Both my belly and my ankles continue to grow.
I started my (home) Hypnobabies course last Saturday. I'm not very impressed so far... but according to them, you don't have to believe it's working, you just have to listen every day. So I'm listening. I alternate tracks each day, and then there's another track I'm supposed to listen to every day called "Positive Pregnancy Affirmations" that's the only track that's not hypnotizing. So I can listen to it while washing dishes or cleaning or what have you. It seems a little more logical to me. It keeps saying things like, "your body is doing a perfect job at growing your baby," and "your hemoglobin level is perfect." Okay, the latter one cracks me up a bit! Throwing in a technical word seems so... odd. But still, we hear over and over again what might go wrong... it's good to be reminded that most of the time, everything goes right.
Though I must say, I'm a bit confounded by how many people I know who have had C-sections recently. Shannon and Obernon, fellow bloggers (congratulations and welcome to Elsie! born today!!!!), plus my non-blogging friend, Sarah, all in the last month. All healthy folks with no significant health concerns, that I know, prior to labor. Okay, well, Sarah did have a brain tumor.. but that was a while ago, and that didn't have any bearing on her ending up with a C-section.
I don't really mind the idea of a C-section per se, it's the recovery that worries me. I really want to be up and about and active as soon as I can after labor. I'm not looking to set any world records, but I don't want to have trouble getting to a standing position a month after giving birth, either!
Oh well, one more thing I can't control!
Speaking of which, I've done really well and have totally let go of worrying about my sister or anyone else in terms of when I go into labor. What will be, will be!
I helped my friend Emily successfully find an apartment today... less than two blocks away from me! So that's one more person who will hopefully be nearby if I need help. She's a fellow SMC (though we were friends long before I embarked on this journey) and has an adorable three year old, so that limits her availability somewhat, but in a pinch, if she's around, I know I can count on her. And my darling medical assistance even offered her help, too!
Last night my friend and colleague, Elizabeth, and I went to a Department of Health focus group about Expedited Partner Therapy for chlamydia. Who would've ever thought that a discussion about chlamydia would lead to so much laughter? Gallows humor, maybe?
Earlier in the week, in the midst of a totally jolly, impromptu conversation about the need for rectal chlamydia and gonorrhea testing plus anoscopy (Pap smears in the butt) for MSM (men who have sex with men), I started to get woozy, so I pulled up a stool (not that kind of stool, a stool for sitting on, silly) and said, "all this talk of gonorrhea and chlamydia is making me hungry," and unwrapped my Cliff Mojo bar. It was delicious.
Anyway, due to my "late night" last night, I woke up this morning to work out and thought, "no way am I going to make it through the day at work." Now that the high school students have finished classes for the year, the clinic is very quiet. And dragging through the day, exhausted, is miserable. I've been exhausted most afternoons as it is. So I called in sick. I don't think I've ever called in sick so unexpectedly before, except for when I had Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome and couldn't stand up without feeling like I was going to faint (I STILL need to write that experience up). But it was nice. Although after going to see an apartment nearby with Emily, and then going along to the broker's office to fill out paperwork... I was totally exhausted again.
The last week I've been feeling more tired again. Stairs are mostly easier, but I seem to be needing more sleep again... at a time that I was worried I might not be able to sleep. Thankfully I'm still sleeping "like a baby" (that's a joke for all the new moms out there).
My sister had 2 c-sections, the first was an emergency one but the 2nd was planned because the doctors finally realized that my sister was unable to push a baby of modest size through. That's just the way she is. And there is nothing that would indicate she would have a problem. She was always in perfect health, too. Her recovery this time is going way better in part because she didn't get another infection.
ReplyDeleteOn the focus group issue, I remember one time my mom came home from work and told me she had to do a test for something, gonorrhea I think, from the throat swab from ... a teenager. Yeah, okay. Thankfully I was no longer a teenager so I didn't see that as a morality story but that is still gross, in my opinion. Protection, people!!!