I have been doing too much again.
I know, I know. Shame on me. But it’s hard to slow down. I am not one of these crazy, psycho ladies who go to the gym every day while they’re pregnant. Hell, I don’t even go to the gym when I’m not pregnant. I went every night after work for a few months back when Kurt and I were first married, but it didn’t seem to help any. I’m sure I wasn’t working as hard as I am supposed to, but still. It would have been nice to at least drop a dress size.
It’s hard to know that I am doing too much. Most of the time I feel fine. My back will start to hurt because I’m standing too much, but I think that is because I have a curve to my spine anyhow (I was “diagnosed” with scoliosis by the school physician back in the fifth grade, but nothing was ever done about it), and all that weight thrown toward my front exacerbates the problem. Once I sit down for a few moments, the pain tends to subside.
Most days I spend a good chunk of time on the couch. I don’t need to do a whole lot of housework. I’ve never been one to keep my house obsessively clean. Kurt cleans the kitchen every night after dinner (I cook, he cleans — that’s the rule), and every few days I will go in there and do a more thorough cleaning if it needs it. Kurt will vacuum for me as necessary. I do all the laundry, but that’s not hard work. Throw clothes in washer, wait, throw in dryer, wait, and then sit on couch and fold. I’m also in charge of cleaning both bathrooms by my own choice, but I’ve been cleaning them for so long that I have an excellent system down. It takes me no more than fifteen minutes to clean a bathroom.
So instead of cleaning, I sit on the couch, read my blogs, chat with online friends, and play WordTwist and Pogo. The problem is, lately I haven’t been home, and if I’m not home, I am almost guaranteed to be doing Too Much.
It has been catching up with me lately. Last week I was having cramps of some kind. It was a constant dull ache, much like my awful memories of menstrual cramps from my high school days. I couldn’t get rid of them either; I can take Tylenol, but I wasn’t even sure it was going to work, so I didn’t want to bother taking any meds. I was also spotting a bit, which was the most worrisome of all.
Kurt and I toyed with the idea of talking to the nurse, but we decided against it. I already had an appointment for Friday, and I figured I could bring it up to her then. The cramps left me over the weekend, but I was still spotting a bit here and there.
At my appointment yesterday, I told my OB that I’d been feeling pretty badly, and that I’d been spotting. I think she really took me seriously because I wasn’t my normal jokey self. I was pretty down about everything, and my voice began shaking as I talked to the OB because I was so overwhelmed. She patted my knee and asked me if I wanted her to examine me to see what the baby was doing. I nodded my head, and she went to work.
She reassured me that everything looked good, that I’m still tight and closed up there. The baby is already head down, so that’s another good thing. I guess my concern with this baby really made an impression on her because she asked me if I wanted to be seen again this Friday, when I was scheduled to wait another two weeks. So now I will be seeing the OB every single week from here until I deliver.
In a way, it’s sort of a pain in the neck because it’s such a quick appointment. I usually spend more time in the waiting room than I do with the doctor. But in another way, it’s a very good thing because if something happens during the week, I am already scheduled to be seen every Friday.
And now it gives me more time to spend with my friend. She lives up on the north end of the island, very close to my OB’s office, and that’s where we went after my appointment this last Friday. I plan on stopping by her house this coming Friday as well so I can install Firefox on her computer. If I’ve got to go all the way up to the north end, I might as well make it worth it!
Today I almost overdid it again. The results for who made Chief Petty Officer for this year came out last week, so now the Selectees are doing a bunch of fund-raisers to support their initiation process. Kurt, as a full-fledged Chief (he’s called a “Genuine”), is somewhat obligated to support the Selectees. Today they had a car wash, so Kurt took the van down to have it washed — and he ended up helping out with the car wash. My friend and I got antsy waiting for our husbands to finish helping out, so we went shopping.
Our Linens N’ Things is going out of business, so we had to check out any possible deals they still had. There wasn’t much in there. So many people had seen “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS” signs when it was still just 20% off the original price, and they’d descended on the store like locusts and cleared it out as effectively as locusts can decimate a crop. I got some funnels to use to refill my spice jars, though. And then we went to Michael’s, where I found a ton of things I want, of course. I limited my purchases to the dollar section, mainly because I’ll get a 40% off coupon in tomorrow morning’s paper. Why buy something at full price when I can get it for 40% off?
And if there wasn’t enough joy in visiting a Linens N’ Things and a Michael’s in one day, we then hied ourselves to Barnes & Noble. I found this really cute book called Mom’s Almanac (seen HERE on Amazon.com), which features vintage illustrations with modern and up-to-date information on raising your children. At just $10 I couldn’t pass it up.
But by the time we finished at B&N, I was done. Stick a fork in me, done. There was talk of heading up to Target to check it out, but my friend’s husband wasn’t feeling great from some immunizations he’d had a couple days ago. They elected to pack it in instead of prolonging the day, and as much as I wanted to go to Target with them, it was probably for the best. I was really feeling crappy by then.
It’s so hard, though!! It’s just walking around! Why can’t I do that?? I feel so… limited now. When I was pregnant with Grace, I could do almost anything I felt like doing. And what’s not fair about the whole thing is I started out thinner and lighter with this pregnancy than I did with Grace. I am still 20 pounds lighter than I was when I delivered Grace. You would think this pregnancy would be easier on me since I am thinner! But for some reason it’s been harder. I guess everything is stretched out from Grace, and my muscles just aren’t happy with me.
What are those women thinking who have a dozen or more kids? If I am having this many problems with my second pregnancy, how do they feel at #10???
I don’t even want to think about it.
The Mind of Bluesleepy 
Every pregnancy is different. I had so many problems with my second – but my third was easy from start to finish. The only thing I remember was being exhausted for the majority of all but the first pregnancy. I had four – God help the women that have more than that.
I would think once you get past three or four kids, you have so much work to do that you are in great shape and don’t get so tired… or else you just don’t have time to be tired!
46 more days!!!!!! I can’t wait to meet this baby.
Shear is right. We can’t wait to meet this baby!
Every pregnancy IS different, but the biggest difference is that last time you didn’t also have a toddler to run after. Take it easy and let things unfold as they come — be busy or be not busy, whatever suits you at the moment.
I wonder if you are having round ligament pain. I had that with all three, but it seemed more so with the second and third, because I had a small child to take care with the second and third pregnancy.
My pain was in the front and above where my leg met my trunk, usually on the left side and it started when I walked too much.
I did attempt to work out with the third pregnancy, walking on the treadmill and that lasted until about the fifth month and then it was too much.
I do think those ligaments get stretched after the first pregnancy and it’s harder to bounce back.
Good luck on these last weeks!
Give yourself a break and don’t get upset when you get tired. You are doing more, your husband is home with you but you are still doing more….you go out more, you visit friends, you take Gracie places and you cook. I’m glad you will be seeing your dr. every Friday if only to give you reassurance every week.
and btw, I wish I could meet YOU too but maybe we will get up to R.I. some time…..????
AWWW! Sit and watch the Olympics. Hee hee. You always making me tired when you tell me about your days and I have three! All three of my pregnancies were pretty easy (minus the cerclage but even that was easy). I remember at each progressive pregnancy my body would be more achy but then I didn’t really have time to dwell on it much. 🙂 And I didn’t know you were spotty! Girl! You need to tell me these things!!!
Wow I agree with all the ladies up here. Take it easy and just relax a little! 🙂 I can’t wait to meet your baby Blue! Not long now…
Yes, please relax a little and loll about a little!
I’m so glad that everything is still going smoothly and you’re only a little uncomforable at worst.
And, the good news is that despite the inconvenience of having to go to an appointment every week now, at least they’re “free”!!
I did way more while pregnant with B than I did with G. Except…I wasn’t allowed to drive while pregnant with B because I passed out all the time. B was a bigger baby and even though I was 21 I was still growing. You’d think I’d feel worse with the first but the 2nd one, at the end, wooped me.