Wednesday, April 1, 2015

35 weeks. Holy moly, mony mony.

You guys- does it feel like I've been pregnant forever? Is that just me? I feel like it's been forever. But then when I thought about it, between this pregnancy and my previous miscarriage, I have basically been pregnant for a year solid. So... that's kind of a long time. I guess I didn't put much thought into that until recently.

But 35 weeks!!!

This means that in two weeks, should I go into labor they won't stop it and send me home. Which... that's kind of terrifying. Thinking that I could potentially have a baby sometime this month? That's kind of huge. I feel like it's huge. Equally huge is seeing people on Facebook and Instagram having their babies and me feeling like holy crap.... I'm next.

So, this is what 35 weeks looks like. I keep telling people that I am larger than I was when I delivered both Olivia and Jackson and I get the scoffs and the "but you're so cute!". Which, I may be but I'm not kidding when I say I feel like my skin is going to split open and Penelope will just be chilling like, "Oh- my bad." To give you perspective:
This is me at 39 weeks with Olivia, exactly one week before my due date and also the day I went into labor with her. Actually, shortly after this picture was taken (hospital way in the background) I got stuck in a bathroom inside of Grandma's Restaurant in Canal Park and had to get help from two super nice ladies who helped lift my stomach over the toilet paper roll which was where I was getting stuck. But in there, I discovered I had the bloody show that you read about in books and within five hours I was having contractions. An hour into that, my water broke, and off to the hospital for me. My labor for her was really only 10 hours start to finish.  She was 7 pounds, 10 ounces and 21 inches long.
But with Jackson, I was induced right on his due date, so this is me right at 40 weeks. This was at 5 in the morning, we were packing the van to head to the hospital, waiting on Matt's mom to get to our house to watch Olivia. My labor for him was only 5 hours once they started Pitocin. He was my peanut at 7 pounds, 7 ounces, and 19 inches long. 

So clearly, we know two things: 
  1. I'm super huge. Like I might actually be growing a super human? I'm not kidding, I have dreams where it's my post baby self is saying "tap out now and schedule a c-section, you don't want to see how huge this baby is, your vagina is going to break". 
  2. My labor could be super short. I mean, that would be kind of ideal. I'd like to not drag it out. But then I think, can I really guess at this since I've had one birth where it happened on it's own and one with Pitocin? I don't know. I do know that my body is made for birthing babies so I'm not super worried about any kind of complications. 
Am I still trying to do it naturally? 
You know, I don't know. Sometimes I get this Wonder Woman moment where I'm like, "Hell yes! Yes, I can do this." and I have visions of telling everyone who even cares that I did it naturally and that I actually did it and didn't wuss out like a loser. But then I watch a birthing show or documentary (more on that another day) and I think, NOPE. No, no, no- they make epidurals for a reason, what in the hell is wrong with me?! So the jury is still out on this. 

Symptoms and what it's like being pregnant at 35 weeks: 
  • Tired as hell. I am so grateful that I had the sense to start maternity leave. I knew I was tired and run down, but I don't think I fully understood how tired and run down I was because I was constantly busy. But now that I'm on day 3 of leave? Such a smart move. Even if we are broke. My stress level has gone down exponentially, and I feel like I actually can relax a bit. So there's that. 
  • Heartburn is OMG. I thought I had it bad with Olivia, and she came out with a full head of hair so I fully believe in that old wive's tale. But with Penelope? Oh lord. The heartburn is so bad. Basically nothing that is safe for me to take is at all helpful. What is helpful is ice cream. Not milk though, milk seems to make it worse and bring me much closer to throwing up. But ice cream? Totally works. So needless to say, ice cream is a new food group around here. I am keeping it to one bowl at night because that at least lets me fall asleep. I wake up with heartburn, but I really only need an hour or two of relief to get sleepy. 
  • Speaking of sleep, so I'm doing that again. Except I'm doing it a lot. I can sleep for 12 hours straight and feel like I haven't at all. It's really quite awful. Anything less and I'm dying for a nap during the day, which I have been trying to do anyways. 
  • Peeing. I'm peeing a lot. Like more than before, so I guess that's good. 
  • She moves a lot. I will wake up in the morning and my crotch hurts so bad and my pelvis feels like it's going to just give up and fall apart. And when I get up, she feels noticeably lower, so I get excited. She's dropped! YES! But then give it an hour or so and she's like, "LOL- NOPE!" and is right back up in my ribcage. She's basically being a turd already. It's like, get in the hole, already. I feel like this: 
 
That's not even an exaggeration. 

But overall? I feel alright. I feel like if I wasn't so incredibly exhausted and worn down, I could do this for much longer. On one hand I feel no sense of urgency to have her be born but then other times I just want to be done. Which I suppose is a sure sign you're getting to the end, right? 

4 comments:

Ruth said...

Not far away!
As far as the epidural, you do what you need. I didn't have one for my own reasons. I know this one woman that always gets one so she can smile through labor.

The Flynnigans said...

Oh Sara. For some reason I couldn't comment yesterday but shit seems to be in working order today.

Can I please have some of your boobs? ;)

You really look awesome for 35 weeks, just saying. You really do make a pretty pregnant woman.

I'm glad you're resting and winding down from work. You need that, obvi.

I can't wait to see the new baby when you post a picture. What the heck are you going to do with me woman? You'll be much too busy with a boob in a bebe's mouth to contend with my annoying, needy ass. :-S

Xo

thotlady said...

Sounds like everything is as it should be. I am glad you have time to rest before she is born.

Unknown said...

So...I birthed a ten pound kid without drugs, so clearly I'm an expert, right? I think birthing is all mental. You *can* deal with the pain, breathe through the contractions, move rhythmically, and depend on other people. You can, but some of that takes practice. I had to work a lot on relaxation, and no matter how painful it was to not tense my jaw. I had a doula that was constantly reminding me, and telling me soothing things. I had it...but it did indeed suck some major donkey balls.