Monday, March 1, 2010

New symptoms

Last week we traveled to New Orleans for work and had a great time. The city, full of culture and delicious food, treated us very well and we're so thankful for the opportunity to visit.

It also was the time when I experienced the most pregnancy symptoms. The great shift and expansion project (as my BFF calls it) has started and on more than one occasion, I was certain I had burst my placenta. The first time it happened was on the plane ride heading South. I had to shove my backpack under the seat in front of me and I leaned down to position the backpack, squished everything inside me and felt a very painful pinch. I got lightheaded just for a minute and realized I cannot do that again. It hurt. A lot.

The rest of the trip, my awareness of this internal phemonenon had me paranoid about actually popping the placenta, so I really took it easy. Until I had to tie my tennis shoes one morning. Again, not giving it much thought, I bent right over (I was seated) to tie the shoe and same thing. Sharp, pinching pain. Luckily I had a much quicker response this time so it didn't hurt nearly as badly.

Needless to say, I now have a "no bending" rule.

The other symptom I'm experiencing is headaches. In real life (prior to pregnancy), I rarely experienced headaches. Maybe once or twice a year I'd get one.

Now, they are frequent (almost daily) and uncomfortable. I'm really trying to stay hydrated since I know that most headaches are caused by dehydration. When you're pregnant, your body is creating more blood (by the time you deliver, you have 40% more blood circulating in your body...thats insane!) and that can more easily lead to headaches if you don't take extra care to stay hydrated. Without more water, you have more blood rushing through the same sized veins and that can quickly lead to headaches (and swelling). My understanding is that when you're well hydrated, your veins expand which allow the same amount of blood to rush through a larger area (thus no pounding and throbbing that usually can accompany a headache).

While traveling, staying hydrated is always a challenge (mostly for me because I refuse to spend $4 on a bottle of water in the hotel room and the 4 block one-way trips to CVS at the end of the day weren't helping the swelling in my ankles). I also didn't want to drink too much water before the plane flights since they were relatively short rides and often times during short trips, the captain doesn't turn off the seat belt sign and then you're trapped in a seat without access to a bathroom.

I needed to drink more water to help with the symptoms, but I also had to plan the water intake carefully because I wasn't always near a restroom. It was a vicious cycle ;)

I'm now 15 weeks. I guess I should start feeling the baby move sometime in the next month or so. From what I've read, the baby also makes it's way out of the pelvic area and more into the abdomen during the next few weeks, which is OK with me because I have a lot more room in my stomach than I do in my pelvic area! I've prepared my stomach well over the past few years and trust me, there's plenty of room in there ;)

I know people will say, "be careful what you wish for" when I say this, but I cannot wait to feel the baby move. I realize that as the baby grows, the random internal movements may get annoying and even uncomfortable, but for a first time mommy, it's exciting waiting for that time when you KNOW your baby is moving. I'm sure all of the other mommies out there remember that feeling. I can't wait to experience it.

This should be a pretty busy week at work, but hopefully I'll keep up with blogging.

Oh, and one of my next few posts will likely be about registering and I'm really interested in any and all advice about where to register, what to register for, what to stay away from, etc. For example, do we need a diaper genie? What about suggestions on how to set up a separate diaper changing area since the nursery is upstairs and I don't see myself running upstairs every few hours to change a diaper. Are diaper caddys worth it? They seem too small to be able to keep well stocked. Almost seems like keeping everything in a milk crate shoved under the coffee table is more efficient (although certainly not more attractive I realize).

So if you have some thoughts and tips, BRING IT ON! I'm all ears.

Until then, XOXO...

8 comments:

  1. I remember feeling that same feeling at work one day. I was squatting while doing my filing and next thing you know I was almost laying on the floor because I had squished the baby. I also quickly learned my lesson and used my knees from then on out. As far as putting your shoes on goes, I just stopped wearing shoes that tied. If I had to wear shoes that tied I just sat down on the floor and bent my leg sideways, which you should be doing anyway because it feels so good to stretch out your adductors (which will need to be fairly loose for delivery).

    I registered at Target & BRU because I have family that doesn't live anywhere close to BRU and they needed a 2nd option.

    I like the downstairs changing station idea! I think those diaper caddies are really small too. When you have a NB going through 10+ diapers a day, you will need much more space. If you're going to put a changing table downstairs you will have plenty of storage space. When Vi was NB I didn't even take the diapers out of the package because we got a lot of 20 packs from the hospital(about 6 or so) and we went through them way fast. If you want them to look pretty you could do what everyone else I know does and use a cloth lined basket or canvas crate---which are a smart buy because they can be used later for storage, unlike diaper caddies or even worse, the hanging diaper caddy. The hanging diaper caddies are only bulky space taker uppers, ugly and totally useless in my opinion. bleck! I hate things that only serve one purpose.

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  2. I can't wait for you to feel the baby move. It's amazing!

    Our first house we lived in the basement (that's where the TV was) and the bedrooms where 4 floors above. We had a blanket that we used for changes and had a wicker basket with wipes and diapers in it. Worked so much better than walking all the way up the stairs.

    Registering is really fun and you don't need a diaper genie...or a wipe warmer. They are wastes of money.

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  3. I second the basket for the diapers and wipes. The other word of wisdom I have... were ever you are going to change the baby's clothes, put a bottle of spray and wash. That way when you get food, poo, or whatever on it, you can spray it immediately and not have to worry about taking it directly to the laundry room.

    As for the Diaper Genie - no way. It might be easier to just use individual bags and take the trash out every night. But if you are set on having some kind of diaper pail, get the Diaper Champ. So much easier to use than the Diaper Genie and you can use regular bags.

    IF you go the bottle route (I had to) get Dr. Browns. More expensive, but well worth it. We had colic that was awful until we started using them. They made a world of difference.

    Oh and Dwayne just mentioned, check when you pick out a pack and play (a great place for downstairs when the nursery is upstairs)it might have a place to stick diapers and things. :)

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  4. I totally agree with Dr. Brown's bottles. I've been using them for Vi and she has never had a problem with gas or nipple confusion. They are awesome. My cousins recommended them to me. In fact, one of my cousins pretty much told me that's what I was getting. :) Gotta love family! Just make sure you get the flat lids so you can shake the bottle without the formula/milk going everywhere.

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  5. Regarding water intake when and where - now you know what I've been going through for 14 years! Except, in my case it's when or when NOT to take my lasix.

    I love reading your blog. Keep posting. Your picture is fantastic. You're hardly bumping out. I wanna see it come July. Are you going to get a maternity bathing suit. I have a friend who was pregnant during the summer (years ago) and she would go to the pool and stand and read. The water buoyed up her belly and cooled her down.

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  6. For your registry I have to recommend kaboodle.com. It allows you to add items to your list from any site anywhere. I installed the "Add to Kaboodle" button on my toolbar for extra ease, but you don't have to. You put in the website address and it pulls all of the important information (pictures, description, cost, location, etc) and puts it onto a page for you. And, if someone else has added the same item from a different place and it's cheaper, it will let your guests see all the places they can buy the same item from and the price differences between sites.

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  7. I love having a diaper genie. It's right next to the changing table in the nursery so as soon as the diaper comes off it goes right in. I also have a diaper cadie in the family room, but mostly I bought it because the company was Sara Bear and that's my nickname, so I just had to have it (and the fabric has little paw prints so it matched our puppy theme), but I haven't really used it much. It's easier to use the changing table.

    As for your new pains, I had the same thing. All of a sudden one day at work I sneezed and thought I had given myself a hernia (which I had when I was 9 so I knew how it felt too). Mine got better after a month or so, but then it started to hurt in my rib area when I sneezed.

    If you are going to go to the store and use one of the scanner gun things make sure you take little breaks. When we went I had been on my feet too long and Doug had to catch me as I passed out! I just got too carried away finding cute things. You'll have a blast picking stuff out.

    p.s. I would have commented sooner but bloglines wasn't updating your feed for some reason. When I checked it last night I had 6 new posts! I'll have to check your actual site too I guess. I don't want to miss out on any baby updates!

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  8. I like my Diaper Genie Elite II. The only negative I have about it is that it requires brand specific refills. But it works great at keeping smelly diapers from smelling up her room (or the whole house for that matter).

    I think that keeping a basket of some sort in your living room will be good for when you need to change diapers. When the baby is a newborn, you'll be able to use the diaper changing station that should come on your Pack-n-Play. You'll want to have something up off the ground because getting up and down will be a little difficult after giving birth (regardless of natural vs C-section).

    Don't worry about registering for slings, I have plenty for you to choose from. I went a little sling crazy on Ebay right after Becca was born, and she only ever ended up liking the Sleepy Wrap!

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