My goodness… how embarrassing…. 3 weeks behind. And it’s basically the end of my 36th week so it’s almost like I am late with this week’s post as well. Not my idea of being on top of things. But to cut me some slack there has definitely been a lot going on that has been keeping me from being able to post my weekly posts.
I probably don’t remember much that happened in my 34th week, but will do my best to kind of sum things up and give a life update in general.
One thing I remember I missed in my last post that probably happened in my 32nd or 33rd week, was my leg cramp that I had. I’ve mentioned the few leg cramps I have had here and there, and most of them would happen at night when I would be sleeping, but not something that would happen on a day to day basis or any more often than that, and hence never worried much about it. Although, the pain was very excruciating, and being the panicky person I am I was always paranoid of having a leg cramp at the wrong time…. Like when driving. Well, that finally happened, my biggest paranoia fear came true. But nonetheless, I have to say I was lucky and it could have been much worse that is for sure.
I had a leg cramp while pulling into our parking space behind our apartment complex. Luckily our car faces this uphill grassy foresty thing, so I didn’t crash into a person or car- THANK GOD! As I was pulling in it hit me, and of course not really having control over my leg or of anything for that matter, I tried to respond quickly by pressing the breaks as hard as I could with the pain going on in my leg. And instead of breaking as hard as I could I of course pressed the gas as hard as I can, and immediately removed my foot once I realized it was the gas. Anyway, that made the car go slightly uphill and into the forest kind of. Like I said, it’s uphill, so I don’t think I could have gone far if I continued to press the gas pedal. Nonetheless, there were trees and branches that I ran into. At first I just kind of sat there for a few seconds in panic mode trying to comprehend what the heck just happened. Then I backed up and put the car in the right position. I was very shaky and scared… I didn’t hurt myself, I was more scared than anything and concerned about the car really. I stepped out and looked at the car (mind you the front of the car is facing the forest so I couldn’t really see the complete front of the car) and looked around and seemed to just see a few white marks that weren’t really scratches from the branches, but just marks because I was able to remove them with my finger. I didn’t really run into anything other than a bush and a few branches so didn’t think anything of it- once again I was more scared than anything, I thought. In about an hour hubby and I had to go to church and when we go outside to the car, he pulls out and I see the true damage that was done to the car. Our front bumper was smashed. When I saw this I started balling my eyes. For several reasons… 1. How stupid was I to do something like that. 2. OMG, this is not some little thing it is going to cost a lot of money and we don’t have much to begin with! 3. Hubby is going to kill me. And to make things even more wonderful, the bumper was pushing into one of the wheels and when you would turn a certain way it would make a terrible screeching noise… so basically it was not safe to drive which meant I would not be able to work on top of losing money for fixing it. Great. Over a stupid leg cramp.
Anyway, not to mope in the past, but we asked around and were recommended this one guy who does really good body work on cars and for relatively cheap prices. We got everything fixed for $200. I mean… yeah it’s still a lot of money but it could have been a lot worse. A leg cramp that cost me $200- great!
As far as symptoms, I don’t really remember which ones where specific to each week so I will try to kind of just sum them up in general. Heartburn has been insane. Everything I eat and/or drink gives me horrible heartburn. Heartburn to the extent that if I am laying in bed and feel like I have to burp, I burp in hopes of getting some relief and actually throw up some of my food. Not a lot- a mouth full. Enough for me to hold my mouth closed, run to the bathroom and spit it out- ew, I know. And I am not even nauseous, just heart burn and acidy. Milk does not help me. I drink ginger ale- the fizziness seems to give me some relief and also tums. Tums help me every now and then as well.
My weight has been jumping… 2 weeks ago I was 173.6, last week I was 177.8, and yesterday I weighed myself being 174.6. So I am keeping the last weight to leave it at a happy medium. Scary how much heavier I am getting. I am getting to 180 pounds almost… and reaching an almost 40 pound gain not counting the 10 extra pounds I lost and gained back. Gah, scary.
Baby has been kicking like crazy. I have been feeling a lot of foot and knee and elbow movement. He is still head down, so that is good. He has been hiccupping a lot too. Definitely at least once a day, and more often about 3 times a day… such a silly feeling! He is definitely starting to have less and less room in there because sometime he just sticks out body parts and doesn’t even care anymore, lol. Like mom, sorry… but I just feel like sticking my butt out today. I am getting more and more impatient to meet this little person inside me :)
The heavier I get, the weirder it feels. Walking around feels very strange now. I feel like there is a bowling ball between my legs. Not even that, but kind of like a big poop down there weighing down on me, and with every step I take it pushes/presses down like a balloon filled with a lot of water weighing down and down…. As if it’s about to burst any moment. Very weird.
Anyway, back to life events. I had my baby shower about 1.5 weeks ago. It was nice, but have to say planning it was beyond stressful. And to make things even easier for us, the whole week before the forecast was wonderfully warm and sunny, and last minute they changed it to rain and it started to rain that morning. Yes, it was outside. And the tents we had in mind to borrow in case that happened were not in our reach that weekend. I panicked of course… fitting 40-60 people (that may have possibly come) in our friend’s house was not an option. So hubby and our friend Arseniy drove down to Wal-Mart and got a tarp thingy with ropes and other stuff for $240. Luckily we were able to return everything but the ropes… getting $220 back, so I was very relieved about that. But it was nice, and a part of me is glad it’s over :)
Before I get to the whole moving part, let me tell you about the best thing that has happened to me thus far (being highly sarcastic here!!!) I got the shingles! Between the baby shower and moving and stress about everything in general I guess it finally hit me. Honestly, I didn’t even know what the shingles were… so let me tell you how this even unraveled.
This happened 2 weeks from today… I noticed I had a little itch on my back. Didn’t think anything of it, I remember lying in bed before going to sleep and asking hubby to scratch a specific part on my back, that he seemed to feel there was a bite or 2 on my back. The next day it itched even more and I felt about 7 bites, and I was like okayyyy, so some sort of bug had a good meal on my back- wonderful! Saturday that area started to ache. So I figured it wasn’t a mosquito, must have been an ant or spider or something, because it was giving off to my muscles in a way. Saturday onto Sunday night is when the pain started to get pretty bad. I woke up at night from the pain and had to take Tylenol. Sunday, the day of my baby shower the pain was awful. It was giving off to my shoulder and neck and underarm and boob. I started thinking what the heck bit me that it’s giving me such pain… nerve pain! As if they bit me in some nerve or it was some sort of allergic reaction. Nonetheless, the pain was really bad and that is when I started taking the percocets that I had left over from my kidney infection in order to function and get through preparing and the actual shower.
During the shower, I showed a few of my friends my “ bites” and was wondering if maybe anyone had anything useful to say. And one of them did… saying it was shingles. I started googling it , and of course that is never truly useful :) At that point I haven’t really looked at my back since Friday, and noticed that it was definitely no longer “ bites” it was looking more and more like a rash. That night after the shower the pain hit its peak… and sadly 2 weeks later it is still the same. :/ I went to convenient care in Herkimer Bassett on Monday… which was probably the worst idea ever. It’s like urgent care except it is supposed to be more convenient in the way it’s not walk in you have to schedule an appointment. Which I totally did but still ended up waiting 2.5 hours there when I showed up which was ridiculous! Anyway, pregnant, hungry, thirsty, and in pain me ( my Tylenol wore off) had an emotional breakdown right there, and I finally got seen and diagnosed with shingles. The woman who came to look at me spent maybe about 2 minutes in the room with me. Quickly looked at my back and said “Yup, It’s shingles!” Seriously? I waited 2.5 hours for her to just look at me for 5 seconds to say that??? And when I was explaining to her the extent of the pain and where it was reaching out to (my knee and my face) she told me it was not possible, as if I am making it up. The point is my experience wasn’t the best. They gave me antiviral meds and refused to give me any other pain meds or recommendations or advice on what to do next. At that point I was in so much pain and so upset that I went home and that was that.
The next day hubby had a checkup appointment with our primary care provider and I decided to tag along to see if he could take a look at me and see what he would say. He was such a help. He gave me 2 creams and pain meds and at least explained and took his time to look at me and give me advice on what to do. Anyway, not to turn this whole post about the shingles, but it’s been a little over 2 weeks now, and the rash is almost gone… but the pain is still there. I am trying to take less pain meds or try to take just the Tylenol instead of the Percocets and it’s been working lately. I’ve also been using Aveeno oatmeal bath. Pain is either getting less intense or I am more used to it… regardless it is still there but I am hoping it goes away soon.
Moving, I am not going to get super into that, but yes we moved. Maybe I will just save all the details for next week’s post since it technically happened this week for me to tell you about in the next post that I will try my best not to be late with. But yes, we moved on Memorial Day. I really like the new place but there is a lot of work to do! I am only interested in doing the baby room right now and nothing else. But I am glad I can finally do that at least as opposed to having all the baby stuff in our other room in our old apartment and not being able to do anything with it since we weren’t staying there.
As far as emotions, I feel like I started crying more. I am more sensitive and just things upset me more I guess. Which sucks, because I don’t want to be a downer. Lately I think what really has been making me even more upset is the shingles, because of the pain. I try so hard not to complain and deal with it, but this nonstop intense pain really gets to me. I don’t get a break at all, and I just break down and cry from the pain. Every time someone talks to me about their shingles or their experience with it and for how long they had the pain, I also start crying because I realize this thing is going to haunt me for life. I think just being in pain and miserable on top of everything else doesn’t really put you in the mood for things and just makes everything else seem worse around you making me even more upset. Which sucks, because I don’t like being like this. And knowing there is nothing I can really do about it makes me hopeless and even more upset.
But yeah, that is pretty much it. I am getting very exhausted but pushed myself to finish this update so I can post it tonight. So off to bed I go! Hopefully once the insanity of moving settles down I will get things under control again and be on time, because this is just ridiculous being late this much. Ugh. Anyway, goodnight y’all!
