Braxton-Hicks?

For the past two days, I've felt what I think could possibly be Braxton-Hicks contractions. I'm not really sure though. It sorta just feels like the baby is moving and then pushing against my belly.

When it happens, I try to poke at my belly in different places, but it is pretty hard and difficult to push my finger in. It's not like it's hard in just one or two places, but my entire belly is hard.

It doesn't hurt at all; it just feels a little weird.

I'm 33 weeks and 3 days, so I still have several weeks to go (six and a half to be exact). If they are Braxton-Hicks, hopefully my uterus is getting a lot of good exercise to prepare for a perfect labor any time after 37 weeks. :)

Could my long runs be history for now?

Sometime last week, I think it may have been Monday night, I had a horrible night. I couldn't sleep. When I did sleep, I woke up every couple of hours extremely stiff. When I got up the next morning, I had some lower back pain whenever I stepped on my left foot. It wasn't unbearable, but it was definitely there.

Saturday I got up bright and early to attempt a 12 mile run. It had been two weeks since I had attempted this distance, as the prior week had been when I was spotting and did not run.

I drove over to the trail, my favorite long-run spot. It has bathrooms at least every 2.5 miles, which is helpful for someone whose bowels don't work like normal and for someone who has a baby pressing on her bladder. I can usually make it 2.5 miles before I absolutely have to go.

I began my run and everything seemed fine. When I stopped at the bathroom after the first 2.5 miles, my lower back pain was starting to flare up. It was still manageable, and actually felt a little better once I started running.

By 7.1 miles, the back pain had gotten so bad, I had to stop and walk. I ate my Lara Bar as I walked the next mile. Once I got back to the parking lot of the trail, the pain was bad enough that I didn't feel comfortable running.

I walked the remaining 2.5 miles to my car. As I was walking, I started to feel a popping in my back as well whenever I stepped on my left foot.

I called Rob to see if he could find a chiropractor open on Saturdays. However, with it being a holiday weekend, we didn't have any luck. The pain subsided throughout the day and was barely noticeable on Sunday.

I ran my 3 miles Monday morning, and the pain came back after the run. It wasn't as bad as Saturday, but it was definitely hurting.

I may be stuck with 3 milers from here on out. :(

Dropped??

Yesterday the third person in three days told me that it looked like the baby had dropped. I looked in the mirror this morning before getting into the shower, and he does look a little lower. But I've always been carrying him pretty low compared to other pregnant people I have seen, so I never really thought about it.

It has been easier to bend over this week to pick up the paper in the driveway, and I think it might be because he isn't as close to my ribs. I can't really close my legs comfortably anymore either. So maybe he has dropped.

If he has, as long as it's his little head that's dropped down into the pelvis and not his bottom, I'm happy with it. I still have over seven weeks left to go, but maybe this will give him a little more room to grow than before.

Losing Weight?

We had our appointment with our homebirth midwife yesterday. Last week at Kaiser, I weighted 145 lbs. This week I weigh 144.5 lbs. Not a lot of weight loss, and the weight was measured on different scales, but if I'm supposed to be gaining a pound a week at this point, I should be at 146. Also, when she measured me, I was measuring a centimeter behind - 31 cm instead of 32 cm.

She didn't seem too concerned, although she pointed it out. She said sometimes, once they descend into the pelvic bone, they will measure shorter just because it's harder to get an accurate measurement.

I had some glucose in my urine again, but my blood pressure was 108/68. Still no major concerns.

We talked about water birth, and I'm officially convinced to purchase the birthing pool. Even if I decide not to use it at the time, I'll have it to use as a kiddie pool when Baby Simon is old enough, and at least I'll have the option. It isn't very expensive anyway.

We set our home visit appointment for August 4th at 4pm. Everyone who is planning on being at the birth should try to attend. I know this won't be completely possible for those who are from out of town that may come, but it is an opportunity for Debi to meet everyone and for everyone to meet her. Also, if anyone has any questions or concerns about the homebirth situation, she is welcome to answer anything.

So Uncomfortable!

It seems like all I do these days is complain, but I am just so uncomfortable. My little body can't take much more of this. I'm 32 weeks along today, so I still have 8 weeks left.

For the past two nights I have woken up every two hours. My body is super stiff and my back hurts like crazy. I roll over and change positions and try to go back to sleep. Going back to sleep usually isn't too hard, but then I wake up again after about two more hours stiff and hurting again.

Once I get up and move, the stiffness goes away, but today my backache never left me. So I'm sitting at work with a sore back wondering if I will ever be the same again.

All I want to do is sleep. I know it's just going to get worse when the baby gets here. Can't I have a break before he comes?

We finished painting the nursery walls on Saturday evening. After inspecting the dry paint last night, we were satisfied with the job and took the tape off the walls. Most of the walls were fine, but in a few spots, the paint started coming off with the tape. ARGH!

The trim looks pretty bad. The previous owners did a horrible job of taping when they painted that ugly brownish color, so a lot of the trim has that brownish color on part of it. At some point, maybe during maternity leave, I will have to tackle that. This time around, I am going to go one section at a time and take my time doing it.

Next Monday the carpet cleaners come to clean and sanitize the carpets. Then we'll set up the nursery.

Spotting again?

Last night was our last night of Bradley classes. It's been ten weeks of two-hour Friday night classes. We learned everything from the anatomy of a pregnant woman to how to care for a newborn. It was quite informative.

There were four couples in our class, and after class we all went out to eat at a little Mexican place not too far from the class site. Everyone had their disgusting looking Mexican dishes, and I had a side of french fries. We had eaten dinner before class as we usually do anyway, so I really wasn't that hungry.

On the way home, I had to pee really bad. I had finished my 32 oz jug of water at the restaurant and it hit me. The baby was moving around like crazy, kicking me in any organ he could reach, including my bladder. When we got home, after I relieved myself, I had blood on the toilet paper. Not again?!?

It has been awhile now since I have spotted. I think the last time I spotted was in the second trimester. Now that it's the third trimester, and we're close to the end, I just don't want to have any complications that would cause me to have a hospital birth.

It wasn't a lot of blood. Not enough to fill a pad or anything. It was bright red. I put a panty liner on to see how much spotting I was having. Over the night, there was definitely more, but now this morning I can't see it on my toilet paper anymore. I'm taking this as a good sign. But I decided not to run this morning due to the spotting. :( I'll be monitoring it the rest of the day.

Kaiser Appointment

Last Saturday, while doing our butterfly exercises before bed, I had a bunch of creamy discharge. I didn't have any other problems, and there was no spotting that went with it, so I decided to wait until my Tuesday appointment to ask about it.

We saw the Kaiser midwife yesterday for our bi-weekly appointment. Everything is going well. Thankfully, she didn't even ask about the GD test, so I didn't have to decline it.

The baby is head down. We told her that we suspected that he might be breech because of all the movement down low. She felt around a little, then "cheated" and used the ultrasound machine. The baby's head is definitely down, so we're back to the optimal fetal positioning we need to deliver. There's still time for him to move around though.

Rob is convinced that all the different things that we did over the past week was what turned him. I played music with my headphones near my pelvis. I put an ice cream carton and bag of frozen peas on the top of my stomach. I did some pelvic lifts. I don't know exactly what did it, but I'm just happy that I don't have to worry about it at this point.

I did have some traces of sugar in my urine, which is a symptom of gestational diabetes, but the midwife said there wasn't much, and it could have been because I had recently eaten. My blood pressure was 112/74, so she said she wasn't worried.

I asked about the discharge. She did a vaginal exam and took a sample. After testing it, she said that I have bacterial vaginosis. She explained that it was an imbalance in the good and bad bacteria that normally lives in the vagina. She said it's very common in pregnancy, because of the hormones. It isn't going to hurt the baby at all. She gave us the option of taking antibiotics or just waiting it out and eating yogurt every day. We chose the yogurt option. Even if the antibiotics have been proven to be safe for the baby, I'm not taking anything if I can help it.