Yesterday I had an NST appointment. I passed, but for a little bit they were concerned because baby got up to 170 BPM. She then settled back to my usual 150-160 BPM and since they like it at 120-160 bpm, I eventually passed the test. I have a sore throat so being kind of sick may have been the cause and I was having mild BH contractions throughout so that may have been the cause also.
I spent most of yesterday very low key -- my feet were puffy and I was worn out. Today I feel better and I'm excited because in a bit we leave for our massage appointments at the Celebration Fitness Centre and Day Spa. Then we are having lunch at Max's Cafe. If it looks nice we'll take a walk around the park like we did when we were out that way for the Jingle Bell 5K a few years ago. So last weekend we Disney-ed out at Wild World of Sports and this weekend we'll Disney at Celebration. There's a sidewalk sale on Market Street we'll probably peek at too. MLK weekend ten years ago was when we first got serious about each other -- so this weekend is another of our many anniversary dates.
[later @ 6:07 PM]
What: lakeside walk
Duration: 10+ min
Just got up from a nap and woke Paul up long enough to give him his anniv. present -- back issue #45 of Yellow Silk. It contains a story by Carson Reed that I loved and Gopher-ed years ago. (Gosh, the days of Gopher!)
Oh and the massage? It was lovely! Paul and I both liked the facility and would go there again in a heartbeat. I asked for extra attention on my feet and back since my feet are so puffy and my back tends to ache with the heavy front load. It was a little different than the last two Swedish I'd had -- on some things she went very easy on me because I'm pregnant. She also had me shift positions a lot to make sure both baby and I were still comfortable. I wasn't sure if there would be body pillows so I could lay on my stomach or if we were going for the side thing. Turns out the table reclines in all kinds of ways and for the back massage she had me turn on my sides with pillow props between my knees and arms. My fingers are a bit stiff but they do feel better. I know my feet are going to get puffy again sooner or later but for now they feel really good. Baby moved a lot during the massage and I had some more contractions. That was a bit distracting but the dim lights and music helped me unwind.
When I came out of my treatment room I was given water and there was a selection of teas and things. Paul was waiting for me in the little lounge area and he looked very serene and content with his massage. His hair was all poofy and crazy and I can only imagine mine was too.
He told me that his neck tightness was all gone so hopefully now he'll stop having so many stress headaches. He had a Swedish also and he was comparing it to my pregnancy Swedish and his last massage which was a "deep tissue." Paul told me he only flipped once from back to front during his Swedish. We both got hot towels applied to various parts but he described some things his therapist did that applied heavy pressure on his back that I didn't get for obvious reasons.
He told me his therapist stomped on his fingers by mistake and I asked how that happened. It seems when he was laying face down, he's tall enough to almost get his hands completely flat on the floor. The therapist did not realize he had monkey arms and when she turned around she stepped on his hand. I can't remember if the tables also adjust up and down to accomodate the height of the massage therapist -- I'm guessing they do because they certainly adjust every other way!
We chatted for a while then went to our respective locker rooms to change. As spa guests we could use any of the other facilities like the pool, fitness rooms or attend exercise classes but we skipped that this time and headed out. Next time we go I'd like to stay all day and perhaps sample a class or hang out in the lap pool. But we were too hungry and didn't bring gym bags today.
After we met up again at the lobby and paid we headed off to the Market Street Cafe. I had a Cuban sandwich with a salad and he had a burger. I had a bit of a splurge on chocolate cake while he had key lime pie. The sidewalk sale was low key and not esp. crowded -- it was still pretty early. They had some live music and little booths with various things that were fun to look at but we didn't want to buy anything. We took a very short walk along the lake.
Somewhere along there I had three contractions in a row that slowed down my walking. I had to think about my breathing counts and when they let up I realized Paul was walking along side me sticking his belly out and hold his hands against his back like I was. That made me laugh which made my stomach ache so I told him to stop cracking me up. So he yells, "Don't make me laugh! Don't make me sneeze! Don't make me cough! Don't make me move!" while walking circles around me which only busted me up some more. He likes to do that because he knows at waddling speed I can't catch him to hit him.
If we bother going out again today it's going to be for cough drops and Neutregena hand cream for my chapped hands. He's started to complain about a scratchy throat and mine is turning into a cough. I have to check the expiration date on the Robitussin and if it's gone off we'll get another of that too. But even so... a very relaxing day.
No walk today. Today I've had this sort of pressure or heaviness to my lower womb all day long. I don't like standing, I don't like sitting, I don't like laying down... so far the most comfortable has been when I stacked up the pillows on the bed for a belly prop and lay over them face down on my hands and knees while doing some pelvic rocks.
I can't tell from pictures if I'm dropping, but I can sure tell baby is a lot bigger! Here's me at 26 weeks:
And again at 36 weeks:
Also having back ache, crotch pain (is it cervical or not? So vague feeling...), poop a lot, feel restless, skin is super oily, etc. Tomorrow morning I have an NST appointment and I'm going to try to get mom to stop at the grocery. I don't want to deal with making dinner tomorrow so frozen food it is going to be.
Paul promised me a back rub after we shower and as nice as that is... Sat. can't get here fast enough! I want my Swedish prenatal massage NOW!
Short preggo walk on the treadmill. Felt mostly ok but I could feel baby wriggling, settle down, and later in the walk she felt kind of heavy lower in my womb. Now that I'm resting she's squiggling around some more. I was hoping walking before bed would put her to sleep so I can sleep!
Once my milk comes in and I know what bra size I'm going to be I have to make up my mind what sports/nursing bra I want from Title 9 Sports or similar. I walk very slowly with this big belly so a regular bra is fine for now but I'm going to need more undies soon!
Slept better but have a bad headache and drooly boobs still. And I'm putting on weight in big chunks -- I have to talk to my OB today about edema and weight gain again. I feel uncomfortable and puffy! Baby is squiggly and active so at least that's good. I hope she keeps it up -- when she's active my NST's are shorter than if she's sleepy and they have to buzz me with the noisemaker gadget to get her to move.
Adrith e-mailed to tell me she can't post to the blog and at first I thought it was Blogger but it's our FTP server. Paul's on his way to work and later to hospital to see his grandmother so I don't know when he'll get to look at it. So in the meanwhile, it's post but no publish. Oh, well.
Amy is debating signing up for the half now or doing it for charity and signing up later. We've been talking about post-partum fitness and she's pretty much in the same boat as me -- eager to get going but until you actually get there you don't know what's reasonable or not.
Blood glucose yesterday was good: 86F, 103B, 125L and I fell asleep after dinner so no value then. Lunch was a wee bit higher than 120 -- too much banana.
No preggo walk yesterday -- I was wiped. Today I get one though when I walk from my NST office to my OB office. Dad has an appt. at the same time as me so instead of waiting with me my parents are going to drop me off at one and then pick me up at the other. The offices are only 3 streets apart. Karen's probably going to be the one to stay with me and walk me over. I have to remember to take a notebook so I can deal with our birth plan notes. We see the doula tomorrow and we have to go over that.
5:06 PM
Just got home from doc appts. Very tired, about to nap.
I've passed today's NST, I'm donating cord blood, and I'm 50% effaced and a fingertip dilated. Baby is active, Braxton-Hicks continue to be sporadic. Short preggo walk from one office to the other with my sister -- will think about more walking later after I rest. Most likely will help Paul clean the living room instead though.
Holly asked me yesterday how long after baby I'm going to keep doing blood glucose pricks on my fingers and following the gestational diabetes diet. I told her I didn't know -- it's something I have to work out with the OB/endoc.
Grace, an acquaintance I've since lost touch with, is also a PCOS patient and she had told me she just stuck with a diabetic diet the whole time as part of managing her PCOS symptoms. Then my SIL and MIL are diabetic and are supposed to be following diabetic eating guidelines but I'm not sure how they are doing with it. Like with anything else, your mileage is going to vary with the effort you put into it. I think for me, I'll try to stick with it whether or not I keep up with the finger pricks. It hasn't been soooo different than how I used to eat and if it helps manage symptoms, why not? I don't know what I'm going to do when I start to work back to vegetarian eating but one hurdle at a time. I have to get through birth and breastfeeding first.
Guess what? I just signed us both up for the 2005 Disney Half Marathon. Registration opened up earlier than I thought it would so I went ahead and did it now. Originally I was checking the website to read this morning's results but they aren't there yet. Tomorrow is the awards ceremony so surely tomorrow the updates will be flying around.
No formal preggo walk today -- instead I was out shopping with Holly and we walked all over the place. At first my hips still hurt from sleeping in one position but eventually walking helped work that out. I noticed that yesterday too -- if I stay in one position too long my hips start to ache.
Taking the day off from blood glucose -- my finger tips are a bit sore and I want to give them a break . Had some hand swelling but it went down once I stuck my hands in ice water. The feet were a bit puffy post shopping too but I put them up and that's better also. Tonight I'll do the foot spa thing. This edema business gets so old. :P
For a joke I brought home Kraft Cheese Macaroni and A1 Steak Sauce and it made Paul laugh. But even though I'm not past my due date yet I'm making him make it for dinner with Gardenburger Riblets. It's the old wives tale about how to bring on labor by eating this... it's online in several places but here it is on Real Radio.
Some of what I bought today were travel size toiletries for the hospital bag so as soon as I stick those in there I'll be done and can just throw the bag in the trunk of my car. Off to do that now...
First entry. I'm resurrecting "The Road to Orlando" since I plan to use the 2005 Disney Half Marathon as my incentive to get fit post-partum.
Even though we aren't racing in the 2004 half marathon tomorrow because I'm 36 weeks pregnant, in a bit we're off to Wide World of Sports to go pick up our entry packets and goodie bags. (Disney does not refund entry fees, so I want the T-shirt I've paid $70 for!)
I'm excited though -- I always feel excited on marathon weekend whether I'm in it or not. I don't know what it is -- the people, the Disney-ness, the post-holiday high, the cool weather... somethign about it puts me in a good mood.
10:00 PM
No formal walk today on the treadmill. Did my 10+ min. preggo walk around Disney Wide World of Sports this morning instead. We had to park in the grass along the side and I was a bit worried that it would be a long line to get the registration stuff done but surprisingly it was very fast in the half marathon section. The marathon side was much longer.
This year's participant T-shirts for the Disney Half look nice:
The lady handing us our shirts asked Paul if he was going to be racing for three since I'm obviously too pregnant to be racing and he just laughed. Neither of us is racing -- we just wanted to get our shirts. Can you imagine me racing like this?!
Blood glucose today was decent until dinner: 87 fasting, 105 breakfast, 112 lunch, and then 139 dinner. We went out to eat for Karen's 25th birthday and I was a touch over.
Part of it was because I got home and couldn't wait another 30 min to test because I was so sleepy. So instead of testing at 2 hrs after a meal, I made a note and tested at 90 min and conked out. The other reason was because every time we have chinese, it spikes. That's taking me the longest to get a handle on since there's no online nutrition info to help me.
But that was the last holiday thing for us until my niece's birthday in April. Thank goodness!
On the blog updates...
Got most of 2001 files now but I'm missing some dates. I have to ask Adrith if she happens to have copies.
Got a lot of the broken links fixed but I haven't gone back to double check external links yet.
Got a rude 2004 archive going but the template still needs help.
