The Mommy Update

These are my feet, my balloon-like feet. The lines around my ankles are from my socks.

Today I had another prenatal visit. This was not such a great visit. Baby seems to be fine, but Mom is not. My body is simply not handling pregnancy so well anymore. My blood pressure has gone sky-high and as a result I have been put on partial bed rest (resting for no less than two hours every morning, afternoon and evening and then eight hours at night). I also begin a 24 hour urine test tomorrow morning and when I return to the office with that on Thursday they will do some blood work and also do an NST (nonstress test) to make sure baby is handling the stresses of my body all right. I will also be required to have an NST at least twice a week until baby's birth.

It was certainly not a terrible visit, but it was frustrating. If my body is getting so sick of being pregnant why doesn't it just go into labor? The doctors are a little surprised I am still pregnant and even today the doctor muttered, "So when is this baby going to be born?!" Alas, the days are now very numbered and soon it will all be over. In the meantime, however, I am feeling pretty crappy.

I do, however, have some recent late pregnancy experiences that have kept me smiling. The first is the conflicting report I get from people regarding my size. The first is the people who ask, "Are you sure you're not having twins?" [No, seven ultrasounds and an amniocentesis have all confirmed both the number and gender, and yes, I am huge.] The second group of people say, "You don't look large enough to be as far along as you are." [Great, so I look like I should be this bloated and fat normally?!?!] In actuality: My uterus is measuring smaller than average, but I do carry everything "out front" and this does make me look astonishingly large.

Then there are the kinds of people I have met at the supermarket. The first group is frightened of me and avoid all eye contact and try their darndest to stay out of my way. I can't blame them. The second group is comprised of mostly older women and women who do not have children. This group is the one that will give me the large sympathetic eyes when they pass me, will always give me the right-of-way when rounding the corner, and sometimes offer a word. It is not always an appreciated word. For example, the lady who, when she saw me, stopped dead in her tracks and gushed, "Awwwww . . . I just LOVE pregnant bellies!" Huh? I almost had to duck and cover to make sure she didn't come running over to begin stroking my, apparently, much-loved belly. But other times these people are a godsend. This afternoon was one such time. I had to stop at the supermarket on my way home and I needed to buy a case of water. A lady behind me in the check-out line offered to put the water back in my cart and then offered to walk me out to my car and put it in my car for me. She was much-needed and much-appreciated.

My stories can go on, but I don't want to bore anyone. I do, however, want to share these things while I still can. It seems that most women within a couple years after childbirth kind of forget what pregnancy was really like, so I wanted to make sure I recorded all this while I was still in the throes of it. (A recent study has actually confirmed my hypothesis. About eighteen months after delivery women tend to remember mostly the good and not the bad parts of pregnancy, labor and delivery. It must be a species-survival mechanism!)

But in other nature news: The color was gorgeous up here, but after last night's wind and rain most of our leaves are already scattered on the ground. I did, however, include a couple of pictures that when using some imagination you can see how beautiful it was up here.