Pregnancy. The Woman's frontier: Part 3

Well, the time has flown and I'm technically carrying around a full term Bubbles. Means he could come ANY time now. Lets take a moment and look at the change I've undergone the past 37 weeks.

8 Weekish
Bust 34
Waist 26
Hips 33
Weight 120 lbs

37 Weeks
Bust 38
Waist 43
Hips 39.5
Weight 161 lbs

Wow huh?

I originally didn't think my face changed a lot until I saw this comparison! You can really see some of that water retention going on. Which has been really entertaining to me since I've never really been poofy before. A lot of this has happened in the past few weeks. My wedding rings don't fit so well, my early maternity clothing doesn't fit so well, some of my flip flops don't fit so well.. the ones that are a little more supportive then just regular plain ones.

I've finally had the joy's of getting those bending over issues. Nothing like keeping feet shoulder width apart and squatting to try and get at the dishwasher soap. Also more getting stuck when trying to get out of bed after enjoying a quick snuggle up in a pile of blankets. Soft squishy things are thine enemy when you get to your third trimester even though they feel SO nice.

Walking has become more of a challenge, well, more like walking for extended periods of time. For example, I went shopping with a good friend of mine. We shopped Chinook Mall for 4 hours. Lots of walking, great deals and a great time. However the total time I was up and about was more closer to 6 hours if you add in the walking to the train station, walking to the mall, walking back to the train station, walking back home. I was a very tired preggo. So, as punishment my body put me to sleep.. for 18 hours. I think I woke up twice for 30 minutes, just enough to go pee and maybe eat something before I passed out again. Either way lesson was learned, so when I went with another friend to do something very similar I was prepared with a knowledge of my limit and was far more awake the following day!

Also, road trips. Traveling in a car for 2 hours while 36 weeks preggy.. not so fun. Maybe it was just the seats in the car but something didn't agree with me while we drove. Back pains and I got restless.. just not a lot of fun. Being able to move around apparently helps keep me quiet comfortable. Other wise things just start not liking me.

I have the line... I like to call it my dissection line. Mainly because it's prefect along my midsection for some alien to cut open. In reality, I know it's Linea Nigra, fancy boring name for the change in your skin pigmentation along your abdominal muscles as they stretch and slightly separate to accommodate Bubbles as he gets bigger. It's actually a fair bit darker then what the photo shows. Also, the photo shows I still got no stretch marks on my tummy! However, it turns out because my hips changed so much, that's where the stretch marks are. Not just on my hips, they've found their way down the backs of my thighs, to the inside of my thigh and even a few on one of my calves. They kinda remind me of long freckles... Good thing I don't sport short shorts anymore.

The sleeping. Oh the sleeping. I didn't sleep for a bit in 8 hour chunks. I typically slept for 2-5 hours, then I was awake for the same amount or less. I called it my prep for Bubbles when he was out. Getting trained for what very easily could be what my life could be like in a few short weeks. I'm expecting less sleep to be honest, but if I get more. Bonus. I also have to give another shout out for my Snoogle. Seriously that thing is awesome. It helps my sleep a lot. However there are still a few moments where it doesn't help. If I lay one one side or the other too long, sometimes I'll get pains from my body shifting around due to my new weight. Mostly one side is typically my hip and the other my ribs. Another thing that likes to keep me up is the occasional heart burn. Minor issue though in comparison to what I've heard. Buckets and buckets of Tums? Not for this girl. Thankfully, one or two at night and I'm typically good to go after half an hour or so.

Movements! No more are the little pokes. In fact, the smaller the movement, the less likely I am to actually feel it. I see more movements now then I feel them. The whole tummy moves now. I can feel him shift around in there adjusting his shoulders, arms, legs, feet and I see it too. Sadly I haven't seen any individual fingers or toes like I really wanted to. There is still time, I might just get lucky.

I've learned a lot over the past few months, over this entire pregnancy actually. I kinda feel like I've been in school since April. Learning about all the things my body is going to do, the things that are going to happen in Labor. I've empowered with a lot of knowledge about my choices for a natural birth, and even a medicated birth. I still have more to learn, review and maybe even share with fellow mothers. The best choice I've made so far was to get a Doula. I haven't even gone into the labor stages of my pregnancy and she's been an amazing help to me. I don't think I want to do a birth with out a Doula, even if I do get in with some Midwives. They are just so warm and helpful. Even my short meet with my back up Doula was great. You can feel the support they want to give you. If your tight on cash, there are options for you. There are newer Doula's just waiting to help you out. I went with Krystal at http://www.ninemonthsdoula.com even though she's in the Lethbrigde area, I'm thankful for her help and I know she'll be a greater help once labor kicks into full gear for me and my husband. (Even your partner needs some help especially for new parents!) If your thinking about getting a Doula, or not even considering it. I'm telling you right now, just do it. You won't regret it, even if your planing to just have the baby via C-section, they can be more help then you even thought.

Since I'm going for an all natural birth, I'll touch shortly on how I plan on dealing with the pain of childbirth. Mostly I'm going for a mind over body tricks. One of which includes taking the pain out of childbirth. I'm not going to go as far as my online prenatal class went by calling them birthing embraces..(That's when I was reminded of a certain conversation with a sister in law about some "Love drugs" that your body makes). More like Birthing pressures, since I've actually felt a few "pressures." The other is keeping myself as relaxed as possible. This means not freaking out and letting the outside world influences about the pains of childbirth. This has meant a lot of smiling and nodding at pregnancy horror stories. Don't get me wrong, I know they happen. To me it's more of a these things happen sometimes. That's why we have Obstetrics. I'm not that person, and each birth is different. It helps to  just remind myself my body was built for this, if a woman in a coma can do with out some one screaming push at her, I'm pretty sure I can too. It's helped to see births with things like the cord being wrapped around the babies neck, being breach and still being delivered vaginally. I know what an actual cord problem is from all the reading I've done, and a rough idea what the care provider choices are. So I have no reason to panic when I hear the cord is around his neck. Keeping relax and not getting all panicked is actually suppose to be key things with keeping Pain out of childbirth. It makes sense. If you are all tense more of your body is going to hurt. Example. Hold your hand in tight tight fist, do that for 10 seconds each for a minute. Now try and tense your entire body and that same fist for 10 seconds, now try to relax just your fist. Do that for a minute. Makes things interesting ya? I thought so too.

Well I went on about that for more then I wanted. I could talk about that a lot, and I'll let you know how well I deal with my birthing pressures and how I found keeping relaxed during the whole thing or if I even manage it. That's for another blog, which I'll do after Bubbles isn't Bubbles anymore and is whatever the name Mike and I have picked for him.