Swell(ing)
I've been so proud of how I'm doing with this pregnancy thing. There are so many weird, negative symptoms I've read about that haven't applied to me. Worsening eyesight. Heart burn. (Although I have had some minor acid reflux.) Visible veins. Substantial weight gain. Pregnancy brain. Clumsiness. Increase in body temperature. Back pain. Restless leg syndrome.
Look. I managed four days at Disney World with none of this. I've felt beyond lucky to not have to deal with a lot of this stuff.
I was especially happy to not have to deal with swollen feet and ankles. That's such a visible symptom. And apparently once your feet grow, they may never return to their original size. The muscles in your feet relax so much they change the placement of the ligaments. (I think. Something like that. It sounds like what happens.) I bought two pairs of shoes in TN, after much deliberating, and I don't want them to not be able to fit just after I buy them.
But most of all, I've been happy with how comfortable I've been, and pretty much no matter what. No problems walking around TN or Disney. Last week, I worked at a camp, 8-5, Monday-Friday. There's very little sitting, no break, no real down time. I had 20 kids in each camp ranging from 6-12. It's hectic but a lot of fun. (I do Star Wars and Harry Potter camps, and though there can be some rowdy boys and complaints of how unfair certain things can be, I've also had kids say it's the best of their lives, so that makes it worthwhile.) My feet hurt, and I was pretty tired afterwards, but that really could have been the same if I wasn't pregnant.
This past Saturday, I went to a picnic with some friends. They were happy to see how well I'm doing, and I was happy to show off how slender my ankles still were. All this was around noon.
At 4, I was standing under a tent, listening to a bit of a speech, and I started rolling my ankles just for a stretch. I noticed they felt a little odd. I looked down - aaaaaaand my ankles were gone. All I had were big blobs of flesh rolling into balls on the end of my legs. UGH. Absolutely gross looking and weird feeling. And I was so disappointed! I was hoping to really avoid all the nastiness. Why did I suddenly have to become normal? That's no fun.
The next day, my feet were looking somewhat better, but still not great. I went to another picnic that day, and I felt absolutely awful all day. I could not get comfortable. Not sitting or standing or walking or reclining. Everyone I mentioned this to blamed the heat, but I wasn't feeling hot. I just felt heavy. It's hard to explain how my stomach was feeling. It wasn't nausea or anything like that, but just pretty major discomfort.
I explained the feelings to an Infertility group online. One woman said she's been feeling that way for the last 2-3 weeks, and she's about 2 weeks ahead of me. Oh joy. Don't I hope this keeps up for the forseeable future. Another person said I might just need to take it easy for a few days.
I'm not big on taking it easy, though. I feel guilty most of the time when I sit around and do nothing. Which is kind of weird since reading and writing are some of my favorite pasttimes, and those are pretty chill things to do. And I did have one day in Florida where I was able to lay around in my pajamas for hours and not feel guilty. I need to tap back into that.
Plus, official (well, internet official) advice for swollen feet and ankles is not too much sitting and not too much standing. So I guess more walking? Although that seems to result in some aching feet and swelling ankles, too. We were taking nice long walks before camp, going for over an hour, and I was looking forward to getting back into that, but I guess not. Thirty minutes seems to be about my limit now, and even my comfy flip flops are kind of digging into the top of my feet.
The swelling does decrease somewhat at the end of every day. Jon has been really great at massaging my feet, which I really appreciate.
As I'm typing this, I'm coming to the end of a day that was fine and dandy in the first half, but I felt uncomfortable and completely unmotivated in the second half. I guess I just have to take every day as it comes now.
Oh, and it feels like Baby Girl is using my innards as a trampoline. I was told that as she gets bigger and has less space in there, I'd feel her moving less. That certainly hasn't happened yet. She still is quite the dancer, which I still enjoy. And we know she's growing fine. When I went to the doctor two weeks ago, we asked if we were going to get that prescription for our ultrasound to make sure everything is okay. He said no; I'm measuring "perfectly," so no need to see her again. We are super excited that she's growing well but disappointed not to get to see her again until she comes out.
Which is in about six weeks. That's just crazy. To think of where we started a year ago, with phone calls to a fertility clinic, and now we're six weeks away from having this baby. This is our last calendar month without her in our lives.
Still not nervous about it.
Except for maybe when we go to Buy Buy Baby. We went yesterday to finally order our crib. First of all, damn, I wish we had gone earlier because it's going to take about six weeks for the one we want to come in. That puts us right around baby day. Good timing. At least she won't be sleeping in the crib for a little while, so it's not that big a deal. But I can just see the store calling us as I'm going into labor to tell us it's arrived. Just to add to the chaos.
We also bought a gliding arm chair to put in the nursery. We got lucky with that; the huge chair we picked out was the most comfy and also on the biggest sale. Nice.
But there's too much choice on everything in that store. Luckily Jon and I liked the same crib, so it didn't take us too long to pick that one. Then we started looking at crib mattresses. Turns out there are two major different types, and we had done none of the research on that. When the woman who was helping us was asking us about coil vs. foam like we should know what she was talking about, I felt so ignorant. We went home and did our research and picked out what we wanted, but that's how buying almost everything feels. Each item to put on the registry is a miniresearch project in itself. Why is there so much dang choice? How much stuff does a baby need?
Honestly, we know the answer is not much and stores like this are way overselling stuff.
Well. More research and purchasing on the way.
Look. I managed four days at Disney World with none of this. I've felt beyond lucky to not have to deal with a lot of this stuff.
I was especially happy to not have to deal with swollen feet and ankles. That's such a visible symptom. And apparently once your feet grow, they may never return to their original size. The muscles in your feet relax so much they change the placement of the ligaments. (I think. Something like that. It sounds like what happens.) I bought two pairs of shoes in TN, after much deliberating, and I don't want them to not be able to fit just after I buy them.
But most of all, I've been happy with how comfortable I've been, and pretty much no matter what. No problems walking around TN or Disney. Last week, I worked at a camp, 8-5, Monday-Friday. There's very little sitting, no break, no real down time. I had 20 kids in each camp ranging from 6-12. It's hectic but a lot of fun. (I do Star Wars and Harry Potter camps, and though there can be some rowdy boys and complaints of how unfair certain things can be, I've also had kids say it's the best of their lives, so that makes it worthwhile.) My feet hurt, and I was pretty tired afterwards, but that really could have been the same if I wasn't pregnant.
This past Saturday, I went to a picnic with some friends. They were happy to see how well I'm doing, and I was happy to show off how slender my ankles still were. All this was around noon.
At 4, I was standing under a tent, listening to a bit of a speech, and I started rolling my ankles just for a stretch. I noticed they felt a little odd. I looked down - aaaaaaand my ankles were gone. All I had were big blobs of flesh rolling into balls on the end of my legs. UGH. Absolutely gross looking and weird feeling. And I was so disappointed! I was hoping to really avoid all the nastiness. Why did I suddenly have to become normal? That's no fun.
The next day, my feet were looking somewhat better, but still not great. I went to another picnic that day, and I felt absolutely awful all day. I could not get comfortable. Not sitting or standing or walking or reclining. Everyone I mentioned this to blamed the heat, but I wasn't feeling hot. I just felt heavy. It's hard to explain how my stomach was feeling. It wasn't nausea or anything like that, but just pretty major discomfort.
I explained the feelings to an Infertility group online. One woman said she's been feeling that way for the last 2-3 weeks, and she's about 2 weeks ahead of me. Oh joy. Don't I hope this keeps up for the forseeable future. Another person said I might just need to take it easy for a few days.
I'm not big on taking it easy, though. I feel guilty most of the time when I sit around and do nothing. Which is kind of weird since reading and writing are some of my favorite pasttimes, and those are pretty chill things to do. And I did have one day in Florida where I was able to lay around in my pajamas for hours and not feel guilty. I need to tap back into that.
Plus, official (well, internet official) advice for swollen feet and ankles is not too much sitting and not too much standing. So I guess more walking? Although that seems to result in some aching feet and swelling ankles, too. We were taking nice long walks before camp, going for over an hour, and I was looking forward to getting back into that, but I guess not. Thirty minutes seems to be about my limit now, and even my comfy flip flops are kind of digging into the top of my feet.
The swelling does decrease somewhat at the end of every day. Jon has been really great at massaging my feet, which I really appreciate.
As I'm typing this, I'm coming to the end of a day that was fine and dandy in the first half, but I felt uncomfortable and completely unmotivated in the second half. I guess I just have to take every day as it comes now.
Oh, and it feels like Baby Girl is using my innards as a trampoline. I was told that as she gets bigger and has less space in there, I'd feel her moving less. That certainly hasn't happened yet. She still is quite the dancer, which I still enjoy. And we know she's growing fine. When I went to the doctor two weeks ago, we asked if we were going to get that prescription for our ultrasound to make sure everything is okay. He said no; I'm measuring "perfectly," so no need to see her again. We are super excited that she's growing well but disappointed not to get to see her again until she comes out.
Which is in about six weeks. That's just crazy. To think of where we started a year ago, with phone calls to a fertility clinic, and now we're six weeks away from having this baby. This is our last calendar month without her in our lives.
Still not nervous about it.
Except for maybe when we go to Buy Buy Baby. We went yesterday to finally order our crib. First of all, damn, I wish we had gone earlier because it's going to take about six weeks for the one we want to come in. That puts us right around baby day. Good timing. At least she won't be sleeping in the crib for a little while, so it's not that big a deal. But I can just see the store calling us as I'm going into labor to tell us it's arrived. Just to add to the chaos.
We also bought a gliding arm chair to put in the nursery. We got lucky with that; the huge chair we picked out was the most comfy and also on the biggest sale. Nice.
But there's too much choice on everything in that store. Luckily Jon and I liked the same crib, so it didn't take us too long to pick that one. Then we started looking at crib mattresses. Turns out there are two major different types, and we had done none of the research on that. When the woman who was helping us was asking us about coil vs. foam like we should know what she was talking about, I felt so ignorant. We went home and did our research and picked out what we wanted, but that's how buying almost everything feels. Each item to put on the registry is a miniresearch project in itself. Why is there so much dang choice? How much stuff does a baby need?
Honestly, we know the answer is not much and stores like this are way overselling stuff.
Well. More research and purchasing on the way.
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