An update and we're 37.5 weeks!!!!

Well it's been a while since I've blogged. Things are going well in our home. Jason started residency and it's been pretty busy for him. It impresses me everyday with how much he learns and how he's really become a wealth of knowledge. I'm pretty bias but still think other people would agree with me that he'll be a great doctor. And I'm still pregnant. I've been officially done work since September 7th. I love work, I love the people I work with and I love my patients, especially my heart babies. Since I've been swelling up everywhere since about 12 weeks I thought maybe since I was done work it would decrease but no such luck. Oh well I guess only 2 more weeks!

This isn't a complaint e-mail about being pregnant, it's just to fill you in on how we've (me and the baby) have been. Lets get it straight from the beginning that I am extremely grateful that I am pregnant and feel blessed to have (so far from what we know) a healthy baby inside of me. But on the other hand I do believe this pregnancy has been a challenge for me and my body!

I'm going to vent a little a big about pregnancy and then I won't vent about these things again. Well pregnancy started out okay until about 6 weeks then I felt the nausea, which is not abnormal for many woman. I went on the usual medication (diclectin) and felt okay with that. A few weeks later I caught pneumonia, started swelling (who knows why I swelled since 10 weeks... but for now I do not have pre-eclampsia), my acne decided to come back in full bloom till about 25 weeks, I caught RSV (sucky cold... probably my fault from working in pediatrics), and got carpel tunnel in my left wrist since about 12 weeks and now have it in both as well as tendinitis. I continually tried to get off medications but after my last wean about 30 weeks and vomiting all day I decided it's not worth it and now am currently on about 2 to 3 dicleton and 1 gravol pill a day, and I am okay with that. Every time I would try to wean I would throw up all day and then the baby wouldn't move much the next day so I think it's not worth even trying. It does reassure me that there are other women that throw up most of there pregnancy (I'm not happy that they throw up but at least the nausea isn't as abnormal as my swelling or whatever else). Anyways my main thing right now is the swelling that goes to my hips which makes my joints very stiff, swelling in the arms that cause my carpel tunnel and my sore back from an increasing chest size and back cramps. Which back cramps may not be a bad thing because that could turn into possible labor! yay!

Anyways enough about that, I will be posting maternity photos of my belly/baby, me and Jason shortly. Jason was a good sport. I know it's not his thing to go do photo shoots but he was kind enough to go and please his pregnant wife! My friend Leah Karch kindly took photos of us. She's quite talented for a new photographer so I'm excited to post them as soon as she's done. Until then I took some pictures today to give you more of a visual update. Also our baby's room is basically complete so this week I will post pictures of the room as well!

This is me at 33 weeks, I don't really love the maternity shots of me so I haven't posted many but the reason for this one was to show everyone how fake my belly looks! Well at least to me it looks fake and it feels so weird to have a belly of this size and a baby moving around in it! That is one of the joys of pregnancy, feeling your baby move and grow! I'll probably do this pregnancy thing a time or two more just for that reason!

Here's me icing my feet after church today. I felt like my toes were going to blow up, I really wasn't sure how much more my feet could expand. My capillary refill was 5 to 6 seconds!! (I know all your nurses out there will appreciate that.) Anyways icing doesn't take away all the swelling but it sure does help and the swelling will stop. Oh and just so you know my legs aren't usually that big, hopefully those will go down after the baby is born!

 

This is what you call pitting edema. It's not abnormal for me but it's just not going away anymore. When I was around 20 weeks it would go away after a couple of days off work. Now it is here to stay. A student nurse on my unit was explaining to me how she had never seen pitting edema and boy was she in luck! Anyways that indent on my foot I made. Basically fluid collects and you can push your skin in. I'm sure a lot of pregnant women have experience this, mine just now goes up to my knees!

My feet 20 minutes post icing them, my toes looks like sausages!

Relief!

Anyways that's my little rant. I do want to assure those people who think I'm being selfish for even feeling so negative about pregnancy that I am grateful to be pregnant. I don't complain everyday, just some days it's hard to walk and I'm getting tired of it that's all. From what I hear other women have felt the same. I am hopeful not all my pregnancies will be like this and that this one might be the worse. I'm SO happy to be having a baby, and can't wait to be a mother. I actually and most looking forward to seeing Jason as a Daddy. I think he's going to be a great Father. I feel like I've held and cared for so many babies that I just can't wait to see Jason hold our baby! It's crazy because it's half of him and half of me! Thinking of him holding our baby makes me love him even more! Also I know I have been blessed to be able to carry this baby and I am grateful for our health. I think health is one thing I won't ever take for granted again especially since I've started working in pediatric cardiology. I know things could be worse, and I'm grateful for what I've been given. Anyways that being said, I just needed to vent a little! thanks for listening!

Stay tune for nursery pictures and maternity pictures! Hopefully we don't have a baby before I can post those!