Alive & Well

I have realised that lately, though I am online all the time, I haven't been blogging all that much. Of course there was last week's "I'll Do It My Way, Thanks" post. Another will come, when I find the inspiration. I wouldn't want to schedule myself into it. Inspiration is rarely scheduled and when I attempt it, it quickly fizzles into an English paper that I dread (a la 10th grade).

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Oh my, I've just realised I'm due for another belly shot tomorrow. Can it be possible? Am I really at 35 weeks? As I told a friend of mine last week, 35 sounds a lot further along than 34 does. Anyone else think so? I think because I've had several friends have perfectly healthy 36 weekers and 35 is mere days away from 36.

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Pregnancy update: This little girl was tranverse at her/my 32 week appointment. I was rather annoyed about that and was beginning to worry about the possibility of having another breech birth (hmm.... not the end of the world, but head down would definitely be best) or worse, having to think about a c-section. I went to my midwife for my 34 week appointment and asked (because I'm annoyingly curious about the state of my uterus and the baby inside) how she was lying. I had my hopes and my suspicions - but who am I to tell the woman who's delivered hundreds of babies that I know what I'm talking about. Anyways! Let's not go down that road, shall we? She checked the baby's position and said, "She's still tranverse." She didn't think too much of it - or at least didn't look concerned. But then she says, "No, wait. You're 34 weeks, we need to really see what's going on." So she goes about checking again, and then gets a funny look on her face. Turns out the baby? The little stinker who was lounging out in her transverse La-Z-Boy just 2 weeks before? Yeah, that little stinker is head-down. In fact, she is so far head down that my midwife (who is decidedly experienced!) did not feel her head upon first examination. This, my dears - means that my daughter is head-down, and at +1 station (at 34 weeks exactly). For you Kiwis, that's 4 of 5.

And it puts a whole new explanation on my recent complaint that my hips felt like they were going to break. It's because she's prying them apart slowly. *tap tap tap* "Is this on? Sweetie? Yeah, those hips? They need to continue working! They need to stay together in some form, okay? Mommy is not a piece of pulled pork! Okay? Good! Glad we agree".

My lovely midwife Shirley has referred me to a physiotherapist (physical therapist for you Yanks) and they're supposed to give me some butt-kick belly support. Bring it on! Anything that will help me stop limping. No, I wish I was kidding. I'm not really waddling yet (I don't think), but I am limping like I need a hip replacement.

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I've crossed the invisible threshhold between "Are you pregnant?" and "So how long do you have left?". It's an irritating threshhold, in my opinion. An obnoxious line in the sand. I can't imagine how it must be for women expecting multiples, because the line would be somewhere in the middle of the 2nd trimester. I'd be banging my head against the wall by Week 20 if people started asking the "How long to go?" question that early. 5 months of that question? Where's the looney bin? I wanna go there instead!

Something about that (completely innocent) question makes my skin crawl. There's really no good answer. You answer honestly, and then deal with the variety of responses that will follow. I don't know if there's a good way to reply. You can never guess - when speaking to a pregnant woman - if you've run into a Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy-Preggo or an I'm-Putting-Up-With-Pregnancy-But-Don't-Push-It-Preggo. If you say something nice, the person who doesn't enjoy being pregnant looks at you like you are from Mars and just vomitted purple something on their shoe. And if you say something negative (like "Wow, that far?" "Are you sure it's not twins?" "Bet you're sick of this then, huh?") you might get an sicky-sweet response about how they love being pregnant. Either way, it's sort of a toss up.

I'm one of the weird ones. I'm not a sicky-sweet preggo, but I'm pretty close. Being pregnant doesn't really bother me. Now, I have to explain that up until last week I was feeling great. Sure, I can't bend over, and sure I'm huffing, puffing, and heaving when I pick up stuff off the floor (oh, and I get head rush when my head goes below my heart). But I enjoy being pregnant.

This was not alway the case. Oceana's pregnancy - I was a complaining, slobbering mess. I'm sure the people around me were simply putting up with me. That and scaring me with their horrendous stories about popped c-section stiches that went undiscovered for days, and 4 month long staph infections as a result. *Yah, that one'll be in my nightmares to my grave* Granted, I was 20, recently married, in school full time, working part time, and gaining about 2 pounds a week. I was miserable.

But Joshua changed all that. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. As long as Joshua was inside, he was safe. I didn't feel the need to try and induce labor on my own, because I wanted him to stay put. I knew the longer he was inside, the longer he'd stay with me. As far as I understood it, I might have a stillborn baby, or only have a few hours with him after he was born. I had no idea I'd have the gift of 67 precious days with him. I had packed a funeral sack for the hospital. I didn't know what else to do. I brought his carseat at the last moment, but it was wishful thinking more than anything else. I learned to love pregnancy with Joshua.

This time around, I've enjoyed myself. I have to admit - and you can hate me if you like - but I have not puked during this pregnancy. Not once. There was one dry wretching incident involving some stinky trash, but no actual vomit. I haven't had much in the way of heartburn (watch me eat my words). I'm keeping my weight at a .... reasonable .... level. I haven't had any real cravings. The only thing that has well and truely annoyed me has been the heat. But I'd probably have had just as much issue with the heat if I hadn't been pregnant. I'm not one to tolerate heat. So there you have it. I like being pregnant.

And those comments about, "Wow, you must be sick of being pregnant by now!" or "You could have baby early!" make me think - "Nah... That's okay!"

My *completely irrational* Schedule for the baby is as follows.

Not weeks 35-36 - a) because I'll have to go to the hospital, b) because I'm too busy that week.
Not week 37 - a) because it's Joshua's week (when his cele broke, he died, and his funeral), and b) because I'm too busy.
Not week 38 - because Matt is away for 4 days.

Weeks 39-42 are just fine and dandy for me.

Think the baby will listen? I'm giving her a whole month! Ok, so I took a whole month too...

We'll see who she listens to. Oh, and I think I'll do a poll. I can't really offer a gift/giveaway, but I can give you points like CFHusband does. The next blog post will be a Guess the baby's birth date, time, weight, and height.