I know it’s been a long time since I’ve added an entry, but what do you expect? I’m pregnant and unreliable. Haha
I can nearly see the finish line from here. I only have about 7 days until my official due date, June 3rd. Everything has gone quite well thus far with no problems. This week he said I was about 75% effaced and about 2 cm dilated. I’m not getting my hopes up, but he seems to think I might deliver early. I certainly wouldn’t complain about that. Really it’s only recently I’ve been getting quite uncomfortable. Apart from being a bit tired, I usually feel quite well. And I’ve discovered that a short 30 minute to 1 hour nap goes a LONG way, so I’ve had the luxury of making that a priority most every day.
Although I normally feel quite well, the past couple days I’ve been suffering with some sort of head cold I think. As I write this it‘s 4am and I’m sitting up in bed trying to minimize the pain. Basically I’m dealing with sinus pressure and headache, drainage in the back of the throat that has given me the worse sore throat I’ve probably ever had. It’s really painful to swallow and I’ve lost my voice. I whisper some, but that’s still painful. The sinus pressure makes my teeth hurt like crazy, so I’m sure I look pretty silly at times when I’m pushing on my teeth with my fingers, trying to alleviate some pain. I got an antibiotic from my doctor, so hopefully that will clear everything up within a few days. I’m not worried because I’m trusting God that things will happen according to His perfect plan, but it’s hard not to be a little nervous at the possibility I might go into labor before I’ve recovered from whatever this sickness is. Loved ones, I ask that you please pray for this to pass quickly. I appreciate the support so much.
Mentally and emotionally things have been interesting lately. I really feel like God is preparing me. Recently my emotions and mind have felt quite relaxed, not anxious. I’ve felt pretty prepared and I’ve enjoyed more and more just being home. Although I’ve felt I’ve suffered with a bad case of pregnancy brain for many months now, I’ve actually felt a bit more clear headed in the past week or so. Has my pregnancy brain gotten so bad that I just don’t even see it anymore? Or have I actually had some of my brain come back? Haha. Who knows? Probably Michael could answer that.
Since I’ve been pregnant, sometimes I’ve been caught off guard as to how I instinctively react to different situations. This past Sunday was one of those “situations”. At church this week they recognized the high school seniors, as they will be graduating sometime in the next couple of weeks. As many churches and schools do, they showed a slide show of the students with pictures of them as a baby and then a recent picture. I’ve always thought these slide shows were kind of fun, but this time… I caught myself crying about the second picture in (and I’m not a crier). It took about 10 seconds for my brain to say “Oh my goodness, look at that baby picture….now she is a young adult ready to leave for college. That could be Caleb’s baby picture!” Caleb hasn’t even been born yet and his life flashed before my eyes! I kept thinking, “How could they do this to me? When will this slide show be over?? Can we talk about something else???” It was pretty ridiculous. Haha. I’m glad it’s over.
Michael and I took several “baby classes” over the past couple of months and enjoyed them very much. We took Prepared Childbirth, which is like Lamaze, which was 4 separate sessions of breathing exercises, physical exercises intended for use during pregnancy, practicing of techniques used to cope with pain during labor, and much more. I think the ladies particularly enjoy this class because much of it is your husband messaging you or caressing you while you are in various comfortable positions. Haha. We also took a class called “Caring for Mom / Caring for Baby” and a Breast Feeding Class. Those were both one session classes, and they also seemed to be helpful.
I’ve really really appreciated how attentive and involved Michael has been throughout this entire pregnancy and that certainly includes his willing participation in these classes. It’s comforting to me to know he’s there in body and mind as a part of this team. But I have to tell you this story of something that happened not too long ago that got my delicate pregnant mind temporarily freaked out. In our prepared childbirth class we learned that during pregnancy women often have bad leg cramps, usually in the middle of the night. So we were taught how to quickly get rid of these cramps. Coaches were instructed how to hold his wife’s leg and ankle, and how to stretch out the calf until the cramp went away. At the time of these instructions I had not yet experienced one of these infamous leg cramps and had counted that a blessing. Well, that changed. A few weeks after class I woke up in the middle of the night yelling from the pain of a leg cramp. Michael shot up out of bed like a rocket and was freaking out, yelling “What?! What’s going on?!” He probably thought I was in labor or had some medical emergency I suppose. I quickly told him “Leg cramp! Leg cramp!” He proceeded to “help” by attempting to use the technique we learned in class, except his own version of it. He was on the wrong side of me, he was holding my leg and ankle wrong, he went too fast which caused more pain. I can barely speak because of the pain, but I attempt to tell him he’s hurting me. He repositions himself, and then suddenly he lets go and says in a whiny voice “Ow my shoulder hurts and I’m nauseous” and immediately crawls back into bed and back to sleep in seconds. Although the cramp was mostly gone, I lay there still in some pain thinking “Oh my gosh. We can’t even handle a leg cramp, how will we ever handle labor!?” So I go back to sleep a bit stressed, and the next day I bring up the topic to Michael. He says something to the effect of “If you were having a leg cramp, why didn’t you ask for my help? You should ask me for help.” I was shocked. I said “What are you talking about?? I did ask you for help, and you even attempted to give me help. But about as soon as you started helping me you complained of shoulder pain and nausea and went straight back to sleep with me still in pain.” He seemed pretty surprised and then started laughing. He didn’t remember a thing about that. Apparently Michael was asleep during the fiasco, and the moral of the story is – whenever you wake up with a cramp or wake up in labor, make sure your husband is actually awake before he starts helping you. Despite this one silly situation I think Michael and I both feel pretty prepared for labor and delivery. I’m positive he will be an excellent coach. As long as we make sure he is awake!Haha
