37 weeks, in the home stretch

It's been SO long since I blogged! There's so much that you've missed...

I'm now 37weeks along, that's 3 weeks until my due date! And let me tell you, it's true what they say about the last month. The last month is HARD. Everything is HUGE and painful and irritating and extremely uncomfortable. If you haven't been pregnant before I don't mean to scare you away from it, but by now I'm SO done with this part and SO ready to meet my baby and start to get my body back to myself (at least for the most part).

The pain that accompanies me during this time is serious sharp pains in my right ribs. I'm not sure if Elijah just has a big butt or has a foot jammed up there or what, but it is shockingly painful almost constantly. It gets worse when I'm sitting though. And funny, I think he's actually dropped a little lower over this last week. I have been feeling a little less pain (not much less) and I'm wondering if he's finally moving down. According to Doc, Eli has been positioned with his head down for the last few weeks, which is good, considering I'm looking forward to a vaginal birth and he's at least in the right position so far!

Some women complain about lower back pain during pregnancy, especially in the last month or so. I have actually had no back pain, with the exception of some a few months ago, but i think that was actually due to whatever is making my ribs hurt. The back pain I had was high on my back and exactly where my ribs hurt right now just on my back instead of my front. Other then that I'd say I've been lucky. I would hate to have back pain! I do however have a lot of pain in my muscles supporting this tummy. Especially when I'm sleeping and try to roll over or get up and when I try to lift my leg to put pants on. It feels like my muscles are straining and pulling in ways that they're not used to. I told my little sister, "Imagine that you did the most hard core abdominal work out that you could possibly imagine doing, but you only did it on your lower abs. Now imagine it's the next day and your muscles are so sore that no matter what you do or how you move they hurt super bad!" That's the closest description I could come up with. I dunno about y'all but that would suck!

Other then that my hips are still hurting when I'm sleeping at night and I've actually started experiencing cramping. It feels exactly like my period cramps which it's weird to feel that feeling again since it's been so long since I've had a period! I asked the Doc about this and I suppose you could technically call them contractions because it's my uterus contracting. However, I would rather say cramps only because in my mind contractions are much worse. These cramps are actually just irritating but not really painful at all. I feel them almost every night now and sometimes in the morning too. The Doc said that if we could hook me up to a monitor I'd probably be surprised at just how many contractions I'm actually having throughout the day without really noticing. I sounds to me like my body is preparing itself to finally get this baby out! Yes! :-)

As far as doctor appointments go, I go in every week now. Since I'm considered a "normal", "low risk" pregnancy all they really do at these appointments is weigh me, check my blood pressure, check the baby's heart beat, and answer any questions I have. Actually at my 36wk appointment they did a vaginal swap to test for a bacterial culture that's called Group B Streptococcus (Strep). Basically this is a bacteria that some people have and some people don't have. It's just present or not and is not necessarily a disease and is not an STD. Some pregnant women test positive for this bacteria. If that is the case, due to the infections it can cause the new born during birth the doctors with give the mom antibiotics during labor. According to my doctor they want to give the antibiotics at least twice during labor before the baby is actually born. They do this through one of the mom's veins, allowing it to get into her blood stream which then gets to the baby. So the baby is born with antibiotics in his system to fight the bacteria and dramatically avoid any infections.

OK so it sounds kinda gross calling it a bacteria. But from what I've read it's nothing to be embarrassed about and it's not something you get because you're dirty and don't shower enough. When I think of vaginal infections or bacterias that's the first place my mind goes. Like, ew take a shower more often or stop sleeping with so many people. Well obviously that's sort of ridiculous and is not the cause of most of the infections, especially this one. It's just one of those bacterias you already carry in  your system and it usually just does nothing, it's just there. But due to the immune system being weekend during pregnancy it can sometimes cause the bacteria to "colonize" thus giving a positive result on the vaginal swab test.

So far Elijah still has a normal heartbeat, which surprisingly is in the 140beats per min range. My blood pressure is still normal (apparently lots of pregnant women's blood pressure can go up), I've gained 35lbs total, I have no signs of pre-term labor, and my pregnancy is still considered very "normal". Oh and I have six official stretch marks. They're sorta small but three on each hip. I haven't noticed any right now on my tummy, but we'll see how it looks later when it starts getting back to it's normal size. I think this is good! And, next week, when I'm 38weeks they're going to check my cervix to measure my effacement and dilation which basically means they'll be checking to see if my cervix has "softened" or "thinned" out. Eventually once it's thin enough the mucus plug that basically keeps the inside in and the outside out will be released which allows your baby to be able to come out. Effacement is measured in percentages. 100% means you're ready to push, and the cervix is fully thinned and dilated. Dilation is basically the cervix opening up to eventually allow the baby to come through. I believe they say 10cm dilated is completely dilated and your baby is ready to be born. You start out with your cervix at 0 which means nothing can get in or out. Throughout labor you'll go from 0cm-10cm. Crazy! That's a dramatic change!

I went on my first nursing bra shopping adventure last week. OK now I've been bra shopping before, which is usually a total pain and expensive. I have a tendency to be a little awkwardly in between sizes. And not because of the cup size. I think it's due to the fact that I have a slight case of scoliosis which makes my upper back (right where my bra would hook) curve outward, but my ribs and around my body is actually fairly narrow in comparison to my cup size. So it makes things fit a little weird sometimes. Anyway... despite this complication I'm impressed with myself because although I should've been, up until this experience, I'd never been sized. Despite that, I was wearing exactly the right size. So props to me! A lot of women are in the totally wrong bra sizes. EVERYONE should get sized! It'll be like you're a whole new woman when you're in the right bra, trust me! :-) So... anyway... nursing bras. Alright, uhhhh what the heck! How am I suppose to know what to do with that?! I've never put on a nursing bra in my life and wouldn't even know what would be considered a "good" one. I've never nursed before. C'mon! Well come to find out, they're all very very similar now. I found that you have basically three general categories: Underwire semi-padded (like a "normal" bra w/ some shape to it), Underwire with no extra padding at all, Formed/shaped with no underwire, and "sleep bras" or "comfort" bras that feel and look very similar to a sports bra. Oh that was four categories! ha ha. Other then this, its really quite simple, they were all build nearly the same. They either have a little hook you can unhook to fold down the bra to allow easy access without taking it off, or they have no hooks but the straps are made in such a way that you can just lift the whole thing up or down, or they have a sort of "wrap" in the front where you just pull it to the side to expose the breast.

This is the first one I bought. It's sort of a lounge around the house/ sleeping bra. Which basically means its comfortable enough to sleep in and still offer support. This is one of the ones that looks and feels like a sports bra to me. However, it has normal adjustable straps and hooks and eyes in the back. You can see in the right picture how it would unsnap to fold down to expose the breast. I tried sleeping in it already, super comfy! And very easy to maneuver one handed as far as unhooking it. I found this at Target for around 20 dollars.

After minimal luck at Target as far as finding bras that were more structured and could actually comfortably (in my opinion) hold up everything I decided to venture to the mall and stop in at Motherhood Maternity. As I assumed they had a much wider selection and the sales clerk was able to give me a couple tips and talk to me about what they had. There I bought this one (as well as a couple others). This one has an underwire and it actually clasps in the front which makes it super easy and comfortable to put on and take off. It's sort of silky and very soft. Super comfortable AND it holds everything up and in place! This one has the same hooks to expose the breasts as the "sleeping" one has. There were a few other options there as well as far as "sleep" bras go, but I'm going to wait to see how this whole nursing thing goes before I invest anymore money. By the way all of the bras at Motherhood were about 20 bucks and they had a sale, buy three get one free. Pretty much a score if you ask me! I dunno about smaller chests, but ya can't get a good bra that gives you support anywhere for only twenty bucks!

I also bought a box of these nursing pads. I wouldn't know which brand is considered best. But i was told these are very popular. So i picked up a box. If you're new to this like me, your breasts can and probably will actually leak and who wants that ruining your bra! Oh and another tip, if you're planning on breast feeding, I took this class at Legacy Salmon Creek, it was wonderful! They had SO much info that even I was not aware of... I'll go into all that some other time :-) We can learn all about breast feeding together! It was very informative and I feel much more prepared now that I'm a lot more educated about what happens to our bodies during this time. There was a lot i didn't know. And to the hubbies out there, it seems easy but I'm anticipating it taking A LOT out of your woman; be aware.

Only other thing that's new and exciting, but not fun at all is all the swollen everything. My feet, my ankles and my hands. All swollen almost all of the time. My feet and ankles have gotten better then they were last week. But man o man, can you say Kankles!! Seriously the other day I tried on like three different pairs of my widest shoes, none of them fit. I finally had to settle on my Nike Shox unlaced almost all the way and they still were tight! I am finding that Ugg boots (or if you're like me, the knock off version of those) actually seem to be fitting me the best right now. Sometimes I wish it was summer so I could wear flip flops without freezing or getting soaking wet. I have found that elevating my feet has helped a lot and mostly staying off them. The more time i spend up out and about and walking around the more swollen they get. And they actually hurt too! They feel tired as if I'd been walking for an entire day straight. They're worn out! This is a time when having your Hubby around to give you a foot massage is a must!

My poor hands are swelling too! mostly at night time. I wake up every day with sausage fingers. It lasts most of the day too. It's been probably a month or so since I've worn my wedding ring :-( I tried it on... It doesn't even go over my knuckle right now! Gosh I hope my hands will go back to normal!!

I've been going on and on about SO many things, I think now is a good time to bring today to a close. I finally packed most of my hospital bag. It's certainly in no way ready to be picked up and walked out the door if i were to suddenly go into labor. But i figure how bad can it really be if i don't have my makeup bag. I mean, it's not like I'll be dressed in my finest, they have hospital gowns and as long as I can brush  my teeth at some point I'll be fine. Besides, I know lots of people who can drive and would love to bring me some stuff if i really needed it :-) I'm not too picky and I'm betting I'm not going to care all that much about looking my best, I would have just had a baby for goodness sake, what do ya expect! :-P