Week 36

Well, it's after midnight so I suppose this is a Monday post, and thus, a few days late. However, after being so breathtakingly on time for the two weeks that I was road tripping, I feel... not terrible about this Monday post.

Week 36... where to start?

It has been a bit of a mixed bag, that's for sure. Though, again, I'm so grateful that I'm mostly doing quite well, and that all my symptoms seem to be mild compared to what many pregnant women experience.

That said, third trimester is getting real and... there's only one month of this left. Actually, crazily, at the end of this week I will be 37 weeks, which means that Speck will be full term, which means that it's totally fine for Speck to show up any time after Friday. So, basically any day between Friday and six weeks from now would be perfectly normal arrival dates for Speck. Holy shit. That's incredibly soon no matter which of those days it happens on.

So, things that I have experienced in the past week:

1. Practice labor - because practice makes perfect! For those unfamiliar with the joys of the third trimester, the fun can start super early, and a pregnant woman's body, while preparing for the whole birthing process, can start contractions just for funzies. It's sort of like a systems check. Your body is like, "Hey, are you aware that this is a thing that's going to happen? Are we prepared? Are all systems working properly? How about now? Or now?" And you're like, "WTF is this? Why do I feel like I'm getting period cramps while getting punched in the cervix from the inside? Is this labor? Is this what labor feels like?" And then you lie down and drink a bunch of water and it slowly goes away. Which is how you know it's NOT labor. Then you go about your business, read up on practice labor vs. real labor just to make sure that you're not losing your mind, and then wait for it to happen again, because it will. (And just to be safe you might download a contraction timer to your phone so that you can easily make sure that the contractions are going away and not getting closer together.)

2. Breathlessness - Speck doesn't seem to have dropped yet. (Something that may be in the process of happening - hence all the cervix punches I've been experiencing.) While Speck is still riding high, my lungs are super squished and on top of that all the extra blood etc, makes oxygenating the blood I've got extra work and I get out of breath for no reason at all, and it's frustrating.

I was watching the Olympics a lot last week, and while I was duly impressed with all the true athleticism I was witnessing in Rio there were times when I felt I deserved an Olympic gold simply for getting up from the couch by myself, or putting on a pair of pants without injury. Yep... and this is form someone who has actually completed an Olympic distance triathlon and two half marathons. Pregnancy takes a lot out of a person.

3. Exhaustion - much like the first trimester, I am back to having a very limited amount of energy in any given day, and I need to nap a lot. This is a combination of reacting to another huge surge in hormones that comes at the end of pregnancy, and the fact that sleep is fairly elusive at this point (I'll get to that in the next list point). So, getting my work done, walking the dog, and feeding myself successfully in one day can feel like an overwhelming set of tasks (especially since it can only be accomplished by way of a two hour nap in the middle of it all). I do manage to get all three done on most days though.

4. Insomnia - Ok. I'm hesitant to call it insomnia because I can fall asleep, I just can't stay that way for very long. Though, there are nights where I don't even feel tired until after 3am, which makes it feel more like actual insomnia. Last night I finally caved and took benadryl before bed (as a soporific) and was rewarded with a few 3-4 hour sessions of continuous sleep interrupted by only having to pee twice. It was blissful. Generally speaking, between having to pee and hip discomfort I'm waking up five times a night and never feeling like I've reached deep sleep. :-(

5. General discomfort - along with the breathlessness and the hips and back aching, I just generally feel like I'm about to pop. Speck moves lots (which is nicely reassuring) but as there gets to be less and less room available for speck I feel like I'm being beaten up on the inside a bit. It doesn't really hurt (except for the odd sharp twinge) but it feels deeply uncomfortable and when added to everything else, makes it difficult to rest.

6. EATING EVERYTHING - Speck is growing rapidly still and apparently it is now my job to EAT ALL THE THINGS in order to feed Speck's growth spurt. This is generally fine with me, except that my stomach fills to capacity pretty quickly and then my digestive system takes forever to process things and I feel uncomfortably full for hours at a time. (Note: My stomach doesn't fill so fast that I can't find a way to shove an entire large pizza in there... on a day when I've already eaten a fairly large salad a few hours before...)

Soooo delicious... I could order another one right now...

Delicious salad made even better by watching the Olympics (feels even healthier to watch others exercise while eating vegetables)

7. Hot flashes - Yep. More hormones, and I'm getting random hot flashes again. Not too many, but they still weird me out. Suddenly feeling the need to strip down to as little clothing as possible for reasons that don't involve jumping into a body of a water, or jumping someone's bones, throws me for a loop.

So, that's the list of symptoms. In other news, we finally bought a car seat, and at the same time discovered a baby store that did not make me want to vomit (if you're curious as to why that is, I'll give you a hint, a decided lack of pink was involved). However, everything in the store was incredibly high priced, except for the car seats, which appeared to be the same price as anywhere else. Feels good to finally have that done, although, again, holy crap, this baby is coming in no time. PANIC!

In fun-stuff-good-times news, Speck appeared to be head down at our last midwife appointment and the midwife said Speck seemed a good size. My uterus continues to measure normal for dates and my bp was normal (and no longer on the super low side of normal, which is apparently... wait for it... normal- yay for WORDS THAT MEAN VERY LITTLE!). :-) Long story short, Speck and I both appear to be in good health.

In the category of shit that you probably don't want to read unless you are pregnant yourself or planning to become so soon, or are really into the weird personal details of pregnancy... Perineal massage! Now there's something I never thought I'd have to do... (If you don't know what it is, please look it up, I... just don't have the right words.) Right, so I gave this a shot and found it to be extremely awkward in terms of contorting my body to get things done. I have not done it again since. However, Corey is now on my case about it because he read the part in the birthing books that said "DO THIS OR REGRET YOUR LIFE CHOICES FOREVER AFTERWARDS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!" So, I need to do it, but I'm reluctant because it's a pain in the... vag? Anyway, it's annoying. I'm going to try to be better about it though, because I really don't want a. an episiotomy, b. serious vaginal tearing, or c. some terrible combination of the two. Of course, doing it doesn't guarantee that those things won't happen, but it does reduce the likelihood enough that it's worth doing, and I should really remind myself of that. Sigh... Coconut oil is going to ruined for me after this I can tell.

Well, that's about it from week 36 I think. Here's the bumpie from last Wednesday as Corey and I failed to take a weekend bump picture. I will try to bug him about it this week and see if we can get one because I think it's nice to have the same background comparison etc, but at least I have some photographic evidence of looking pregnant. Please enjoy forward facing and side facing angles!

Week 35

Well, I'm managing to post this on time because Corey and I busted our butts in order to make it all the way home last night. To be fair, Corey busted his butt in terms of driving (we were doing a very even split all day, but when it came to the final push I had to bow out) and I busted my butt in terms of trying not to go insane with discomfort in the passenger seat in the last two hours of a 15 hour drive. I'd say we put in equal effort really.

So, we're home, finally, and with two full days to recuperate before going back to work. Well, ok, Corey gets two days to recuperate, and I have to get back to work today, but whatever we still get to take it slow and hang out a bit without being in the car, so we're calling it a weekend.

The question you're all probably dying to have answered is: how did a two week road trip in the third trimester of pregnancy actually go?

The answer: pretty well, actually.

I mean look, it was still weeks 34 and 35 of pregnancy, so it was bound to have its downsides wasn't it? Just because I was traveling doesn't mean I got to leave behind pregnancy or any of the inconveniences that come with it. And I've never been pregnant before so I have no baseline for what weeks 34 and 35 would have been like without sitting in a car for hours at a time, sleeping on a thermarest in a tent, or staying in unfamiliar beds for two weeks. However, I do have a strong baseline for what those things are like outside of weeks 34 and 35 of pregnancy and I can tell you that they are not made in any way easier or more enjoyable by being pregnant. That said, they were still pretty fun.

Keep in mind I'm the kind of person who LOVES road trips when I'm not pregnant. If you were to walk up to non-pregnant me and say, "Hey, Virginia, I'm thinking about going on the road for a month, driving between 6 and 16 hours a day, and camping/sleeping in the car on my way across north america and I need a buddy to do it." I would reply, "Well, you have come to the right place, my friend. I am precisely the buddy for that kind of adventure." I might jump into your arms and hug you as well. I seriously love road trips and always have. My mom started me on them when I was young, and for many years it was a thing we did together. When I got old enough it was a thing I often did solo. I have driven across the US by myself a handful of times. I have been in all 48 contiguous states largely thanks to my road trips. I have traversed, alone and with friends/family, the east coast from north to south and back again. The west coast from south to north. Gone from coast to coast east to west and west to east, and many shorter trips in between. I've driven from just north of the Mexico border all the way into Canada. And from various spots in the US down into Mexico. I have now gone from Winnipeg to Toronto and back twice. I really desperately want to go coast to coast through Canada sometime in the not too distant future.

I think you get the idea. It's safe to say I love road trips.

So, I didn't think I was going to suddenly hate them while pregnant, and I was right. I was so happy to be road tripping, something that is a big piece of my identity pre-deciding to have a kid, that I was able to blissfully ignore most of the small discomforts that road tripping while pregnant brings with it.

But you folks are here precisely because of this whole pregnancy business, so while I may have ignored them or suppressed them to the best of my ability in order to do a thing that I love, I will still enumerate them here so that you don't get the wrong idea about smooth sailing through late pregnancy symptoms etc.

I could give you a play by play of the whole trip, but that would take forever, and I have bunch of work that I need to do, and you probably have places you need to be, so we'll just do two lists; one of lowlights, one of highlights, throw in a few pictures from the whole thing and call it a blog post. Shall we?

Lowlights (aka when pregnancy got the best of me on this trip):

• sleep - funnily enough some of my best nights of sleep were in a tent, with benadryl to aid my slumber (and yes I did squeeze my pregnancy pillows into my sleeping bag with me, and yes it was totally worth it) but mostly sleep was elusive and shoddy for the whole two weeks. Naps helped a lot, and kept me functional and able to enjoy the rest of my time, but even my "best" nights of sleep were uncomfortable (holy crap! I didn't think my hips and lower back could hurt that much without pulling or dislocating something) and filled with far too many pee-breaks. Last night, our first night home in two weeks, was the best night of sleep I've gotten since we left and I still got up to pee 5 times. 
• sitting in the car - normally, I love both my driving and non-driving car stints as I find them peaceful, scenic, and good excuses to get writing and reading done (I never get motion sickness and this may be one of the reasons that I'm such a fan of road trips). However, pregnancy has put a serious damper on this. I still don't get motion sickness, thank Gwen, but I find that I can't sit still for more than hour or so before my hips and back start to ache. I managed to stretch and shift enough in the car to make it through, but it was a challenge that it has never been before. I have never found myself so uncomfortable in a car. Last night, as we neared the end of our only 15 hour drive of the entire trip I was about ready to pull my own hair out to distract me from the pervasive discomfort in my hips and back. I stretched, I twitched, I pretzled myself, I did everything I could and I still felt like my hips were on fire. While my normal cut off for driving hours in a single day is around the 16-19 hour mark I would put my pregnant cut off at 10 (ideally 8 or fewer - really) or 12 if pushing things, but really no amount of car sitting was comfortable/enjoyable the way it usually is, it all came down to a question of how long I could suppress the discomfort. :-(
• heartburn - I don't think this was road trip related except that heartburn is less likely to creep up when one is properly hydrated and staying properly hydrated when one is trying to make any forward progress in a car while pregnant is simply not possible unless one wishes to install a catheter system for the car. I had heartburn flare ups a few times on this trip and it appears that this is a fairly common symptom at this point in pregnancy. I hadn't had much yet in the third trimester and I now attribute that to staying hydrated. On a day when I am at home and have easy access to a toilet I drink between 3 and 5 liters of water easily every day. On a day when I am in a car for 8 hours or more I drink substantially less than that because to drink my normal amount would lead to needing to pull over 4 times an hour which is simply... not going to get you anywhere in a reasonable amount of time. I tried to drink a liter before we left camp in the morning, and then drink two more after we stopped for the night, with one more liter spread out slowly over the drive, but that generally wound up being too little too late in terms of my stomach acid deciding that it wanted to explore other regions of my body. When we were in civilization and restrooms abounded I managed to drink enough to not suffer heartburn too badly but there were two nights on the trip where it completely stopped me from sleeping. 
• getting kicked in the crotch from the inside - a novel sensation to be sure, but some part of Speck making sudden and harsh contact with my cervix (best guess) hurt enough to double me over mid-stride, but at least had the decency to be a short lived experience. The first time this happened was on Wednesday of this week, and it has since happened a couple more times. I am not a fan. Speck has been warned that this is not acceptable behavior, but my guess is that Speck is bored and there's not much else to do in there aside from lash out at things and see what happens, there's also a chance this isn't Speck hitting me, but is something else entirely. I will mention it to my midwife at my next appointment, but I don't think it's anything too worrisome. 
• the heat in Toronto - Ok, it was actually humidity in Toronto, since heat itself doesn't usually bother me (I'm a desert rat at heart), but 95 degrees with 95% humidity fucking sucks in the 35th week of pregnancy. It made sleep, and everything else, difficult and sticky. Thank goodness we were visiting some of our favorite people in the world, or it would have been easy to get down about the heat. As it was, it seemed like a mild nuisance in the midst of an otherwise lovely visit.
• needing to pee a bajillion times a day/night -  I think this has been roundly covered in other points, but just in case anyone forgot about it between a few paragraphs ago and now... well, I haven't. I've already had to pee twice while writing this blog post. It's annoying even in the middle of a normal day working from home and on a road trip it's... well I think you understand. 
• having to get up/down, bend over, get in/out of a car, or just roll over in bed with a 35 week pregnant belly - these simple motions are not only uncomfortable, they can often result in an uncomfortable kick fest from Speck, and make me alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) out of breath, nauseous, or feeling like all the blood in my body is made out of molasses. All I have to say is camping is a lot harder when bending over is hard and I am really fucking glad that I'm good at picking things up with my feet.

Ok, that's enough whinging about how my perfectly healthy pregnancy with minimal negative symptoms made my fabulous road trip harder than normal. Here are the highlights, along with some photos, so we can get back to the point where I said the whole thing was pretty good all in all. Because it really was a good trip and I don't want my attempt at keeping honest about pregnancy symptoms to make anyone think I didn't have a great time, or that I didn't appreciate just how lucky I was to be able to make the trip at all.

So here go the highlights - some are pretty general, others are very specific:

• visiting awesome people - from our very first stop in Canyon Lake to our days in Ottawa and Toronto the best thing about this trip was getting to spend time with so many of our favorite humans. It is always nice to go out into the world and be reminded of how wonderful people are and to feel truly lucky in our friends and family. Speck is going to have a really great group of adults as role models and that's no small thing. 
• eating amazing food - road trips for some people may mean cheap fast food eaten on the fly (and it has meant that for me many times too) but on this road trip we did food properly. Our first night of the trip we were treated to an amazing meal by our friends in Canyon Lake and we went out of our way to make/bring delicious road food so we weren't hurting for good meals even on the road. Then, at our various destinations our friends and family treated us to amazing meals at every turn. From fresh caught lake fish to delicious salads, fabulous curries to killer pizza, pan fried halloumi to pancakes with bacon in them, and gourmet burgers to specialty cheese stores, we did food right this entire trip. To cap things off I introduced Corey to the amazingness that is Tuco's Tacos in Sudbury on our way out of Toronto, a stop that he was dubious about at first, but quickly changed his tune when he put the first bite of taco into his mouth. (While I am sadly lacking in photos of most of our culinary adventures, I do have this one shot of our Taco experience. I ate most of them before I remembered to take a picture. That's how good they are.)
  
  
• touristy things - I often skip the more touristy things that one can do in any given destination as I prefer to see what the locals are up to rather than tick of a list of "must sees," but it can be nice to do a bit of touristy sight seeing too, when one is in the Capital of a country for example. Here are some photo and video tidbits from our Ottawa days:
  
  
  
  
  
  You may have seen some of these from my last blog post, but fear not! There are new pictures coming in some of the next bullets.
• camp/outdoorsy things - we didn't just tour around big cities with friends and family, we also camped with friends and family and went to the beach and stuff. These were honestly my favorite parts as I am very much a fan of spending time outdoors, and less interested in cities no matter how cool they are. Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of the lovely camping we did with our Ottawa homies, which is too bad, because it was freaking wonderful part of the trip and produced many highlights for us both. Corey has some more photos on his phone, but they aren't easily accessible to me right now, so these two beach pics with dogs in them are all you get.

I do, however have a series of awesome photos of a beach day in Toronto with our good friends who are also 35 weeks along with their first baby.

These pictures lead nicely into my next highlight bullet point... 

• visiting our good friends who are also 35 weeks into this whole first pregnancy thing - there is something particularly epic about sharing this adventure with two people that have been good friends of mine for 8 years and good friends of Corey's for... a whole lot longer than that. We've been in touch via the various wonders of technology throughout this crazy ride, but getting to hang out in person for five days was extra wonderful. This beach day was a highlight of a highlight and despite being a writer I cannot express to you in words how fabulous it was to be able to spend time with these two at this particular moment in our lives. We felt all the feels. 
• the epic scenery that is the northern coast of Lake Superior and parts of northern Ontario - note that those are two pretty different locations, but they were both gorgeous and sadly... I did not get many pictures of the scenery as I was too busy soaking it all in. Corey snapped a few scenic shots and I might add them here later, but if not go ahead and do a google image search for Agawa Bay, Neys Provincial Park, and Algonquin Park, and you'll get an idea of how spectacular the scenery we enjoyed was. In the meantime, here's a shot of sunset in the Whiteshell that I managed to snap from inside the car last night on the way home (which is Manitoba, not Ontario, but hey you're stuck with what was on my phone camera instead of Corey's).
  
  
  
• traveling with my partner - Corey and I travel very well together, it's one of the reasons we're still together after eight years. Our adventures together are a big part of why we work as a couple. After all we cut the teeth of our relationship on dropping everything and moving to Japan together, and traveling and exploring have always been mainstays in our life together. This was a small adventure when compared to many of our others, but was still an adventure, and something that we both needed and missed. It was also a good reminder that we make excellent adventure buddies, and that part of the reason we chose to try procreating was that we decided it would just be the next big adventure.

I'm certain that after two weeks of travel and not having even finished unpacking yet I am forgetting things. Pregnancy brain is great that way, and so is travel brain. But this post is sufficiently long, I'm now up to 5 pees and a lunch break since I started writing, and I'm going to go ahead and call it finished. Week 35 was wonderful and filled with lots of fabulous things.

Here is the week 35 bump pic! Taken just today, I think it shows off how swollen and tired I feel after so many days in the car, but hey, that's pregnancy for you. See you next week!

Week 34

So, week 34 totally on time and everything, even in the midst of a two week road trip. Impressive, no? Ok, well maybe not impressive, but certainly surprising. If I don't post today though, it's not happening til Monday and I have enough work to do for Monday anyway, I might as well knock it out now.

So much to say! It's been a busy week. We left on Saturday of last week and our first stop was only four hours away from home where we enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of some friends of ours who have a cabin on an small island in the middle of a lake. We were fed one of the best meals I've had in a while, offered a chance to swim and explore the island and then enjoyed some quiet socializing, complete with alcohol free beer. Which I considered a win. Sleep was a mixed bag. I spent the first half of the night thinking I had less space than I did and hanging half off the bed, which was not conducive to resting successfully. However, once I shoved my self into a more central location on the bed I was able to log some z's.

The next day brought a seven hour drive filled with gorgeous views and a lovely stop at Kakabeka Falls, but due to a late start (my bad- I slept in) we didn't get to our campsite until 10:30pm.

Kakabeka Falls, resplendent as ever.

PDA!! ;-)

Turns out my super comfy road tripping clothes are not super flattering for bump pics. Oh well. It was a chance for Corey to take a week 33 bump pic, so we took it. Flattery be damned.

Still, the drive had been lovely and scenic and my tent is super easy to set up, so we were able to curl up and go to sleep right after arriving.

Well, Corey was able to go to sleep.

I was struck with one of the nastiest bouts of heart burn I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing, and was unable to sleep at all until around 6am despite taking Benadryl (which usually knocks me out without question). That sucked. And the following day, as we got up and hit the road again, I was useless to do anything until I managed to sleep for a few hours in the car. Thank goodness I was actually able to sleep in the car at least, and then take my driving shifts afterwards. Yay for a sweet sympathetic hubby who let me sleep for a long while before I took my first driving shift! Oh, but before we hit the road we did manage to take a dip in Lake Superior, and then grab a hot shower, both of which felt wonderful and made the night of not sleeping seem pretty worth it.

The nine hours of driving that followed was hard on both of us, and we didn't get into our campsite that night until 9:30. However, we did manage to make a fire, play a few songs by it, and have a beer (or just drink a lot of water in my case) before bed. T'was lovely, and the sleep that followed was some of the best I've had in a while. Despite sleeping on two thin thermarests and cramming myself into my sleeping bag along with my pregnancy pillows, I was pretty comfortable all night, and between benadryl and exhaustion from the previous day I was able to sleep as well as I sleep in my own bed. WINNING!

The next day brought a much less refreshing swim in a tiny river, but it was also followed by a nice shower. If there's one thing I love in pregnancy (even more than usual, and I usually love them quite a bit) it's a hot shower. It's one of the few things that makes me feel comfortable and human, not for the being clean afterwards (though that's a nice perk) but for the warm massaging of my back and neck. Ohh.... it is so good. Especially when riding in the car/driving for hours at a time makes my lower back and hips hurt in a way that... damn I feel old. It's just pregnancy, this has never been an issue before, and I think I'm doing pretty well all things considered, but I really do miss that damned exercise ball. My hips and lower back definitely note the difference.

Luckily, walking still helps a lot, and after arriving in Ottawa after our last day of driving (only five hours, thankfully) we have done a fair bit of walking. Between taking Artemis for a walk along with her "cousin" Biggie on our first day, exploring the Diefenbunker on the next day, and then walking all over downtown Ottawa yesterday, we have gotten a decent amount of walking in. Enough to keep my body from totally freaking out, I think. I've had to work hard to stay hydrated though, but I've made a point of taking my nalgene with me everywhere I go and draining and refilling it often. That didn't prevent my hands and feet from swelling a bit in the heat and humidity yesterday, but it kept it to a manageable level at least.

The view from the Peace Tower in Ottawa

The Changing of the guard in front of Parliament (purely a tourist attraction, as there has never been a beefeater style guard in front of Parliament in Canada, they started the "tradition" in the 1950s, modeled after the changing of the guard in London and run it in the summers only, for tourists, once a day--fun fact: Corey did this as a summer job back when he was in University)

And Artemis and her cousin Biggie (because if Artemis is our fur baby, and Biggie is Corey's brother's fur baby, that makes them cousins right?)

Ok. Time to get real folks. There's a big TMI section coming up about all the less pleasant pregnancy symptoms I've experienced over the past week. Before we go there, for all the folks who won't read past this point, know that Speck is doing well, moving a ton, and seems to be doing everything a baby in utero is supposed to. Speck is also taking up all the room where my stomach, lungs, and digestive tract used to be, and the result is that I cannot recline without being out of breath, and I only have two modes of being: uncomfortably full or hungry enough to start eyeing people's limbs as prospective food. So, yeah, good times. There's another side effect of this that I'll get to in the next section, but...

Only read on if you are a. pregnant yourself and interested in the gory details of someone else's pregnancy, b. are considering becoming pregnant some day and want to be fully informed on all the pluses and minuses of pregnancy, c. are the kind of person who enjoys reading about other people's bodily functions because hey, humans are weird or d. are now too enticed by all the mystery of the secret TMI that you cannot stop reading even though you really want to. (If you skip the numbered list note that there's still a recent bump pic down at the bottom of the post.)

Consider yourself warned.

Alright, here we go, TMI pregnancy tidbits from the last week, in list form! 

1. Disgustingly copious vaginal discharge batman! What the hell? There is a lot of fluid coming out of my vagina that has nothing to do with urine, nothing to do with amniotic fluid (don't worry, I looked it up to make sure) and doesn't smell bad, or cause itching or anything it's just... there. A lot of it. And, while it doesn't smell so bad itself, when combined with my sweat throughout the day I can only wear pants one time before they need washing, despite going through 1-2 pairs of underwear as well. For someone who usually rewears pants a few times a week, and now only has a handful of pants that fit... this is problematic. Not cool, vagina, not cool. Sadly, from everything I've read, this is just a standard pregnancy symptom especially in the third trimester. Nothing to be done really unless I want to start wearing panty liners which, let me be perfectly clear, I DO NOT.
2. Body odor. Ugh. I struggle to find a deodorant that works at the best of times, but finally found balance with the use of a bit of teatree oil and not much else. However, now, randomly, once a week, my body decides to REEK. From what I can tell it's from hormone spikes related to baby production but it's incredibly disconcerting. I find myself trying to wash my armpits in random public bathrooms just to stay on top of it one day, and then the next day return to barely smelling like anything. So strange.
3. Constipation and diarrhea seem to be my only two forms of digestion. Yep. That's as fun as it sounds. I go from feeling like I need to poop but not being able to one day, to sitting down to pee and suddenly having to violently empty my bowels without prior warning the next. Luckily, I go back and forth between these two with enough regularity that I seem to be keeping up with a normal digestive calendar, or at least one that I don't think constitutes something worth worrying over. I basically poop every other day. My theory for why this is happening? Well, I've read that the lack of space for the digestive tract causes it to move more slowly in general, and my guess is that while I might feel the need to poop one day, I don't have enough going on to actually make progress, meanwhile, the next day there's enough build up that I suddenly need to poop whether I felt like it or not. Anyway, at least the system still works.
4. THE FUCKING CHAFING! Holy sausage limbs on a stick. What is up with the chafing? So, walking still feels really good, and is in fact one of the few ways for me to stay comfortable. However, my thighs feel such a strong urge to meld into one flesh that it no longer matters what kind of pants I wear, they meet up and rub together (or rub together through my pants) no matter what I wear, and I wind up with BLISTERS ON MY THIGHS EVERY DAY!! I am pretty pissed about this, and about to buy myself some body glide, because fuck it. I miss walking without pain. 
5. This final one isn't really TMI but I forgot to mention it earlier, so I'm throwing it in here. Swimming still feels amazing, but recently, submerging the bump feels like... well it feels like what I imagine submerging testicles feels like if you're a guy. The bump is super sensitive to temperature now, and while the rest of me is happy to fling itself into water I find myself doing the timid kid "ooh, eee, ack, argh" slow submerge every time I get into the water because some part of my brain says "DON'T SUBMERGE THE BUMP!" Which is weird, because the bump seems to be fine once I finally get it in there. Anyway, that's weird for me, and I thought I'd mention it in case anyone else was experiencing it and wanted to know they weren't alone. 

Alright, that covers the TMI for this week. Next week should include more camping and road tripping highlights as well as a report from Toronto. Here's this week's most recent bump picture. Taken on Wednesday right after a shower (with a bonus front shot too). 

Week 33

Well folks, I might just squeak this in before midnight, which means that it will have gone up on Saturday, which is pretty darn close to on time, so I’m going to call that a victory.

We are on day 1 of our 2016 road trip extravaganza! Two weeks of driving through (mostly) Northern Ontario and a combination of camping in the Canadian shield and visiting family and friends. For those who are wondering: yes, I brought my pregnancy body pillow, but I won’t have a report on how it works for sleeping in the tent until after tomorrow night, so you’ll just have to wait for the week 34 update to find out how that went.

So, as it’s a bit early for reports on our road trip (which can currently be summed up as, we came, we saw, we ate food, we swam, we went to bed) I’ll just get you caught up on how the past week has been.

I have been struggling to get as much work done as I need to with the amount of energy I have in a day. It’s not as bad as it was back in yonder days of the first trimester, when just getting up and starting my day was enough of a drain that it required an immediate nap. But, napping is becoming a daily activity again, and I’m low on energy for the rest of the day if I miss out. And, with the amount of work I have, and the deadlines I’m currently working with (one self imposed, the other on contract) I need more hours in a day when I can be productive. But, I’m making it work for now, and hoping I can keep it going through the end of August.

Meanwhile, in the land of Speck: we had a midwife appointment on Wednesday, and Corey came too, because it was the appointment where we got the lowdown on all the details of giving birth in the birth center, and what that means compared to a hospital birth or home birth etc. Corey was just as drawn in by how beautiful the birth center is as I was, and our current plan A is that we will be birthing there. 

Of course we also had a normal midwife appointment as well, and Speck is doing well, seems to be head down (yay! fingers crossed that remains true), had a heartbeat of 135 (which is Speck’s normal), and my fundal height is 32 centimeters, so right on track. My blood pressure was normal (although a bit high for me, but I attribute that to the excitement of the appointment in which we get to hear all about giving birth in the birth center… also known as, SHIT GETTING REAL). As we were driving home from that appointment Corey said, “so, have you considered the possibility that you could go into early labor on this trip?” (Referring to our road trip.) 

Yep. Sure have. But I’m not about to keep us from having a nice vacation just on the off chance Speck decides to show up early. 

It continues to be difficult to get comfortable, sitting down in chairs that aren’t completely upright makes me feel like my stomach is inside my lungs and breathing and eating seem like activities that take up too much space. Walking still feels really good, and laying down is a close second. Sitting on my exercise ball feels awesome. I briefly considered trying to crush it into the car in order to bring it with us on this trip. Then I realized that was idiotic. Still, I thought about it.

Swimming feels great  and I was happy to do some more today, and looking forward to swimming again tomorrow. Yay swimming. All the swimming. So much swimming. May we swim every day for the next two weeks! 

Speck moves around a lot on any given day and seems to be working hard to drive elbows and knees into all the nooks and crannies of my uterus. I’m not sure how exciting that world is to explore, but Speck seems to be leaving no stone unturned. A+ for your sense of adventure Speck, now please kindly remove your hand from my cervix. Thank you. 

I get out of breath at the weirdest times. Standing up from the couch, for example, winds me terribly. While swimming for 750 meters or running 2km does nothing of the kind. Pregnancy is weird. 

Well, driving for 4 hours after not sleeping particularly well last night seems to be finally catching up with me, and my eyes are fluttering shut as I write this, so I think this is where I will leave you. Corey and I haven’t managed to squeeze in a bump shot yet, but I’ll try to get some pics of me in my pregnant bikini clad glory over the next few days to post in next week’s entry. For now I leave you with my Wednesday bump shot. 

Oh and PS. HICCOUGHS. All the damned time. Speck is a hiccough machine. Kinda cute. ;-)

Week 32

Ok. So, Monday. That's one day earlier than last week. A nice careful progression towards actually posting on Friday or Saturday again, right? Right.

Right.

Well, week 32 was busy and full of non-pregnancy related importance but I'll try to focus on the pregnancy related bits.

And week 33 is already so busy that I really only have time to do bullet points for this post. So here goes...

• Corey and I had our anniversary last weekend and enjoyed a nice meal to mark five years of marriage and eight years of being together. The only downside was not having a nice beer to go with the meal. Le sigh... 
• Despite how busy I've been with work endeavors I have managed to get plenty of walking in, along with a bit of running, swimming and hiking. This makes me feel pretty good. And, to make my walking go a bit farther I've downloaded an app that makes donations to an animal shelter of your choice just for walking your dog (or walking without a dog). I selected the no kill shelter where I adopted Artemis and this makes me happy. (Now all I have to do is remember to turn the damned thing on before I walk the dog. I'm currently batting about 500 in that regard. Freakin' pregnancy brain.) 
• The swimming is so good that I feel it deserves its own bullet point. I once more went to a nearby manmade lake that is about 750 meters long and swam the length of it. It felt damned good, and this time I remembered to bring my goggles so I actually swam freestyle for most of it (mixed with breast stroke for sighting) and it was glorious. I would do that every day if I could. (And if I were willing to bike the 30km each way to get there and back and I could do that... and prepregnancy me would have enjoyed that bike ride but now... I'm not so sure.) Anyway, it's a nice treat when I can get there. 
• Despite all that exercise, I still feel like I'm getting... fluffy. I miss having distinctive arm muscles, and I miss being able to do pull ups... Still, I'm pretty happy with my overall fitness level, and grateful for the amount of physical activity I can still manage. Fingers crossed I can keep it up all the way until Speck's arrival. 
• This past week marks the first time I've really used pregnancy as an excuse to not do things I would normally do. For one, I didn't bother dressing up to go to a medieval fair even though I have the costuming for it. The thought of trying on yet more of my old clothes and not having them fit was too sad, and besides, it was hot with a possibility of rain in the future and I thought, eh, fuck it. Episode two of this was parking in a paid parking lot with a minimum two hour payment and not paying because a. I was only going to be there for 15 minutes and it was the middle of the night anyway and b. I'm pregnant, fuck you people, it's 11pm and I don't feel like tripling the distance of my walk just because you have a parking monopoly. (Hormones may or may not have entered into that last one.) 
• Corey went on a crib buying spree last week. He bought two cribs (used) one of which he returned, and we now have a crib. Holy shit. We have a crib. Which is where babies sleep. We are having a baby. Holy shit! How did this happen?!? 
• I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting stuff, but that's all I remember at the moment, and I have a ton of work to get done as well as house guest, so I really need to get going. I'll leave you with a bump picture of course (this one actually taken by Corey) and will endeavor to include all that I've missed in the week 33 blog. This pregnancy is flying by now. Speck will be here in no time. That is both exciting and pants shitting. 

Bonus dog who didn't feel like getting out of the shot. Also, hurray pre-preggo pants that still fit (granted they were huge before pregnancy and strictly purchased as working outside pants, but whatever, I'll take it)!

Week 31

Welcome to the week 31 post, yes, a few days late, but really just under a week after the last post went up, so I hope you'll excuse it...

Let's start with last week's midwife appointment, shall we?

The appointment went pretty well. My midwife and I talked about music for a good 20 minutes and then got down to the business of checking on Speck.

Speck's heart rate was 130 which, as you'll know if you have an excellent memory for numbers mentioned in previous posts, is just about the same as it always is, so that's good.

My fundal height was at 30cm which is exactly right for being between week 30 and week 31 (my appointment was last Wednesday). So yay! My uterus is the appropriate size. Huzzah! (Really this isn't that big a deal, but it's a good guideline that things are continuing as they should.)

Speck was moving lots and totally batting at the doppler wand and the midwife's hands. Speck is moving lots in general, and that's good news too. Basically, all is well with Speck.

My blood pressure was 90/60 which is still in the normal range, but is the low end of the normal range bordering on not normal. At least we don't have to worry about me having hypertension. Keep in mind my blood pressure is generally pretty low (the beginning of this pregnancy marked some of the highest BP I've ever registered) but I can't remember ever getting anything as low as 90/60 before. My midwife was not at all concerned, but I wonder if low bp is part of why I've been feeling so sluggish lately.

My midwife drew blood just to check out all my levels (which hand't been checked since the first trimester) and I already have results back and everything checks out in the normal range. However, my iron is on the low end of normal, so she suggested adjusting my diet to incorporate more iron and to be wary of eating foods that will inhibit iron absorption in the same meal as the iron heavy foods. So, you know, no big deal, but something to monitor.

And now, I would like to take a moment to appreciate the woman who draws blood at the lab that I usually go to. She is a master of blood drawing. Having your blood drawn by her is a complete non-event. You sit down, she preps you, you look away for a second and when you turn back she has filled five vials with blood and slapped a bandaid on you and you wonder when she managed to do all that. Not so my midwife. Of course, it is understandable that she wouldn't be as accomplished at it, her job, after all, is to do many things related to prenatal health and only one of those is taking blood. She probably only takes blood a handful of times a week, if that. Meanwhile, the lady at the lab probably takes blood close to 50 times a day, maybe more. She's really fast. I bet she could fit in even more than that. I don't really know, but... Anyway, I understand why there's a difference... but I didn't really appreciate that difference until my midwife spent a minute and a half prodding around in my arm trying to find my vein after stabbing it for the second time and claiming it rolled away. It was only weird and uncomfortable until she pulled the needle out and then it was suddenly (but briefly) painful, and then it bruised for a few days. It wasn't a big deal, but it made miss my lab tech.

So thank you, wherever you are, lovely lab tech who generally takes my blood, you are wonderful and deserve serious accolades for being good at your job. You probably do other things too, but I appreciate your mastery at blood removal. It is awesome and I now miss it.

Ok. Right. Probably no one cares about that but me, but it was a downside I didn't expect. (Though weighed against the convenience of the midwife doing stuff in house and still getting results back super fast it might be a wash.)

Meanwhile, the day after my midwife appointment I met a pregnant friend and we went to get Oh Doughnuts again. This was my second time to this wonderful land of magic, kittens, unicorns, sugar, and the short road to diabetes. However, you will be happy to know that I branched out and didn't simply get a repeat of the two wonderful flavors I tried last time. (Though to be fair I totally would have gotten the lemon merengue again, but it wasn't in the flavor rotation for the day.) So, I ventured into two new flavors and the results were mixed. I tried the French Toast doughnut and the Raspberry Curd doughnut and had mixed experiences with both. The french toast had an absolutely fabulous frosting, but the filling was a "vegan cinnamon cream" which had a perfectly acceptable flavor, but the texture was that of custard that had congealed. My guess is that the vegan custard served hot is still a good texture but once it has had a chance to cool all bets are off. Still, the overall texture of the doughnut (which was soft, chewy, and delightful) combined with the texture and flavor of the icing, made the overall experience quite pleasant despite the dubious texture of the filling. Meanwhile, the raspberry curd itself was fantastic, a smooth tangy curd that was the exact right texture for my palate but, sadly, it was wrapped in a perfectly plain doughnut covered in granulated sugar that was... fine but nothing special. So, in Virginia's ideal world, these two doughnuts would actually be combined, into something called raspberry french toast. That would totally rock my socks off.

Hmm... that somehow turned into a detailed doughnut review. Weird. The good news is, if you live in Winnipeg you can go check out the fabulous selection at Oh Doughnuts yourself and then you don't have to listen to me ramble on and on about it.

Ahem.

Next topic! So, I mentioned that Speck is moving a lot these days, and yet for a while every time I would want to show Corey the crazy spectacle that is my abdomen looking like a scene from Alien just before things get gory, Speck would stop moving as soon as I called Corey's attention to it. Well, the other night (maybe Thursday night? I can't quite recall) Corey finally got to see the shark circling my belly button. I have yet to successfully capture video of it, but Corey and I got to lay on the couch and be mesmerized by Speck looking as though s/he was trying to break on through to the other side. Which was a. cool, because it's always neat to watch, b. vindicating, because it felt like Speck had been gas-lighting me and Corey thought I was nutzo, and c. fun family time!

In completely unrelated news, I kind of got to use my budding hypnobirthing skills the other day because... *warning TMI coming up* I had a sudden need to poop and when I sat down to get to business it was suddenly really painful, but then I thought, "Fuck you, pain! Relax and breathe, body!" and lo and behold, my body relaxed, the pain went away completely and everything was just fine.

I found this incredibly reassuring, because it was a solid example of mind over matter which is all that hypnobirthing is. And, I know that birth is going to be quite a different level from "painful bowel movement" but, I've actually heard a number of women describe it as "the biggest, most painful shit of your life." So, I am taking this episode as a good sign that hypnobirthing will help me get through labor in a calm and positive fashion. Yay confidence boost!

And finally, on Saturday, Corey and I swung by a local used children's stuff store and then promptly ran away vowing never to return if at all possible. I, for some reason, thought that a consignment kids place might be less overwhelming than a "baby store" but I was completely wrong. The place was jam packed with stuff, there was barely space to turn around, and after we quickly ascertained that they didn't have any cloth diapering supplies, we shuffled awkwardly to the nearest place where turning around was possible, then tucked tail, and ran.

Apparently being 31 weeks pregnant has done absolutely nothing to change my hatred of baby clothes. Oh well. Luckily, it seems that my sister in law is sending some stuff our way, so hopefully I'll be able to put off buying any myself for a while longer.

And I think that covers it for this week. I'll try to post next week's blog by Monday at the latest, but I might even post it on Friday or Saturday if I have time. We shall see.

Here's this week's bump pic (Corey is failing at his job as bump photographer so it's another selfie for you). And, as a bonus, below the bump pic is an awesome wild flower I saw on my dog walk yesterday.

Week 30

Well, this post is late, but then, I warned that it would be in last week's post. After all, I was fairly certain that volunteering for the Winnipeg Folk Festival combined with hosting my wonderful cousin for the weekend would ultimately result in not having time to blog. (Though to be fair to my cousin, volunteering alone would have led to me not having time to blog over the weekend.)

Yesterday was spent recovering from the Folk Festival and today... well, today was spent trying to express in the written word why the Black Lives Matter movement is important. After writing that fairly lengthy blog post, I didn't have the energy to get this one written and up by the end of the day. So, it will ultimately be past midnight by the time I finish this, and I may delay posting it until tomorrow (Wednesday) just to avoid the middle of the night death knell that results in posting something when the rest of the world is asleep.

So, a recap of week 30 (possibly squeaking into week 31 because Folk Fest went from Thursday to Sunday and leaving parts of it out to cover next week just seems silly)...

Well, I know we usually save the bump photos for later, but Corey took last week's bump picture after I'd posted last week's blog entry, so we'll go ahead and start with that. This was taken last Monday:

The angle is a bit weird because Corey was standing in a different location than usual (closer than he usually stands and thus had to angle the camera in order to get me fully in the shot) but BONUS: Artemis decided to stick her adorable mug in the shot. You're welcome. ;-)

So, Monday was the day after we returned from our adventures four hours north of Winnipeg in a land of no internet (blissful if you ask me), enough mosquitos to fell a moose (substantially less on the blissful side of things), and three hours of tubing down a slow shallow river with assorted beverages and good company (back to blissful since I stocked virgin mojitos and managed to only lightly sunburn the bump rather than full-on extra-crispy myself). In other words it was overall a good time and while I found sleeping in a bed that is not the one I'm used to far less comfortable than usual (once upon a time I could sleep anywhere without complaint) I enjoyed getting away from the city for a few days. 

We returned home Sunday evening, and I spent that evening and the following Monday promoting the end of a four day sale on my book and compulsively checking sales stats and rankings. Tuesday was largely spent updating my Patreon campaign with new chapters of my Victoria Marmot webserial, as well as dealing with the tail end of the aforementioned sale. Wednesday was spent in a frenzy of cleaning in preparation for the arrival of my cousin and then spent hanging out with said cousin. 

Thursday through Sunday were spent attending/volunteering at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. So, here's where things get a little crazy. Folk Fest is pretty tiring even when I'm not pregnant. This is my third year volunteering and between spending all day in the sun, being on my feet for each of my 10 hour shifts (only two of those- so not terrible), and not getting home in time to get enough sleep before getting up to do it all again the next day, I find the weekend wonderful but exhausting. This year I added extra sleep deprivation due to pregnancy discomfort to the mix, just for funsies, and the result was a slight reduction in my overall enjoyment of the festival. I was a fair bit grumpier by the end of the weekend than I would usually be, and quite a bit less willing to stay past the end of my shift than I normally would have been. (Most of which would normally be soothed by a beer or two at the end of the night, but that wasn't really an option this time around...)

Still, I had some wonderful moments of enjoying music, spending time with friends, and meeting some favorite musicians to make the weekend overall a lovely experience, plus I got to share the whole thing with my cousin, which was truly lovely. Speck also seemed to enjoy the music, and took quite a few opportunities to 'dance.' Seriously, Speck was moving rhythmically to the music from what I could tell, but I'm willing to admit it might have just been my perception of the movement. 

Ok. So all of that was basically just a long way of saying being pregnant made me grumpier and less tolerant of shenanigans over the weekend, but I still managed to have enough energy for all of the running around I did including the day where, according to the pedometer in my phone, I walked over 15km (that's over 9 miles) in the course of the day. And, oddity of oddities, aside from having sore feet at the end of my 10 hour shifts (spent entirely standing and walking) I felt much better all weekend for all the walking I did than I have on weekends when I've been more sedentary. Walking and staying busy is still making me feel way better than not doing so, and that makes me happy.

So yay for still having energy so far in the third trimester! Of course, the follow up to that is that yesterday, after sleeping for eight hours and then taking my cousin to the airport in the afternoon, I came home and slept for another two hours, and then slept for another eight hours last night. 

Today, I didn't have a nap, but I did manage to eat more than half of an extra large pizza this afternoon. 

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that over the past few weeks I have felt a lot of strange sluggishness and difficulty catching my breath when sitting in a chair or reclined on the couch. Luckily, lying flat still feels good, as does sitting on the exercise ball, as does standing up and/or walking... but resting is getting hard to do without getting fully horizontal.

Running was on hold during family visit/Folk Fest time, but I hope to start up again this week if the weather decides to cooperate (and maybe even if it doesn't). 

I'm struggling to jump to paragraphs with any sort of reasonable segue at this point (so much so that I gave up last night and decided to finish this today- Wednesday) so I'm just going to say fuck it and start the next paragraph without any introduction, and probably all subsequent paragraphs as well. Please forgive my seeming non sequiturs. 

So lately Speck has been moving a ton more than in the second trimester. Instead of being active for 30 minutes a couple of times a day (and particularly at night) I can now feel Speck move a bit a few times an hour or more. Which leads to constant reminders that Speck is there, and also to me learning more about Speck's personality, especially as Speck seems to react to certain stimuli outside the womb. For example, Speck totally seemed to be dancing during parts of folk fest, which seems about right considering Speck's parentage. Also, Speck pushes back at anything that prods her/him, such as doppler wands and midwife hands that are trying to assess how Speck is doing. All of this gives me small insights into what Speck's personality might be, and it makes this whole creating a new human things seem more real than it ever has. This has led to two very mixed emotions on my part:

1. Speck is totally a person in my mind who I already care about quite a bit and talk to periodically and... if anything were to happen to Speck I would be completely devastated. I have definitely bonded with this kiddo already.

2. HOLY FUCKING SHITBALLS WE MADE A NEW PERSON THAT WE'RE GOING TO MEET IN 9.5 WEEKS!!!!!! I AM SO NOT READY TO BE A PARENT. HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT WHAT HAVE WE GOTTEN OURSELVES INTO!?!?!?!?!?

Ahem. In other words, I'm torn between already feeling pretty attached to Speck and feeling like I might have ruined my own life, and nothing will ever be the same.

Now don't worry. Feeling number one trumps feeling number two for most moments of any given day, but I just want to make it clear that even this far along I am still feeling major moments of doubt and concern. I have decided that this is perfectly fine because a. I'm not spiraling into a pool of negative thinking, I'm just having brief moments of "oh holy crap!" and b. I don't think I'm alone in this. So, don't worry you don't have to write in with your sunshine and unicorns and tell me that "having a baby is something you'll never regret," yadda yadda. I get it. Intellectually, I understand, and I even have moments of thinking how cool this is rather than wondering what kind of drugs we were taking that made us think it was a good idea, so I think it'll all be fine. But read the fine print at the top of this blog again: there will be HONESTY. So there you have it. If I'm 100% honest, which I'm a fan of, I admit to still having moments of severe doubt. They tend to be brief, but they are totally there and I am willing to admit to them.

Mostly though, I think this is just going to be the next big adventure and probably a pretty cool one for the most part. 

To that end, I had a moment when my cousin was visiting where I for some reason got excited about cloth diapering supplies and I decided to go through the stuff that I bought at the sale a while back. Turns out we got a pretty good cloth diaper stash and when I went through it I may or may not have practiced folding a "pre-fold" diaper to fit a baby. My cousin wanted to take a picture me doing so, but I wouldn't let her. Shh.... don't tell anyone. I have a rep to keep. 

And in the final bit of randomness this week I've realized that it's time to buy some shit. I have made a list of the things we'll actually need for Speck's arrival and it's about time to pick some of that up so that we're not adding that to the shit we have to do when Speck is already here and we're just trying to stay above water with sleep deprivation and "Holy shit, did I just kill the baby? I think I killed the baby. Is it breathing? I didn't even touch it. How did it die?" *baby cries* "Oh thank, Gwen! The baby is still alive."

So we will be heading out to the local gently used baby items store sometime soonish to get a few items, or at least to start pricing things out. 

And I think that's it for this week. Chances are good that the week 31 post will happen on Saturday or Sunday, since Friday is probably a little too soon after this one.

Here is this week's bumpie, taken on Monday (and a bonus front facing shot just 'cause):