Baby

Jen's Updates - Week 34

Sunday, March 9th, 2003 - 6 weeks to estimated due date!

We've finally decided on a name! We'll be calling him Josephus Bohunkus Doom, after the song that my grandfather and his sister sang for us this weekend at my grandparents' anniversary party.

There was a man who had two sons
And these two sons were brothers
Josephus was the name of one
Bohunkus was the other

Now these two men they had two suits
These suits to wear on Sunday
Josephus wore his every day
Bohunkus his on Monday

In other news, it looks like I'm getting into the uncomfortable part of pregnancy. None of my clothes fit properly, so I'm always uncomfortable. I'm restless, which gives me insomnia and makes it hard for me to get any work done. And I've started to waddle.

Movement

On Monday, the baby would not stop moving. All day long he was very active. It nearly drove me crazy! I mean, I love it when he moves, but it is always distracting, so I had a hard time getting work done.

He frequently kicks me hard enough to make me flinch and grab my belly. Those are usually the times that I can push his little limbs around, too. Very cool.

Symptoms

Insomnia

I am constantly restless now. Sleeping is next to impossible because I just can't lie still. Working is difficult just because I constantly feel like I need to get up and do something. Nothing in particular, it is just hard to sit still. I'm not uncomfortable, just restless. It turns out that there is actually a name for this - restless leg syndrome (RLS), and it is very common in the third trimester. Non-pregnant people get it, too, and it is controllable with medications, none of which is safe during pregnancy. I've had awful insomnia this week. I just can't lie still! On Monday night I last looked at the clock at about 5:30am. At 4:30am, I sent email to my office, telling them that I'd be in as soon as I woke up, but that it wouldn't be before noon. Sure enough, I got into work at about 1:00. Even then, I was tired and ineffective.

Even when I was up in Michigan in my own bed, where I always sleep like a log, I couldn't sleep. After finally getting to sleep, I slept until noon all three days I was there. Not the best way to spend time with my family.

Waddling

I've lost any gracefulness I once possessed. Travis says that now I 'trundle' instead of walk, but I believe that the correct technical term is 'waddle'. My hips and pelvis must be widening. Unfortunately, I didn't measure those when I first got pregnant, so I have no proof.

Skin

Interesting side effect of pregnancy... I've developed very small skin tags on my torso. Well, really they are just very small flesh-colored bumps right now, but I think they'll become skin tags. That is not uncommon in pregnant women, but it is a little disconcerting because usually my skin is very smooth. I don't know if they go away after pregnancy (I suspect not) or if I'll have to have them removed. Or just ignore them. They really are tiny and invisible.

My skin is still breaking out a little bit, but not as bad as it had been. My neck is the worst. I'm still hoping that it will go away after the baby is born.

Random Pain

I still have the pain on my ribcage, which is becoming more and more debilitating. I have to sit up very straight to avoid bending the flesh there at all because it hurts so much. Wearing sports bras isn't helping, and really the only time it doesn't hurt is when I'm lying on my side.

Minor injury... I got up from bed during my insomnia and kicked the bathroom door with my little baby toe. It is always surprising that such a small body part can generate so much pain. Anyway, to add insult to injury, I couldn't get close enough to my toe to see how badly I was hurt (like if I had ripped off the toenail), nor could I put a bandaid on it myself. I had to enlist Travis's help. Then he laughed at me. :-}

Bladder

I've finally reached the point at which my bladder has become squished. I still drink a lot of water (trying to stave off premature labor), so that means that I visit the bathroom a lot. It isn't good for me to sit still for too long, anyway. Maybe that's nature's way of making sure that you keep the blood flowing.

General

Hopefully this isn't all a sign of what the rest of the pregnancy will be like, but I'm afraid it will just get worse from here on out! Well, despite all of that, I'm still enjoying being pregnant, believe it or not! I can understand why people want it to be over... Again, I think that this must be nature's way of making you want the baby instead of the lovely pregnancy part. The good news is that in just 3 weeks (at 37 weeks) I'll be considered 'full-term', and the baby could safely come at any time.

Exercise

I didn't even walk once this week. I was gone (up north) for four days of it, with no treadmill. During the three days I was in town, I had such terrible insomnia that when I got home from work I was just exhausted and the idea of working out was completely unappealing. All I wanted to do was lie in bed and rest, preferably without anything constricting my belly. After the last time I walked, my hips ached for a day, too, so it has become less interesting to me. I'll try to get back on it next week.

I didn't go to prenatal yoga because I was too tired, and I didn't go to ballet because I spent the evening with Holly instead. Even though she is right here in town, I don't get to see her enough. I got to see (pictures of) her gorgeous wedding dress, and I'm looking forward to her wedding (in 68 days!)

Other People's Babies

Kira Nyrise Brehob

My mom and I went to visit Kat and Kira because I had borrowed Kat's cake pan to make a surprise birthday cake for my mom last time I was there. Kira is bigger now, of course, and was sleeping in her car seat (they had just gotten home) the entire time we were there. Very cute!

Kat gave us a pack of diapers because Kira had outgrown them already, as well as a newborn pacifier that Kira never used. She's growing fast! I suppose that it is always hard to keep the right size of diapers around at first, when they are just growing by leaps and bounds.

Names

In case you thought we were serious about Josephus Bohunkus - we weren't!

Miscellaneous

Traveling

I decided to head up to Michigan for my grandparents' 60th anniversary and my aunt Ellen's birthday. I got to see all but one of my aunts, which was great! I had lunch with my mom's sister Becky (Ferd) on Friday, and saw all four of my dad's sisters a few times for the birthday and anniversary celebration. If only my mom's sister Teresa were not in sunny Florida, I could have seen all of my aunts! What a weekend that would have been!

Travis and I talked a bit about whether or not it would be safe for me to drive by myself, and decided that it wouldn't be a problem as long as I had my cell phone with me in case anything happened (i.e. labor!). I was only 3.5 hours away, so he could come get me or join me if necessary.

The drive was fine, and it was so nice to be there for my grandparents' anniversary. 60 years - wow! I hope that Travis and I can live long enough to celebrate 60 years together! My aunts were thrilled to see and feel my belly... this is the last time I'll see them before the baby is born, so I'm glad I made it up there! My aunt Ellen said that she never got to see any of her family pregnant, so I was the first, and she was excited about that!

I also got to talk to my aunts Nancy, Debbie, and Kathi about childbirth. That was interesting! Nancy said that when she thought she was going into labor, she took a shower, shaved her legs, did her hair, and put on makeup. They went to the hospital and they sent her home, because she wasn't really in labor yet. When labor really did hit, she said that she had no interest in doing any of that stuff! So, I guess that's how I'll know it is real!

Kathi said that she had to have c-sections, which made her angry because that hadn't been her plan. She also said that she was in the hospital to have my cousin Morgan at the same time that my uncle (her husband) was in the hospital having bypass surgery! They got to share a room, until Morgan was born and my uncle had to be transferred to a different hospital.

My aunt Debbie said that her advice for childbirth was directly from a friend of hers, who said to 'scream into a pillow'. She said that none of the breathing stuff was really useful for her, but that the screaming worked nicely. Sounds great, doesn't it?

My grandmother has Alzhimer's Disease, and so she always forgets that I'm pregnant. Whenever she sees my belly, she says indignantly, 'You didn't tell me that you were pregnant!' Then she says, 'When are you due?' I tell her 'April 20th', and she says, 'Oh, have him on my birthday!' Her birthday is the 19th, so I always tell her that I'll try, but that I don't think that I have much control over it.

It is sad that she doesn't remember things, but it is also a little fun to be able to tell someone that I'm pregnant... the thrill is still there for me, and she is so excited by it, even if I tell her several times a day. She always tells me how wonderful it is to have children and that I'm going to be so happy. 'What a wonderful time,' she says.

I went swimming in the hotel pool with my cousin Brett. He's 12, and about the coolest kid that I know. If my son turns out just like him, I'll be happy. I was looking forward to swimming, thinking that it would feel really different with the baby, but it really didn't. The only difference that I noticed was that I didn't think it was a good idea to do flips and somersaults, which made swimming a lot less fun. The baby did wake up and kick quite a bit while I was swimming... I told my aunt Nancy that he was trying to swim, too!

Travis mentioned later that he thought it was probably pretty loud for the baby in the pool. Sound carries better through solids and liquids than through air, so he probably could hear all of the other kids kicking and screaming. Interesting.

They kicked all of the kids out of the pool at 10:00 for adult swim, and there was a girl that was complaining about it. She said, 'there aren't even any adults in the pool!' I said, 'I'm an adult!' She looked at me a second and said, 'You don't look like an adult!' She was about 12. I was surprised (and oddly flattered) that she would think that someone 19 years older than her was not an adult. My belly was underwater at this point, though, so she didn't know that I was pregnant.

While I was up there, my mom and I went to Babies R Us and looked at baby stuff. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I just don't find it all that interesting yet! I've never been one to be fascinated with dolls or tiny cute clothing or anything like that (I was a tomboy), so I guess it isn't too surprising, but I was hoping to get more interested when I got close to having my own real baby. I don't think that it is quite real yet.

Oh, I didn't go into labor or have any pregnancy related problems, so I'm really glad that I went!

Work

Kat and I talked about work and what our plans are. Kira is nine weeks old now, I think, and Kat says that she couldn't have imagined going back to work after only four weeks. I don't know what is going to happen for me after the baby is born. Definitely something I need to think about.