Thursday, June 23, 2016

Week 28

Well, I'm a day early I suppose, since today is technically the last day of week 28 and week 29 doesn't start 'til tomorrow, but honestly, it's close enough and this weekend is going to be packed with activities and guests coming from out of town and well, it just makes more sense to write and post today.

I guess I could go ahead and schedule this to post tomorrow, but I figure after all the late posts I've made in the past few weeks an early one is probably just the thing. So here you go.

Week 28 has been fairly eventful, at least on a relative scale.

I've already forgotten what we did on Saturday but I remember it was busy, and on Sunday we went out to Corey's parents' place for a father's day hang which was nice. At some point in there I bought some new preggo summer clothes. Most of what I bought is NOT maternity. I'm really working to avoid buying maternity stuff because a. it's expensive and b. I hate the idea of buying clothes that I am only going to wear short term. So, we rocked the thrift store shopping and I did buy two maternity tops for dressing up a bit, but otherwise I bought stretchy long tank tops that cover the bump and the top of my pants and will continue to fit when I regain my normal shape. I also bought a pair of spandex shorts to wear under dresses and prevent the dreaded thigh rub, as well as a running skirt that has built in spandex shorts for the same purpose. Everything is a bit larger than I would have purchased pre-pregnancy, but not a ton larger and all stretchy athletic stuff, so quite likely to still fit in the future. Yay! And it feels good to have more than one top that I can wear with my limited number of pants etc. I'm not much of a fashion person, but even I was getting frustrated being limited to two outfits on repeat every damned day.

I deleted facebook from my phone at some point in the last ten days (can't remember when exactly) and it has led to a huge boost in productivity. I now only go onto facebook on my computer and facebook on the computer is a lot more clunky and less inviting, so it's easy to ditch it and get back to whatever I was supposed to be doing in the first place. Also, the damned app takes up almost a half a gig off space on a phone, so clearing it out was a huge help to me being able to download important things... like The Room 3... (If you don't know what that is, but you like puzzle games and you have a smartphone or a tablet, start with The Room and work your way up from there. Thank me/curse me later. Hours of your life you will never get back, but you'll be happy to give them up if you love puzzles, amazing graphics and creepy storylines and soundtracks.) Ahem... anyway...

Pregnancy, right. That's what this blog is about.

Which reminds me, there are two big things I forgot to mention in my last post, but which are just as relevant this week as they were last week so I suppose it's ok that they got spread out anyway.

1. Pregnancy brain! I hadn't noticed much in the way of this during the first or early second trimesters, but over the past few weeks I have noticed it and it is weird. My vocabulary recall has plummeted. Words that I use all the time. Common simple words. Words that five and ten year olds use on a daily basis, have escaped me completely for minutes at a time. It's ridiculous. And it happens a few times a day. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm used to having little moments like this normally, but maybe once a week or so, maybe less. Not a FEW TIMES A DAY. Seriously. Words like "bike," "furniture," and "couch" are three examples that have already eluded me today. What the fuck, brain? Why are we doing this?

So yeah, that's fun.

2. THIGH RUB! Holy hell. My poor skin. Now, let's get one thing perfectly clear, my thighs always touch a bit. Even when I'm in damned good shape my thighs are not the kind that stay gracefully separated. I've come to terms with this. No problem. But why, oh why, are they now suddenly magnetized to one another and attempting to become one piece of flesh? And I'm only kind of joking there, because after all the skin has rubbed off from chaffing the damned things are just likely to heal as a single piece as the two they started off as. OW!

Today I pushed thigh rub to a new limit accidentally by going for a run. I was wearing my new running skirt and thought it would prevent the dreaded thigh rub, after all, the spandex shorts cover my thighs... but no. The thighs are so determined to join forces that they pushed shorts out of the way and made sweet sweet love to each other despite my best attempts to pull the shorts back into place and now... I have pepperoni thighs. Only without all the deliciousness of pepperoni.

But, serious plus side to all of this: I RAN TODAY!! Granted, it was for just under a mile in the middle of my dog walk, but it was running, and it felt good, and SPECK DIDN'T TRY TO USE MY BLADDER AS A LIFE PRESERVER!!! YAY!!!

So, I'm going to try to make a habit of that, even if I stick to just a mile or two and keep it super slow. It felt good to do more than just walk.

And in bigger news, yesterday was the day of getting all the things done. I took the car for maintenance and tire changing (we don't have extra rims so we can't change them ourselves at home) and I went to upgrade my phone (I always feel guilty about giving up on a phone that still works just fine, but I couldn't resist getting the newest Samsung phone (the S7) for FREE by trading in my old phone). AND I met with my new midwife.

Oh yeah. That's the big one.

We talked for over two hours. She's great. The birth center is freaking gorgeous and I am SUPER tempted to give birth there rather than the hospital and... yeah. Despite my doubts last week I totally decided to switch over my care. It feels really nice to have all of my concerns addressed and to feel like I'm not being rushed through everything. So, yep. Midwife. I've got one, and I'm very happy about it.

Let's see... anything else? Speck is moving a bunch these days and can now push hard enough that my whole stomach moves around visibly when s/he decides to do a barrel roll. (At least I assume that's what Speck is up to. Certainly, it's what I would do, if I were suspended in fluid and had nothing else to keep me busy.)

I think that about covers it. Here's a photo of Artemis enjoying the summer wonderland that is our typical afternoon walk:

And here's a mirror bumpie that I took today (Corey will take the proper bump pic tomorrow, but this is what we have to work with today). And just for variety's sake there are two, one with a shirt (one of the new ones I just got) and one without.



5 comments:

  1. Hi Virginia,

    I've been reading your blog since you began posting and really enjoying it. You are an amazing writer and so much of what you post rings true for me. I have been meaning to comment but had a baby 3 weeks ago and suddenly my life if oh so different!! It's been really nice to read such candid thoughts on all things baby as I enter this stage of my life.

    Your decision and feelings around having a child were so similar to my own. Throughout my pregnancy, I would flip flop between being incredibly excited about who this little person would be and really anxious about how I would cope with such a change after living life solely on my terms for 35 years. I truly wondered at times whether I would resent a giving up (or putting on hold) my work, travel, hobbies and body. I'm not a touchy, feely person and the thought of someone being attached to me while they grew inside and then breast fed constantly kind of freaked me out!

    And then I would have moments of seeing what could be possible. I'm lucky to be surrounded by friends who embrace the outdoors and around week 30, I went to a rock climbing festival. I was so inspired to see my friends loading up kids in baby carriers to climb, hike, swim in dams and go scouting in the bush. It made me look forward to sharing my love of the outdoors with my own child.

    As for the birth, I guess it's different in Canada. Here in Australia, it's common practice to see midwifes at the clinic unless the pregnancy is high risk or you choose an obstetrician. Despite having access to the midwife clinic, we actually chose a private midwife for a home birth. So many people share their horror stories of birth but I have to say it was one of the most empowering experiences of my life and I wouldn't have skipped it for anything. My midwife was very experienced and very relaxed. I chose home birth for the very simple reason that I don't really like hospitals and I knew I'd feel comfortable in my own home. I wanted a quiet, calm and private birth. I wanted to only be surrounded by people I knew and I wanted my choices to be respected. It was everything I could have hoped for. I spent about 4 hours in the bath tub just practicing the breathing I'd been doing at prenatal yoga then moved into the bedroom where things ramped up and she entered the world a couple of hours later. I was in complete awe of what my body achieved. It was more sustained than any climb or hike I have ever done and I never doubted my body and I felt everyone around me trusted me too. It was intense but never painful or impossible. It's great you have options such as a midwife and doula. I wish you a positive birth experience too, however and where ever that may be!

    As for motherhood - it's been 3 weeks and I don't thing anything could ever prepare me for what to expect. It's amazing, it's life changing, it's challenging, it's up and it's down. I couldn't imagine life without our daughter now that she's here.

    Things for letting me hijack your blog and just write. It's nice to take half an hour to do something I would have done in my former life without even thinking of how I would manage to find half an hour! Wishing you and Corey all the best, I look forward to continuing to follow your experience.

    Alex.

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    1. Alex! Thank you so much for posting this! I'm so glad you shared your story. It's a huge relief to read a calm, confident birth story from someone I actually know! And congratulations on the arrival of your daughter! I think I knew you were pregnant (via Facebook perhaps?) but I didn't realize you had given birth. Good work lady! Sounds like all went well. I would love to hear more about your birth and how everything is going in the land of the newborn so please feel free to send me an email or Facebook message whenever you have time! Hugs, ~Virginia

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    2. Would love to share more! Will send a message when I get a chance. :-)

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    3. Yay! Looking forward to hearing from you!

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    4. Yay! Looking forward to hearing from you!

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