No More Bed Rest!

Hooray! We had our 36 week appointment on Friday, and Dr. Fitzgerald took me off bed rest and said we're in the clear. The baby can come at any time, and no one's going to try and prevent it. I celebrated by climbing some stairs.

Three weeks of bed rest took me from healthy pregnant lady to invalid with sausage toes. My feet are so swollen I can only wear clogs (a problem considering we received a dumping of snow on Thursday night), my fingers are so swollen I can't feel the tips of my fingers, and my face is unrecognizable to me (Dave claims I look exactly the same, but this is not true, not true at all.) I am currently icing my ankle and wearing a wrist brace. You'd think that I am injured.

So in the interest of speeding up the baby's delivery AND getting my body back, I am seeking out different homeopathic methods to get labor started and make myself feel better. And now that I'm off bed-rest, I can do more active things than before. Here is the list of new and improved aids:

1. walking, walking, walking - and climbing stairs (but no heavy lifting)

2. back to yoga and stretching exercises

3. taking Evening Primrose Oil (to thin my cervix)

4. drinking raspberry leaf tea to tone my uterine muscles, more nettle tea to increase circulation, and lots and lots of water

5. rocking positions to get the baby to turn with its back toward my stomach and its face toward my spine (prevents painful back labor and gives me relief from backache)

6. Jasmine rice in a brand-new tube sock, heated in the microwave for 2 minutes = aromatherapy + heat pad = neck and back relief

Hello, Mr. Braxton-Hicks

I have met Mr. Braxton-Hicks. You know how one day you'll meet someone for the first time, and then suddenly you'll see the person everywhere - grocery store, public bathroom, sidewalk? Well, that's a good assessment of my newfound relationship with Mr. Braxton-Hicks.

Braxton-Hicks contractions are pre-labor contractions. They are the body's way of warming up for the big event. They do not mean you are going into labor, although many a person has freaked out and driven to the hospital just to be told that she has been visited by Mr. Braxton-Hicks. Not to worry.

Last week I started getting cramps in weird places, like around my belly button (still an innie - probably never destined to be an outie, much to Dave's disappointment). They didn't last long, but they were powerful little buggers. A couple of times I gasped. They don't hurt, but they are startling to experience. Involuntary cramping can do that. I'd compare them to menstrual cramps, but again, they occur in strange places.

But then I was leaving school yesterday afternoon, carefully maneuvering through the icy parking lot and sliding a little bit, when suddenly, BAM! Contraction. My body cramped so severely I stopped walking, grabbed the nearest vehicle's side-view mirror, and practiced my yoga breathing. Whoa. After about 45 seconds, I was able to slide over to my car and take a break behind the steering wheel. The whole episode made me nervous. Please, please, please, I thought, we cannot go into labor now. It is simply too early for this. And then... nothing else happened. I wasn't in labor at all. I had been visited by Mr. Braxton-Hicks.

Later that afternoon, we had our 32 week check-up, and the Nurse Practitioner confirmed that those mysterious cramps were Braxton-Hicks contractions. The big one and the little ones. And I've already had two today. So it seems that Mr. Braxton-Hicks and I are destined to be friends for the remainder of the pregnancy. I am welcoming him because I like to think that his presence shows that my body knows how to do this. We are getting ready.

Swollen Like a Balloon

I'm beginning to swell. Ankles, feet, wrists, fingers... no more wedding ring, no more bracelets. Even my watch is leaving marks. When I type for too long, I have trouble bending my knuckles. But none of this is as annoying as my swelling feet.

After a long day today (and a long day yesterday), my feet were actually bruised from my shoes. I am currently writing this entry with my feet, ankles and calves submerged in our beverage cooler. Dave filled it with hot water and lavender milk. I feel better.

Brain Turns to Mush; House and Car Suffer

I kept hearing about pregnancy brain, which is a symptom of pregnancy that includes scattered thoughts and trouble concentrating. Pregnancy brain is pretty much preparing women for child-rearing, I've been told. But so far, I had escaped. Some minimal incidents occurred, yet they were relegated to forgetting to ask someone a question when I saw them in the hallway or misplacing my eyeglasses in the house. Minor, no big deal...

And then I hit the house with my car. I swear that the house just jumped out of nowhere and got in my way. I pulled a little siding off the house (which I pushed back in) and scraped off a minimal amount of vehicle paint near the wheel well. Otherwise, no harm, no foul.

Then I drove to school, parked in the lot, had a full day, and as I was leaving the parking lot, I put the car in reverse and drove right into the car behind me. I got out and looked - the bumpers touched, the structure of both was unchanged, no paint was removed... again, no harm, no foul. But TWO incidents in one day? After having a stellar record of NO HITS since a 2am occurrence in 2001? How was this happening to me?

I was going to blame the weather. Or lack of sleep. Or lack of caffeine in the mornings. But I have to be honest. I have pregnancy brain.

Leg Cramps and Fish Tea

I have leg cramps in my right leg. And they are painful and all-consuming and last days and days and days. I tried foot baths and elevating my feet and drinking lots of water, all without any alleviation.

So Chris the Doula suggested I try some nettle tea, as it helps leg cramps. So...yesterday I went to the health food store and bought some stinging nettles to make into tea, and today after school I steeped the nettles. While I was waiting for the tea to be ready, I busied myself putting away dishes, and as I did, I could smell a strong fishy smell near the sink. I sniffed around, thinking Dave had made a tuna fish sandwich for lunch, or something was rotting in the garbage, or... no. It was the nettle tea. It smells like fish. And anyone who knows me knows that fish is not my friend.

I added honey to the tea, and it doesn't taste that bad (although I do detect some fishiness). The smell, though, is almost over-powering.

Leg cramps or fish tea? Right now the leg cramps are so bad that I'm holding my nose and drinking the steaming, smelly liquid. But really... is there any better way to torture me than fish tea?