The "Lovely" Physical Part of Pregnancy

I know I don't usually post so close together, but I don't figure you'll mind. Wednesday's post was all about the emotional stuff we were going through, and the other little day to day stuff of my pregnancy. Now I get to tell you all about the physical changes and problems I'm experiencing...

I've mentioned the significantly increased appetite before. That seems to have waned, at least the night part of it. I don't really feel hungry too often, but that may be because I'm eating nearly all day long. An apple, then a few chips, then a string cheese, then some macaroni salad, then a tangerine, then a Jello cup, you get the idea. Small things, but mostly healthy. The Jello is sugar free, and surprisingly very good. The only problem with this diet thing is that I've nearly become a vegetarian. I'll have meat with dinner, provided we feel like cooking that night, and that's it. I don't much care for the idea of ham sandwiches, and I've gotten burnt out on peanut butter. I bought a can of honey roasted peanuts, but the honey roasted part keeps me from eating too many of them. I'm trying to get my iron intake up a bit, because my doctor implied that I was anemic on my last visit. That's my biggest worry with not eating a lot of beef products. But I eat a bowl of iron-fortified cereal every morning, and I'm doing better about remembering my prenatal vitamins. So I hope I'm doing okay on the iron bit. I've been anemic before, but now I'm trying to increase my intake for the health of the baby and me.

Now onto bodily changes. I'll start at my head and work my way down. Seems easiest. First, I'm getting acne more. I had finally started to get my acne under control, I was having very few blemishes show up to plague me. Not anymore. I've got acne on my chest, on my shoulders, on my back, and of course my face. I'm even finding pimples just under my hairline on the back of my neck! Another thing affecting my head is nasal congestion. Seems like I'm always stuffy these days. And a lot of the time, it's bloody, both of which are apparently normal. Moving further down this baby vessel, I move to my chest. I have cleavage for the first time in my life! But the downside of that, they are very, very, very sensitive. It never felt good before to be elbowed in the chest, but now, it's nearly excruciating. Last night, we went to our neighbors' for dinner, and their little girl sat next to me on the couch. When she wanted to get down, she elbowed me in the chest for leverage. Oh, my goodness it hurt!!! On down, we get to my stomach. I've already talked about my appetite, or lack of one. I worry sometimes that I'm not eating enough, but I have to force myself to eat at times as it is. And that brings me to my digestive system. Earlier, I found myself more regular than I've ever been. That regularity isn't quite so regular anymore, but still not constipated. Unfortunately, I've been getting a lot of gas. And accompanying that gas are the gas cramps. I usually wake up with them, and they get worse when I lie down on the couch or when I'm trying to sleep. I feel really sorry for Bryan. At least they don't smell bad! Another kind of cramp I've been experiencing is round ligament pain. When I stand up too fast or strain too hard over anything, they'll cramp up. It's definitely not a pleasant feeling. But, moving on in our anatomy of a pregnancy, we reach my legs. I have been feeling lots of joint pain. When I stand up, my knees protest. When I stretch, my elbows protest. My shoulders even get into the act every once in awhile.

Well, that's all for the specific body parts. Overall, I'm feeling well most of the time. It seems my internal temperature is running a bit higher than it normally does, but I still get alternately cold and hot a lot. It's quite interesting trying to predict what temperature I'm going to feel at certain times.

I suppose that's all for now. I may update this particular post throughout the day as I think of things I may have forgotten. I'm going to add a preggo picture later today, when I can hook the camera up to my laptop. I took a picture last night right before I went to bed. Bryan had to come upstairs with me, because I suddenly got lightheaded and clammy, but the feeling went away shortly after I laid down in bed. Anyway, that's all for now.

TTFN!!!

Okay, so yesterday turned out to be a pretty busy day. We don't get those very often. We're such bums. But yesterday we went and got pictures taken for Christmas cards, then went and did a major update to our baby registry at Walmart, later going and getting our Christmas tree and some decorations. After we got home, I looked through the mail. My friend Lindsay sent me this wonderful pregnancy calendar and some other information about pregnancy and parenting, so I sifted through that. (Thanks, Lindsay!!!) Then we put up the Christmas tree and decorated it. After that, Bryan wanted me to see Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas movie, so we went to the video rental store, but neither of them had it. So we picked up something to eat while we were out and headed home. I went to bed shortly after. It had indeed been a busy day for us. So here is my edit, a day late.

The only other physical thing about this particular period of time is the backache. As my breasts and belly grow heavier, standing up and sitting up are harder on my back. Just sitting in one position for an extended time starts to hurt. I find myself flexing to try to pop my upper back. My lower back isn't bothering me too badly yet, at least. Oh yeah, and my asthma's back. It hasn't bothered me since high school. My doctor warned me that pregnancy could make it come back. He was right. My asthma seems to be different than anyone else I know, though. Most asthmatics I know can't stop coughing when they have an attack. I cough a few times to the gagging point. Once I've expelled all the air I possibly can out of my lungs, the attack's over. What I'm left with is the phlegm in the back of my throat. So I'm clearing my throat a lot after the attack is over. But my attacks can last maybe 30 sec to 5 min, where I've seen other people go 5 to 10 min of coughing, and they're left shaky and breathless. I'm usually fine after an attack. So my asthma is not something I concern myself with.

Other things I remembered occurred in the past month or so. I may have mentioned this in an earlier post, but I started getting short of breath about mid-November. I also kept getting this pain under the left side of my pelvic bone. And my heart rate was getting to be pretty fast. It seemed like laying down only exascerbated the problem. The pain came randomly, it seemed, and varied in its intensity and duration. But it seemed like when I lied down, my heart rate would accelerate, and the breathlessness would get really bad. It worried me, so of course my heart rate would quicken even more. I finally called the doctor, but it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving when I called, and they were closed. My appointment was the following Monday anyway, so I just waited through the weekend. My doctor said that everything was normal. He explained it all away, and I left feeling much better than when I went in, especially since I'd gotten to see my baby that day, too!

Well, my morning cereal's not sitting too well, so I'm going to add my preggo picture and rest for a bit.

TTFN!!!