped a lot but I have some really rough moments.

As far as fitness goes I've been doing my "exercises" and cleaning that's pretty much as far as it goes. I actually didn't gain any weight this week which I'm super happy about. Last week felt like a huge jump in weight so it was nice to maintain for a week. My belly is getting big and kind of in the way now. It's hard to get in and out of some bathroom stalls, sometimes I bump it on furniture or people so that's new.

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28 Weeks pregnant

28 weeks pregnant!!! 7 months pregnant!!! Yay!!! And baby Arya is as big as a....

Right now she's working on storing fat and perfecting her whole lung/breathing thing. She's had lots of hiccups this week so I imagine she's practicing swallowing quite a bit. Her moves are getting bigger and sometimes even startling! She'll do a big kick and it takes a minute for me to process what just happened. She seems to be moving up more now or just getting longer because she's pretty close to kicking my ribs most days.

Last Monday I took my 1 hour glucose test.

Which entails not eating for a while then drinking this lovely beverage within a five minute span and getting your blood drawn an hour later. I failed the test. When the nurse called to tell me I was pretty devastated I was already having an incredibly emotional day. My SPD was acting up really bad and I was crying over everything it seemed like. I managed to pull myself together long enough to go pick up my forms from the Drs office. After I got home I did some research on gestational diabetes and got even more freaked out. But hey at least I wasn't a sobbing mess.

I was ordered to take a 3 hour glucose test. Before a 3 hour glucose test you are asked to eat a diet of pretty much only carbohydrates for 3 days prior. Which didn't make sense to me at all. I guess it's supposed to get your body used to maxing out on it's ability to process carbs... I'm really unconvinced. Since my 3 hours glucose test happened today which is in my 29th week I'll post more about it then.

Things I would prefer to live without this week:

1. SPD pain
2. Nausea
3. Fatigue
4. Muscle spasms (every night this week!)

I feel like people might feel as though I'm not happy about being pregnant and that's just not true. I'm over the moon. I'm soo thankful to have this baby growing inside of me and I'm totally okay with all of the curve balls I'm getting thrown at me as long as it means that she is happy and healthy and in my arms soon. I'm perfectly okay with my quality of life being kind of crappy right now. I just wasn't expecting it at all. I don't know anyone who has had the nausea and food aversions and cramping that I had in the first trimester. I didn't know anyone who had SPD and I don't know anyone who failed the one hour glucose test and didn't end up with gestational diabetes.

When I got pregnant I did not expect to be in constant pain for weeks/months. I did not expect to be in agony getting up in the middle of the night or turning over. I feel like when I bring these things up because I need to talk about them sometimes people look at me as if I'm just a whiny undeserving idiot. And I don't think it's fair. When I talk about this stuff I'm looking for encouragement and possibly advice. Because I've never done this before and it is absolutely nothing like how I thought it would be.

Mostly I worry about the pain and things that I'm experiencing because I'm scared it's effecting her in a negative way. I love her more than anything at this point and I just want her to be okay. So if I seem whiny/complainy/ungrateful I'm not. I'm just freaked out and looking for some help. Thankfully I do have lots of supportive friends/family but I also have just as many people who are discouraging judgey mcjudgesters.

Since I haven't been moving around to much. I'm going to attribute that to my weight gain. I'm up a total of 25 lbs! I have started doing some SPD friendly exercises as of last night and I plan to do them every single night because I can't do much of anything else anyway.

I notice a big physical change this week my belly button has gone from a belly button to what Nick lovingly refers to as a, "cat butthole."

It's not that pretty but whatevs.

My belly seems to change shape everyday depending on how she's laying/what she's up to in there. But here's what it looked like one day this week...

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27 Weeks Pregnant

I am 27 weeks pregnant! And baby is the size of a....

And I'm officially in the third trimester!!! It's one of the good things about this week. There is an end in sight and I can't wait to meet this little one. Also if she were to be born this week or next she has a 95 % chance of survival which is quite comforting for me. New this week... I experienced Braxton Hicks contractions! I didn't realize what they were while they were happening but my midwife confirmed them at my appointed.

This week Nick and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary by dinning out at Roast. We got all dolled up, Nick enjoyed some cocktails and we both enjoyed the food. Although it's weird for me going somewhere and ordering a Filet Mignon medium it was still absolutely amazing. Here are some pictures we took with some really unique faces from Nick because he's sick of your pictures all looking the same....

This week her kicks have been big and her hiccups more frequent. Honestly having her in there doing stuff is insanely magical and awesome and makes me extremely happy. But I really can't wait to get her out of there.

As of this week my food aversions are back, but not as bad as they were in the fist trimester. My boobs also hurt something fierce again. And oddly I'm feeling bloated like I did at the very beginning. I'm gonna take a guess and say that it's probably because I've been much less mobile than I have throughout my entire pregnancy. Oh and here's why.....

It was confirmed this week that I'm suffering from SPD. SPD is a condition that is caused by a hormone that is naturally produced during pregnancy called relaxin. Everyone produces this hormone so that their pelvis/hips can properly separate when the time comes to push a baby out. People who suffer from SPD either produce to much relaxin or are too sensitive to the hormone. When this occurs your ligaments become much too relaxed in the pelvis area causing your bones to just kind of float around and rub against whatever they want and get completely out of whack. Which as you might guess causes quite a bit of pain and immobility. The good news is that most people who have this condition go back to normal right after birth or a few weeks after. The bad news is that I've still got potentially 13-15 weeks to go and there's virtually no treatment available.

As suggested I bought a support belt which tends to keep my pain level around a 5 or a 6 as opposed to a 7 or an 8 without it. Here's what is looks like...

And it's not very comfortable. It helps my pubic pain a bit but it feels really constricting and the baby absolutely hates it. When I put it on she usually kicks/punches it for 15 minutes or so.

So I started seeing a chiropractor Friday. I've been reading about the benefits of prenatal chiropractic care and I like what I hear. It is said to reduce the pain of labor, reduce the time spent in labor and reduce recovery time. Chiropractic care before birth also reduces your chances of needing medical intervention during birth. After two adjustments here's what I can say. The chiropractor makes every other part of my body feel better besides my pubic bone. So it's been nice not to have back, neck or shoulder pain. That's pretty amazing.

Back to my pity party. The pain and limited movements from SPD are driving me nuts. It hurts to even carry a laundry basket. And standing for longer than 10-15  minutes results in some serious pain. Walking hurts, stairs hurt, rolling over in bed hurts, getting of bed hurts, sitting on the toilet hurts, trying to put pants on hurts, you get the picture. The pain is starting to make me even more of an irritable hormonal preggo monster than I already was. And my house is spinning out of control but I pretty much only have it in me most days to clean maybe one room and the rest is just left to accumulate crap. I am so thankful to have a terribly understanding hard working husband. I could not imagine going through this pregnancy without him and I am insanely grateful.

Pregnancy fitness wise I am going to be getting much less fit as time goes on. I see my chiropractor/physical therapist wednesday so maybe they can give me some safe exercises to do. As of today I'm up a total of 21.3lbs and thankfully still no signs of stretch marks. And here's my belly this week...

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