Pregnancy Part 24

I feel like 24 is a lucky number so I will try to keep this post on the positive side of things. It is less than 40 days until our due date, and I always said that 40 is a magic number too. We're having a baby shower here at work in less than two weeks, so I will definitely been in "month 9" at that time (assuming baby has not arrived before then).

Our 34 week appointment is on Wednesday, and I don't have any major concerns. I'm just hoping for a "normal" blood pressure reading and that I haven't gained too much weight.

 

I have crossed the threshold into territory that I wasn't supposed to enter. The app through my hospital suggested I stop gaining weight at 215 lbs. I have definitely logged a few days at 216 lbs, so I think that goal has been met and exceeded. More alarming perhaps is the increase in heart rate. I kind of stopped wearing my FitBit because it was too alarming. My "resting" heart rate is now in the 80s and just easy walking to and from the bathroom gets me up into the 110s (beats per minute). Let's not even discuss what happens when I'm exercising.

I'm still enjoying my HIIT (Fit4Baby) workouts. We've been swimming 4 times already. It's been fantastic. I use the word "swimming" lightly here because it's not like I'm doing 30 minutes of actual lap swimming or even treading water. Instead we spend about 45 minutes doing a combination of walking laps and very easy swimming. We also do some stretching in the water. More than the exercise, what I enjoy is the meditative aspect of watching the sunset or sun's rays as they reflect and refract in the pool. The landscaping is a bit more mature than pictured below.

What I love is when you are standing in the middle of the pool, it has an infinity edge so you just see the surface of the water and no ledge around the pool. The other awesome thing is that when people are swimming, the water runs into the drains around the edge of the pool which sounds like a fountain or babbling brook. I find the sound very relaxing and I always sleep better on nights after we swim.

I feel very fortunate to be living in Southern California and to be at the zenith of my pregnancy during the winter. We have had some pretty warm days (70s and 80s) which make for great outdoor swimming. Even when it's cooler, the pool is heated and we can still use it. I'd say the water temperature is in the 70s because yesterday when it was 83 degrees ouside the pool, the water felt cool but most other days the water feels warmer than the air temperature.

I would feel scared to be pregnant in winter in a place where it's icy and cold. I would also feel pretty bummed out if I were pregnant in So Cal in the summer because it's so hot here in Northridge that it would be difficult to get out and walk. My dear husband has been doing a great job of getting me out on days that we don't swim. We have some funny names for our walks "103" or "303" where the first digit is the starting location and the third digit is the distance. If it starts with a 1, then the walk starts from home. If it starts with a 3 then the walk starts from school. If it ends in a 1, then the walk is short.

This week is on the busy side for us. Besides the doctor's appointment on Wednesday, we have a breastfeeding class at the hospital on Thursday night. Tuesday we are going to "divide and conquer" where Mike is attending the Bicycle Advisory Committee Meeting and I will be going to the Ballet here at CSUN.

We scored a lot of cloth diapers this weekend from the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability (LARC) at UCLA. She so generously included reusable wipes and a diaper pail. Now I just have to re-wash them and take an inventory to see if we have reached the appropriate size stash to accommodate our baby when he arrives.

And now it's about time to get down to some actual work. I have been contacted by two faculty for help with making their documents ADA compliant. It's fun and kind of low-stress work, plus I know it's going to have the possibility of impacting students in a positive way so that motivates me to get on with the task.

Pregnancy Part 12

Today I want to check-in. We have had our fetal echocardiogram at 21 weeks. We have had our 22 week appointment at the OB. Everything is looking good. No "holes" where they shouldn't be in baby's anatomy. Cervical length is good. Upcoming appointments at 24 weeks will re-check cervical length and at 26 weeks test for gestational diabetes. I thought my blood pressure was high at 137/77 but my birth class teacher says that something like 150/90 would be cause for alarm.

Here's the roundup of symptoms:

Week 19 - Oct 14-20 headache, neckache, heartburn, tender breasts, nipple soreness, increased thirst, appetite increase, shortness of breath
Week 20 - Oct 21-27 nipple soreness, bleeding gums/nose, headache
Week 21 - Oct 28-Nov 3 headache, abdominal (back) itchiness, heartburn, fatigue/exhaustion

Tonight is the fourth of my pregnancy HIIT workout classes (out of 6). I think it came along in just the right time of my pregnancy, where I had energy, which I am starting to feel is dwindling.

Last night was the second of our Bradley birth class. I am grateful for the information we get in these classes. Such as, the Babycentre diet I've been following lists papaya as a common food for the second trimester but I didn't know why. Our teacher explained that it is a natural source of digestive enzymes which can act as a natural antacid. The Bradley birth diet emphasizes eggs as a protein source. I also didn't know why, but our teacher explained that eggs represent complete protein that is easy to digest. As the baby gets larger, he will occupy more of the volume of my body cavity, leaving less and less room for my stomach. Hence, I will need to rely on eggs to get the protein I need rather than beef or other slower-digesting foods.

I started to google "bicycling while pregnant" this past weekend. The articles I found suggested that women experience a range of reactions from stopping entirely right from the moment you get a positive pregnancy test (like myself) all the way to biking until delivery. I feel comfortable with my decision, I don't regret deciding to step away from the bicycle, but some days I do miss it. For example, there is a CicLAvia coming up near our house and I guess I'll be supporting it in some way other than on a bicycle. Maybe we'll do some tabling.

We completed the third part of our three-weekend babymoon. First, Sept 13-15. Second, Oct 11-13.

Third, Oct 25-27: It was kind of sad because my nephew tore his ACL in a football game so he is out for the rest of the season. But we did have a great time walking around Dana Point. We parked at the corner of Golden Lantern and Dana Point Harbor Drive. Then we walked to the Ocean Institute. It was beautiful and so relaxing. On the map it looks small, but in person it felt like a very long walk. Luckily there were restrooms along the way so nobody had to be uncomfortable.

I've been assigned a nurse by my insurance company who follows up with me about lots of things. She gave me some dietary guidelines to follow:

• whole grains (1/2 cup cooked or 1 cup raw)
• vegetables (3 cup)
• fruits (2 pieces)
• milk (3 cup)
• protein (6 oz = 170 g)
• water (64 oz)

The Bradley method diet recommends similar things:

• whole grains (4 servings)
• vegetables (3 servings)
• fruits (1 serving)
• milk products (4 servings)
• protein (80-100 g)
• water (to thirst)

I have been feeling well when I eat 2100 calories and unwell if I eat 1600-1700 only. Last post, I wrote that I was afraid of gaining too much weight too fast. My birth class teacher suggested that I wouldn't need to worry about an overweight baby (9 lbs or greater) unless I start to show symptoms of gestational diabetes. So I think I'm going to stop worrying about gaining too much weight, because restricting my calories really made me feel like crap (bad headache) and I lost 2 pounds pretty quickly. A big take-home of yesterday's class meeting is that diet is something we do have control over so we might as well be mindful of it. And a healthy mom has more choices when it comes to labor and delivery. Next class, we'll be getting into drugs.

Another great thing about our babymoon holidays was that I got into the swimming pool. It felt good the first time in mid-October (pregnancy week 18). I mostly just stood there in the water. I also tried taking a shallow bath at the hotel. I was scared the water was too hot and I was scared to fall getting in or out of the tub so dear husband helped and supervised me. It felt really good getting in the pool during the third babymoon weekend at the end of October (pregnancy week 20). I actually did some light treading water and swam some very slow laps. This past Sunday night (pregnancy week 22), I took a bath at our house. My birth class teacher said that swimming pools and bath tubs, in general, are good for baby unless there is any reason to suspect that the cervical plug has been disrupted. If we get any leakage of amniotic fluid, then public bathing will have to stop.

I had a big technology scare last week. My work computer wouldn't turn on (semester week 10). This was a big problem because my home computer also wouldn't turn on and we got rid of it mid-October (semester week 5). Time is flying by so quickly yet slowly. It didn't seem like that long ago but it didn't seem like such a crisis because we were starting to consider nursery configurations. But to have both computers go out, I started panicking because I still have 5 weeks to go in the semester and I need to do a lot of grading and preparing lessons. I ended up using an old laptop from 2011 that had Word 2003 installed. It was crazy. I couldn't find any of the functions because they've all moved around. But dear husband found a PC that wasn't being used. We put my hard drive in there and it booted right up (after we bought a $30 cable to convert from DisplayPort to HDMI).

We finished-ish our baby registry. It was kind of fun trying on babywearing stuff. I bought a couple pairs of new shoes in 1 size up from my normal size. They are both slip-ons because tying shoes is getting trickier by the day. I got a few new pieces of maternity clothing. I started getting excited about the upcoming holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) and wanted to have a few nice things to wear. It seems like each month is more expensive than the one before it, there are just so many little expenses that we have as we prepare for the arrival of this baby. Tomorrow we're touring a day care. They don't accept children under 12 months of age and they want a deposit to hold our spot.

I am looking forward to that time in pregnancy when I can stay at home and lounge around in yoga pants and a sweatshirt. I want to take my dog out on dog walks and eat whenever I feel like it.