Hair Hair

That great hair feeling I was enjoying throughout my pregnancy? No more. I've already begun finding long, wavy stray hairs on my clothes and on baby, and I don't think it's my new conditioner at fault here. It's those postpartum hormones making my nails crack and my hair fall out. Last time 'round, I had to cut my very very long hair after six months because it was taking me at least forty minutes to brush it every time I washed it and I just couldn't afford the time. The hair would fall out and get tangled in there. I would have to stop several times during the brushing and pull handfulls of hair out of my brush. My hair is very tangled on a regular basis and so I'm used to spending time getting knots out, but this was ridiculous. Cutting it helped because there was simply less to get tangled.
I got my hair styled about six months ago and haven't cut it since. I don't cut my hair very often. It's still in a stage where it's quite easy to get a brush through. Hopefully I won't have to do another drastic cut to get through this period.
Also, my beautiful nails from during pregnancy are starting to lose their strength. Sigh. There are some things about pregnancy that you can't wait to get rid of, and there are some things you wish you could keep.

Fit To All Appearances

Looking good at two and a half weeks postpartum. At least, that's what people are telling me. I went to drop off DS at nursery yesterday morning after going through my closet to figure out what I could now fit into. I think it's good to start phasing out my maternity clothes so that I have a real sense of where I am in terms of getting back to myself. Last time, I allowed myself six weeks to wear maternity clothes and then I put them all away and made myself face my closet.

Anyway, the skirt I wore yesterday was one I was able to wear through my pregnancy although it is just a regular stretchy denim skirt. The shirt is a very simple cotton t-shirt that I don't normally wear at all because it's so shapeless that I usually get lost in it. But now thanks to breastfeeding and my recent pregnancy, I'm a little more curvaceous and so I fit into it nicely.

The teachers and parents who haven't seen me since I gave birth were making all kinds of comments about how good I looked and how they look more pregnant than me.... I kept denying that I'd 'returned to my old body' because I know what lies beneath the facade of clothing.

The truth is, I'm fine with how I am right now. I'm not crazy: I just gave birth under three weeks ago. I don't expect to look like a runway model quite yet. I was somewhat surprised and pleased to find out how little I care about what others think about how I look. What really matters, as they say, is what's inside. In this case, I'll say what matters is what's inside my own head. You have to know in life to take things that other people say with a grain of salt. When it comes to the shape of my body, I guess the other opinion that matters besides my own is my husband's. So I'l keep it in the family.

Baby Bumpless: The After-Birth Belly

I should have done a day-by-day photograph of my belly. I'll have to do it next pregnancy. I'm talking now about my post-pregnancy belly. On the day after birth, it sagged like an enormous misplaced boob over where my waistband would have been had I not been clad in a hospital robe. By day 2 it hadn't changed much. On day three, by the time I came home from the hospital, it had regressed significantly. I still had a soft mushy belly, but it looked like the soft mushy belly of a soft mushy person.

Looking at pictures of myself from a day or two after that, I can see that I still looked a bit pregnant. However, within the fist week, I was already able to feel that I had a waist again. It was a very good feeling. I keep putting my hands there because I can't believe it. What a feeling! A waist.

Now, about two and a half weeks after delivery, my stomach is soft and mushy still but it's not so protruding anymore. I probably look like I could stand to lose a few pounds-- and I probably can. I only weighed myself once, and that was within a week of delivery. My stomach was down but my weight was still about twenty pounds more than my pre-pregnancy starting point.

Another thing is that I normally have very prominent hipbones. I wouldn't say that they are prominent now but I can feel them again. I also feel like my thighs and legs are on their way back to being what they were before I gave birth. I still think my butt looks big, but I've learned that a big butt is not necessarily a bad thing. Fashion models may have nearly nonexistent bottoms, but I think a little bit of roundness on a girl is a nice feature. I am normally quite angular.

My face has thinned out. DH observed that women who are about to give birth tend to bulk up around the face. I noticed this in a friend of mine as well who's about 37 weeks right now. She's a thin girl with a tiny bloop of a belly but her face looks swollen. Mine was like that towards the end, but it's thinned out now.

All this is without exercise or any special dieting. In fact, I just finished consuming an ice cream pop. I was all ready to start going shopping and wandering about town after the baby was born but then she got sick with fever at one week and landed in the hospital for three days. Of course, I went with her. We were all but quarrantined in our room. You don't want to wander around a germy children's ward with a newborn. I was totally paranoid about germs that whole time and also totally sedintery. I had DH bring me my yarn and I sat and crocheted the whole time. Ever since then, DH doesn't want me to take her out until she's at least a month and even when he's home, which isn't so often lately, it's hard for me to leave her b/c I'm breastfeeding. Pumping is an option but it's hard to find the opportunity.

Anyway, the point is that my body does seem to want to get back to its normal self. Now if only I could help out by getting some exercise.

I'm Back With A Baby - My Labor and Delivery Story

For those of you who have been waiting with baited breath since my last blog posting, I apologize for nearly two week's delay. I could blame it on new motherhood, but that would be stretching the truth by about three days and I have about twelve days to account for. I have a very good excuse for the last four days which I'll share in another post.

When you last saw me, I was having contractions at home. They started in the morning after I noticed bloody show overnight. They were light and not really painful. DH had an exam in the afternoon and I took at walk and picked up DS from nursery, after which I went out for a falaffel and then stopped by the flower shop on the way home to pick up a thank-you gift for our friends who helped us out when I had that fever the week before. I even ran into them at the top of the street and they didn't notice anything. I didn't say anything.

Contractions started coming harder later in the afternoon. I would have to pause between blogging or cleaning or whatever I was doing, let it pass, and then go on. DS woke up and was climbing all over me. My sister arrived eventually and still I didn't want to go to the hospital, even though I knew (though I wasn't reporting to the waiting parties) that according to the five-minute rule, I should have gone already.

Laboring at home was the best thing I could have done. I wasn't being monitored or checked constantly. Nobody was holding me down or watching me or sticking needles in my arm. Nothing was strapped to me. I found a position or two that was ideal for waiting out contractions (on my hands and knees on the couch with my head on the armrest.) It was all very calm and, though I wouldn't quite call it pleasant, I can say that it was ideal conditions.

The contractions started getting bad and sweetly and without pressure, DH inquired when we would be leaving for the hospital. He was nervous that he'd have to do the job himself. I finally allowed him to convince me to leave the house when my water broke.

And then came the hardest part-- emotionally-- of the whole experience. I had to say goodbye to DS who I was seeing for the last time as an only child. Even thinking about it now is difficult. Fortunately, he had fallen fast asleep and didn't know that I spent more than a few moments lying beside him, stroking his hair, and apologizing. I know, I know, giving him a sibling is the best gift of all etc etc but it was still really tough on me. I knew that things were about to change forever. I'm not so good with change.

We ended up going to a different hospital than I had planned on since it was easier to walk to from our house and we wanted access. It's the same hospital where I gave birth to my son (after torturous procedures and interventions) nearly two years ago. It's not that the staff was bad. It's just that I had a bit of an emergency situation that time and it resulted in a very difficult birth.

I had awful contractions after that, and being in the car was pure torture. It's hard to relax into a contraction when you're strapped in to a bucket seat. Still, I was cautioning DH all the while to drive more carefully. The hospital is only 5 minutes away and though I could feel that the time to start pushing was near, I kept the news from him because he was already really nervous. He parked the car while an attendant helped me into a wheelchair and took a few details from me. I was going to refuse the chair but then I realized I had to get upstairs fast because the baby was on its way. DH arrived and we took off at a madcap down the hallway and up the elevator.

I was greeted at the labor ward by a midwife who made me get on a bed and strapped a monitor across my belly despite my protests. "We have to know how the baby is doing" she said. I hate that. The baby was on its way out one way or the other. In the meantime I was expected to lie obediently in whatever positions they commanded of me? There was no way. Honestly, there are times in life it's okay to not be cooperative. Oh, and then they did that awful thing where they check how dilated you are. I HATE IT. There were only two times I screamed during the entire process, and checking my cervix was one of them. It hurts and also just plain bothers me more than any other thing they do. Apparently I have a very very long canal and they need to dig right in there to get at it. I refused it all through the other checks in my pregnancy. It also bothers me even now-- just thinking about it makes me cringe.

I was four centimetres. FOUR? FOUR? No way I was only four.

When they finally got me into the delivery room, I did what I never intended to do: I climbed up on the bed and lay on my back. And by the way, I was fully dialated. Ten beautiful centimetres. I don't remember them checking me at that point. Maybe they just had a glance and could see... I don't know. Anyway, by that point there was no holding back.

Oh yes, that was after they insisted on replacing my clothes with a hospital gown, which I suppose I should be grateful for in terms of laundry, but I had no interest in at the time. The reason I was on my back is that it's just the position I ended up in and I was in too much pain to change it at that moment. Also, I was comfortable. Also, I knew the baby was on it's way out. I could feel it. It was all very intense.

At some point, and I didn't realize this until later on, the pain turned to tension. Every muscle in my body was coiled up. Whenever the midwife wanted me to change position even a little bit-- shift up, shift down, move my legs, hold my knees, whatever, it's not that I couldn't do it, but it took enormous effort to realign any muscle in my body at all. It's like they were melted in position. Even when DH or the midwife tried shifting me just a little, I protested. The biggest movement I made was some shifting and once I flipped over on my side, which is apparently a preferred position over the supine one. Talking was also really hard. I mostly used hand motions or whispered to DH who then translated to the midwife. The only motion I was happy to consent to was pushing.

This tension had been building with every contraction to the point that I couldn't relax in between contractions. I needed more time than I had. But that was somehow okay. Because like I said, what I was feeling wasn't exactly pain. I wasn't feeling comfortable, but it was way better to be like this than having regular contractions. The only problem was that it was very difficult for me to tell when it was time to push. So I just guessed.

The mood in the room, if I remember correctly, was pretty relaxed. I had chosen what they call the 'natural birthing room,' which is basically called that because it contains a radio, a shower stall, and a hippie-style floor lamp. This is in contrast with the 'natural birthing room' in the hospital I originally inteded to go to, which contained a jacuzzi, a neat-looking purple bed, wood panelling, and who knows what else.
I guess I guessed well, because the midwife kept telling me that things were progressing. I can see the top of the head. I can see the top of the head. It's coming, just a few more pushes... I believed her and also my husband when they said these things, but I was getting really tired. I just wanted to wrap it up for the evening and come back the next day to try some more. I pushed for twice as long in my last birth. I guess that God gives you strength for what you need when you need it.

I had my husband on one side and the midwife on the other (and yest, a monitor on my belly but that stopped bothering me after a little while) And when they kept telling me it was just one or two more pushes away and then I heaved one or two more pushes and it didn't come out, I started to get really tired. But then I decided that I really could be working a little harder-- not that it was any picnic up until that point, but I hadn't given it my abesolute all until then. Not the of medal-winning, baby delivering all that maybe was required.

So I geared up, got ready to give it everything I had, and screamed. The stupid midwife had her fingers in there and was massaging oil around. Now, I know that the midwife is supposed to do that, and it's supposed to help ease the baby out and prevent tearing, but I'll say something here that might shock and appal you: I would prefer the pain of tearing over having her fingers in there. Really and truly. Okay, really and truly as long as it's not a third degree tear. But she could have warned me. Or at least asked me. You don't just stick your fingers up someone's hoo-hoo without warning. I don't care what the circumstances are. I HATE HATE HATE that feeling. It makes me crazy. I screamed for her to stop but she said something about her having to do it so I had DH (DEAR, DEAR Husband) explain to her that I really meant it. Also, all the rubbing and the horrible disturbance it caused me (again, I shudder to think of it) distracted me from the business of birthing. I couldn't push while she was doing that. I couldn't at all. It was very counter productive. I was ready to kick her in the face. But I couldn't move my legs on my own and I don't think she would have happily helped me to do it. If any readers feel the same way about this, I would be happy to know that I'm not alone here.

To give her credit, this is a perfectly normal procedure for midwife to be doing and I'm probably the first person ever ever to tell her to stop. In fact, I was probably the first person in the hospital ever to be uncooperative during labor, so it stands to reason that she was doing what she was doing without any guilty feelings at all. She was actually pretty nice and respectful and definitely knew what she was doing. But at that moment, I hated her.

With that crisis over, I geared up once again for the Big Push. I pushed once, I pushed twice, I though to myself, 'push harder, let's get this over with!' and I gave it another huge push-- then I heard 'stop pushing!' I cant! I couldn't stop pushing remember, my body wasn't entirely in my controll. But it was all okay. A couple of seconds later I heard a cry and saw the midwife pulling the baby out and placing her on my chest.

I didn't have this pleasure with the birth of DS. His cominng-out was a lot more hectic and they took him straight to get weighed and measured and wrapped. I did get to hold him and feed him before they took him off to the nursery, but it wasn't immediate contact.

The first thing I noticed was how huge and heavy she felt, all curled up on my chest. To tell the truth, at that moment I was so weak that I don't think I would have been able to support a cup of coffee with my bare hands but I had a bed underneath me and holding me up so I was able to handle this little baby girl. I put my arm on her. She felt nice. I liked her. I got to hold her that way for a little bit and then they took her to clean and wrap her up. The midwife asked if I wanted to hold her again, but I told her that I didn't think I could.

It was time to deliver the placenta. I said no way. I can not push one more single thing out of me today. Let's do it tomorrow. But the midwife gave a big heave on my stomach (again, I wanted to slap her. Doesn't she know what I've just been through?) and with a few gentle pushes, I was able to get the thing out of me. They spread it out on the cart to get a look at it. It didn't look to me like you could tell anything from it, but what do I know?

At that point, I was shaking so hard I felt like I was riding a lawnmower. I was assured by various personel wandering through my room at that point that it was completely normal and not to worry. So I didn't worry but I did continue to shake. I also asked to be covered with a sheet. Just because I finished giving birth doesn't mean I want to sit around with my legs open for all the world to see. I don't care if they're doctors.

I can't remember if cutting the cord came before or after delivering the placenta. DH wanted to do it but I think he was also a bit weak and couldn't get a good grip on it with the scissors so he declined.

And then came the stitching up. I had a second degree tear. Whatever. It was superficial she said. Whatever. It was over. I consulted my watch. The whole thing, from the time of my arrival at the hospital, had taken under two hours. Under and hour forty-five. The baby had done her part, I had done mine, DH and midwife had done theirs. We had done well. We have a new daughter.

Sick Sick Sick - Pregnant With a Fever.

I guess I must have been pushing my pregnant body too hard on that day. I didn't really realize how tired I was until the late afternoon. We went a family trip in the morning and spent a good chunk of time wandering around and in the sun. The car ride itself was very crampy and tiring for me, not to mention hot. When we got home I prepared coffee and snacks for our guests and that was when I started to realize just how much I wanted to lie down. When I finally did fall into my bed a little while later, I all of a sudden started shuddering and shaking, groping for the sheet on our bed in 40 degree heat (that's about 90 or so for all you farenheit fans). I called my husband to bring me another blanket and then another. I was definitley feverish.

It's really scary to be this sick when you're this pregnant. I had no idea what was wrong with me. The shakes eventually went away but I still needed the protection of my blankets. After a while I shed the blankets as well and used just the sheet. A shower made me feel much better, but that was all the getting out of bed I did that evening-- oh, and I got up a couple of hours later to eat a bit of dinner.

I was nervous to go to the hospital, though that was definitley an inclination because of how worried we were. The thing is, I know that at this very late stage in the pregnancy, they wouldn't hesitate to just take the baby out either by c-sectoin or inducing-- probably the former-- if there was even the smallest sign of danger. It's easier for them. But it's definitely not something I wanted. So we decided to wait it out, at lest for a few hours. I'm glad we did. By the morning I felt much better. I was pretty much back to normal though I made sure to take it easy for the rest of the day. And since then I've been trying to avoid anything that is too physically stressful. I've learned my lesson well. The fever, we deduced later, was due to heat exhaustion.

Up Up Up

Officially 77.1 kilos today. That's 170 lbs for you Americanos. No wonder I have trouble getting up hills and up the stairs (why oh why do we live in a walkup?) I'm carrying around the equivalent of a microwave oven strapped to my midsection.

The scale at the pool actually said 77.4 but I'm going with the scale a the clinic this time because... my hair was wet...

right.

I'm heavy. Hopefully this will all dissapear with the arrival of baby. People still tell me how skinny I look. Those people didn't know me 9 months ago.

Dry Nipples and Cream

This post was republished from http://breastfeedingchronicles.blogspot.com . It's about me. I thought it would be relevant here as well.

I am very bad at doing all these girly things like putting lotion on after a shower -- or ever. When I'm pregnant I make a bigger effort with my cocoa butter lotion in order to prevent stretch marks. I know, I know, there's no guarantee-- but I didn't get stretch marks last time. Of course, last time I didn't get nearly as big as I am this time. To give you an idea of how little I use ceram, I've had the same bottle of Palmers since we got married and now we're on our second kid. Do the math yourself. I bought another bottle when I was pregnant last time but it's still sitting new in my cupboard. And I don't only use it during pregnancy. I used it on my face in the winter when the heaters and the breastfeeding were making me so dry that I felt like my face was cracking off.Back to my nipples. The point is, they're dry and cracked. I don't think it's thrush but I don't want to take the chance. But I also don't feel like putting lotion on. Truth is, I just plain forget all about it. Who thinks about dry nipples until they take their shirt off. And if I'm taking my shirt off, I'm probably on my way to bed and I don't have the energy for nipple rubbing, or else it's morning and I have better things to do, like chase after my DS to get him dressed for kindergarten. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if this clears itself up like it did last time. Actually, maybe I was a little more diligent about it last time. I recall using baby oil or something. Or was that on my itchy scalp?

Pregnant and Sick to My Stomach

The last three days or so I've been dragging even more than I've already been. I thought it was just, you know, pregnancy and being tired and slow. But then I realized that no, this is not just regular blahs. This is sick.
It began with a cold and then I developed some kind of stomach ailment. I'll spare you the details, but I will tell you that this happens to some women before they give birth-- it's the body's way of clearing the system for labor. In my case I know it's not so because dear husband, brother, sisters, and brother-in-law, all who were over at my house this weekend, are or were also sick to varying degrees. Sounds like I was hit hardest, but considering my 'condition', that's hardly surprising. I just hope this clears up before I go into real labor.

At first I thought that DH was just having sympathy paints-- couvade syndrome. But when I found out that it was actually everyone who was ill, I stopped flattering myself with that notion.

Update: I feel much better today, though I am sure that I'm a bit dehydrated from having expelled so much fluid so fast. On the plus side, my feet are less bloated!

Pregnant At The Dentist Some More

This is a letter I sent to a dentist friend out of desperation for the tooth pain I've been having and the anxiety of dealing with it during this last stage of my pregnancy. Actually, I tried looking up the problem online and I found that a whole lot of people are going through what I'm going through... but nobody seems to have a solution.

Well, if someone reading this can tell me what to do about it, I would greatly appreciate the help.
Here's my story:

I'm having a bunch of tooth trouble and it's really bad. Also, it's turned into kind of a mystery. I've written the details out below. Would you mind having a look and seeing if you can come up with anything?

It began with what I thought was tooth pain. That was about a month ago and I was about well over 30 weeks pregnant. I was convinced that I had to get a root canal-- the pain was almost unbearable and it was radiating throughout my cheek, ear, and up to my eye sometimes. It kept me up at night. But a visit to the dentist and an x-ray showed only a regular cavity and also a clogged sinus. I went to see a doctor about the sinus pain and she prescribed Moxiphan for a bacterial infection, which I took.
By the end of the course of antibiotics, the agonizing pain had subsided, but there was still pain along my upper jaw when I ate hot or cold foods. I thought that filling the cavity would help it. I finally had my cavity filled at almost term. The pain subsided for a couple of days, though the area was very tender. Then I began having shooting pains along the top of my jaw again. Not as bad as the original sinus problem, but still enough to make me stop whatever I was doing and run to get ice whenever it happened-- which was often. The pain got steadily worse and worse until I got to the point yesterday that I couldn't even touch that tooth or chew even on the left side of my mouth in fear of accidentally hitting my painful right tooth (tooth 15?) while chewing. The food that I do chew isn't well chewed-- I can't grind food finely between my teeth because I can't completely close my jaw due to the pain. So I end up swallowing food that is not adequately chewed.
I went to the dentist today again-- the same one who did the filling a week ago. She did another x-ray to see if there as nerve damage but she said the nerve looked perfectly alright, although she still saw some fluid in the sinus. She showed the x-ray to the other dentist in the office and he also didn't see any problems with it. He suggested that perhaps I am having a rare reaction to the filling itself which my dentist told me is the gentlest one there is (P60?). If this is the case, she told me, I just have to wait it out a bit and see if it gets better. If not, the only solution is a root canal-- something she and I are very hesitant to do on what appears to be a healthy root.
In the meantime, she tried shaving a little bit off the filling to see if it would help. She had to freeze the area because the drilling was very painful for me. Then she put some kind of a fluoride coating on it which (from my understanding) is supposed to condition the filling to my tooth... or something. Keep in mind that Hebrew is a second language for both of us. She told me that rinsing with a sensitive-tooth mouth rinse that has fluoride in it might also help me (as opposed to an antibacterial mouthwash.)
As for me now, I am considering an all liquid diet. Though soup is not the ideal food in 40 degree weather.
If you have any other ideas of what the pain might be or how to solve this, I would really appreciate the help. There is the off chance that this is all somehow related to pregnancy (my dentist also said she's seen some weird stuff in pregnant women) and that it will go away after I give birth. In any case, if we do end up having any major procedures-- like a root canal-- I will definitely want to postpone it until after I give birth. If you even have ideas of how to temporarily numb it so that I can eat properly that info would also be appreciated. I've been using ice, which helps but obviously not in a long-term way.
Thanks a lot-- and I'm sorry to bug you with this, but it is really that bad.

Exhaustion. Third Trimester Kicking In

This pregnancy plus the heat is leaving me exhausted. DS's kindergarten is about four or five city blocks from our house, which is part of the reason why I chose it. It normally takes me about four or five minutes to walk there and even less to walk back since there is a mild incline all the way there not to mention a set of stairs to get from our building to the street (not to mention that we live in a walkup.) Now in the last part of my pregnancy, I get home from dropping him off and I just need to sit down, drink, and relax for a few minutes (which turns into more than just a few minutes when I'm in front of the computer). The fact that it's 40 degrees outside doesn't help matters.

I spent a lot of time relaxing yesterday becaue the day before that, I'd spent about 12 hours in the kitchen on my swolen feet preparing food for a dinner we were hosting (yes, don't worry, DH helped out, but there's only so much he can do). The day before that, we went to a festival on the beach and had to park about a mile away. Even though it was evening, the sun was blazing and I got home so exhausted that I had to go straight to bed.

This morning on the way to nursery I was contemplating how much better I felt after spending the day relaxing yesterday. But by the time I got in my front door, it was all I could do to grab a bottle of water and a box of ceral for some energy before I plopped down in my chair.

Sigh. Well, laundry time calls. I'm sure I'll be back in my chair soon enough.

Finally Putting My Feet Up - This Pregnant Lady Loves the Dentist

Who likes going to the dentist? My experience today took me from feelings of ambivalence to sheer pleasure... and I also enjoyed observing a bit of irony in the whole thing.

I was in the middle of giving DS a bath this evening when the dentist's office called. Uh oh. I was late for my appointment. After spending an entire day rushing about, I was looking forward to having DH put DS to sleep and spending some quality time with my computer. Instead I found myself hurrying out of the house once more.

When I got to the dentist's office, I finally had a few minutes to calm down. The room was air-conditioned, the TV was on, there were plenty of magazines to browse. The secretary wasn't angry with me. The dentist had taken someone in since I was late and I was able to take the time to refill my water bottle at the cooler and catch up on the latest television commercials. It's been so long.

Just a little too soon, the dentist's door opened. She called my name. She asked how I was doing. And then she invited me to sit down and put my feet up. I was glad to oblige.

I have had two chief complaints in this pregnancy, and especially in the last couple of weeks: edema, or big, fat, swollen feet, and sinus pain in my cheek. I just finished a round of antibiotics for my sinus pain, which was discovered by the dentist via x-ray at my last appointment. I'd originally thought it was a toothache. Well, today I took care of it all in one shot. It turns out that at least part of the pain I was feeling and attributing to sinuses was tooth pain. The dentist said that a previous filling on this same tooth had come loose and there was food in there, which might account for at least part of the terrible pain I was feeling.

But as I sat there with my fat legs raised comfortably at the end of my dentist chair and had my cheek problem taken care of at the same time, I wasn't thinking about the painful anesthetizing needle or the drill in my mouth. I reflected on how happy I was to not be washing dishes or running about or picking things off the floor. And I was very happy to be taking care of two pregnancy symptoms at once-- from my head down to my toes.

Pregnancy, Sinusitis and Me

Prior to going to the hospital yesterday, I actually had a doctor's appointment for my terrible sinus pain. (With all the hubub of having DS in the room with me, I totally forgot to ask her about the edema. If you think of it, the higher likelyhood of edema and sinus pain in pregnancy stem from the same problem-- water retention. This has definitely been a problem in this 2nd pregnancy of mine. I'm hoping that a lot of the weight I gained is just water.

My sinus pain has been excrutiating. At times it has me moaning and walking around holding my face. Tylenol provided some relief but at really bad times it just takes the edge off, it doesn't make the sinus pain go away. It's not always terrible, but when I have a flare-up, it is just horrible horrible horrible. I can't do anything. I can't sit, stand, or lie down. The pain keeps me from talking comfrotably. I can't concentrate on anything else. It wakes me up if I'm asleep. I find that it usually creeps up on me when I'm doing something that doesn't require moving my head around too much. Driving is a big culprit. So is reading. Using the computer, for some reason, isn't that bad.

Last night for the first time I tried putting ice on it. I hadn't tried it before because anything touching that side of my face when it hurts makes me feel worse. But after the initial shock of the cold, the ice actually managed to soothe the pain in the nerve running along my jaw, which is where all the sinus pain radiates from. The first thing you would try if you are not pregnant is decongestants. But they are strictly forbidden during pregnancy. I'm going to have to try some natural remedies for sinusitis such as vapor inhalation and nostril flushing. Also cutting out dairy and wheat products which contribute to the development of mucous.

Anyway, back to the doctor. I finally went to see her and she gave me antibiotics for it-- amoxicylin-- which is supposed to be safe for pregnant women, but which didn't make me any less nervous to take it. I even called my OB and confirmed with him that it was OK. It was. It is. Which made me feel slightly better about it. The truth is that I have to do SOMETHING about this sinus pain, pregnant or not, because at times it renders me completely non functional, not to mention the complete agony I feel.

Here's the irony between my leg swelling (which doesn't hurt, btw) and the sinus trouble. The radiologist who scanned me for blood clots yesterday at the hospital reminded me that if I sleep on my left side, it should help the swelling in my leg. Well, because of the sinusitis I can only lie on one side for so long before the pain starts and then I have to flip to the other side, whcih causes the pain to subside temporarily but makes my leg swell up. This doctor said that it's better even to lie on my back than to lie on my right side. That was a fist for me. EVERYONE says not to lie on your back in pregnancy. But apparently lying on your right actually blocks blood flow while lying on your left allows it. Lying on your back is only bad if it causes you discomfort. I don't have discomfort from lying on my back so I tried it out last night. It wasn't as good at relieving the pain as flipping from side to side, but I had my ice pack, and between the two, I managed to get a few good hours of sleep.

My Brush With DVT

Deep Vein Thrombosis basically means that there is a blood clot in your vein. I don't have it. I know this because I just returned from the hospital where my leg (in addition to my abdomen-- just for fun) was ultrasounded. Pregnant women are at high risk for DVT. It's one of the reasons they tell you to get up and walk around all the time. One of the indications of DVT is swelling in one foot and not the other, which is what I had. Well, actually I have swelling in both feet but one of them is a lot more significant, depending on the time of day. I called my doctor and he said I might as well go to the hospital and check it out.

At the hospital they did a bunch of tests before they ever got around to looking at my balloon foot. Urine stick, blood pressure and temperature, and then heart monitor. The doctors on call-- well, one of them-- remembered me from having given birth there not too long ago. I didn't mention that I'm planning on another hospital this time. Not because they were bad in particular. I just had a tough birth and want a fresh experience that is not in a place I associate with all this trauma from last time.

But I digress. I was wheeled down to Radiology in a chair. I should have felt embarrassed-- I have no problem walking-- but I decided to enjoy my chariot ride. When the radiologist came to fetch me, he found me reading with my feet up against the railing. He scanned only my thigh and not below. He said that if there are any significant clots, that's where they are. Clots lower than the knee aren't considered dangerous. When he didn't find anything he sent me back up for discharge sans wheelchair. Now that I was clear of DVT I'd have to fend the elevators by myself.

BigFoot: Edema is Me

My foot, when I stamp on it, jiggles like jelly. I didn't even bother trying my sandals on yesterday. I opted for DH's flip-flops instead. (Okay, I did try to put my foot in my sandal but I only gave it one half-hearted shove before I gave up.) My sister's sister-in-law, a nurse, discretely checked out my legs and ankles when I saw her over the weekend and she gently recommended that I keep a close eye on my blood pressure and take frequent urine tests. I sent in a pee-pee sample this morning. My blood pressure is usually on the low end of fantastic. But I'll have to get that checked out too. Sigh.

Oh yeah, I also couldn't get my rings off yesterday, though this morning it's a bit better. It was a terribly hot day yesterday, which could have accounted for a lot.

I finally made a doctor's appointment for my sinus trouble, which is also related to the excess body fluid in pregnant women. In this case the fluid is mucous. Apparently, they don't give decongestants to pregnant women although nobody is really sure why. I guess it's one of those 'not enough research done on it' kind of things. I'll have to update when I get her response. I'm hoping she'll send me to an ENT specialist because when it starts to hurt, it can be so bad as to wake me up. The pain runs along my upper and lower jaws and sometimes towards my eye and my ear. I've had a couple of flare-ups that had me in complete agony. DH thinks it'll all go away once the baby is born, but that's a long time from now. At least, it's a long time to be in agony.

More on Pregnant With A Toothache

I started writing about being pregnant with a toothache a couple of days ago.

So I finally went to the dentist the other day. She remembered me from the last time I was there-- over a year ago when DS was only about 4 months old and demanded to nurse while I was in the dentist chair (DH was late in meeting me and taking over with him.) So I nursed in the chair while they checked me (we're all ladies here). When it was time to do a filling, they called in a young hygenist to watch him-- said she needed the practice.

Anyway, the same dentist took a look in my mouth and said it didn't look too bad. This was only partially reassuring considering the enormous pain I've been having in my jaw. I was sure I'd be needing a root canal, but she said it was just a simple cavity. She couldn't understand why the pain was so bad until.... she did an x-ray (I got my two lead aprons without even asking for it). So yes, I had my teeth x-rayed while pregnant, but it was with the reassurances of a lot of different professionals and I did it with a steady heart (I can't find the right expression to say that I wasn't worried-- is that one good?)

Anyway, the dentist looked at the x-ray and asked if I'd had a cold lately, to which I answered in the affirmative. The pain in my jaw, she said, was not from my tooth but from the sinus just above it which was all clogged up. There is a nerve runnign through that area which can make the pain feel like it's coming from the jaw or the ear or the tooth.

What a relief! But not a physical one. That evening I was having a really terrible time with the pain. I finally took acetaminophen, which I am loathe to do in the best of times and especially in pregnancy (even though there's nothing actually wrong with it at either of those times so long as you take it as prescribed.) DH looked up the sinus issue in my pregnancy book and there it was the whole time-- I never knew it. Pregnant women are more inclined towards sinus infections. Something to do with the increase in mucous production during pregnancy. In my case, it's a no brainer since I'm always prone to sinus infections. Usually, however, they're not this bad, and they feel different. Usually I get them in the upper sinuses-- where you'd call it a headache and not a cheek-ache, and the pain happens when I move my head.

Knowing where the pain is coming from did give me the advantage of knowing how to deal with it. Instead of hurting when I move, this starts to hurt when I've been sitting with my face in one position for too long. Like if I'm reading or something So all I have to do if it starts to hurt is change position. The pain goes away within minutes after that but then I have to make sure to keep switching position if I'm doing something that doesn't involve a lot of motion.

Today it feels better. Hopefully the infection has gone down and I won't have to see a doctor or get antibiotics.

Pregnant with a Toothache

Painful, bleeding gums are common in pregnancy, but this is above and beyond. I am sure I have a really bad cavity or two and I am almost sure it's going to require some drastic dental work-- hopefully not a root canal! I'm really afraid of having any procedures done during while I'm pregnant and so I spoke to my OB during my visit last night. He basically said I should go for it and don't worry. If there are antibiotics involved, they will give me something appropriate. If there is an x-ray involved then they will cover me and especially my pregnant belly with a lead apron (I'm going to request three). If it requires local anesthetic, that's ok too... Not that I know what kind of dental work I'm in for, but at least his reassurance was soothing. He pointed out that there's no way I can wait two whole months to have this taken care of-- the pain has been keeping me up at night (occasionally.)

What a pain in the butt to get a dentist app on short term, though. Considering how popular they are, you'd think they were giving away balloons and toothbrushes (which they don't) instead of collecting significant dough for drilling in my mouth.
The thing I hate most about going to the dentist-- pregnant or not-- is having to keep my mouth open for a long time. It makes my skin feel all stretched out. I'll have to put on some heavy duty moisturizer.

Interestingly, my husband, who has been having a lot of pregnancy symptoms alongside me, is also having dental work done. I don't know if you can correlate his wisdom tooth extraction with whatever I am about to undergo, but it's definitely in keeping with the pattern of Couvade syndrome-- or sympathy pains felt by the husband.
Sigh.
Wish me luck!

Exhaustamundo

There is a little incline from my apartment to the main street, not to mention the stairs. You'd hardly notice it if you were driving. I'm telling you, last pregnancy I wouldn't have noticed it either, but now it's become this source of dread for me. There's something about slight inclines as opposed to steep ones. I guess that since you're not actually seeing the slope so much, you expect to be able to walk at your usual pace... but you can't. And now it's just SO HARD. Fortunately, it's only about a block long before it evens out. I'm lucky-- I live in a hilly city but this is the worst slope I have to deal with on a regular basis. There's also the slight one in the parking lot at work which comes in a close second in terms of difficulty (or dread). I hope this is just a symptom of the late stages of pregnancy and not an indication of my overall physical fitness. I went to the OB last night. I'm a little more advanced in weeks than I'd thought. I'll take that as an excuse for now.

Edema

Edema is what happens excess fluids in your body gather in your extremities. I didn't have any problems with it in my first pregnancy. I even flew six times in late pregnancy (four of those were part of a trans Atlantic trip) and did fine-- though I did wear compression stockings each of those times and I took care to move around a lot.
Now, in my 2nd pregnancy, I've been noticing that my legs and feet are pouffy-- much more substantial looking than my usual chicken-like appearance. I even had marks on my feet when I took off my fancy sandals after an affair last week. I showed it to DH who pressed on my shin with his finger and sure enough, it left an indentation. That's how you tell. Apparently it's pretty mild, but I'm still not happy with the situation. It means one more thing to be careful about. One more succumbing to pregnancy ailments that I'm going through this time around. On a positive note, it probably means that I have less to lose after the pregnancy since a higher percentage of my weight gain this time is water.

Omega Threes, Please

Because of all the Omega 3 hype now, especially for pregnant and nursing women, my husband and I started considering whether or not I should start taking the suppliment. I already take folic acid, iron, and calcium. What's one more pill? Well, one of the main considerations was price. The pre/neo natal omega 3 pills were really really expensive. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. And the way the lady at the pharmacy was pushing them, you'd think I was committing child abuse if I didn't take them. I compared those pills to the cheaper (but still not cheap) generic brand, and indeed, the maternity ones contained twice the amount of Omega 3, not to mention a whole host of other vitamins and minerals. I did a quick consult with my husband on the phone who said to just get the generic ones. After all, I'm probably not getting that much of it in my diet (since I don't eat much fish) so anything will be better than the amount I'm getting now.

I brought the stuff home and when I opened it, I had a surprise. Hey, I thought, isn't this the same as the cod liver oil pills my dad used to make us take when we were younger? It looks the same, smells the same... and I get that same fishy aftertaste. (Have I mentioned that I don't really like fish?) I did a quick search online and apparently the two are related. I wonder if cod liver oil has been caught up in the Omega 3 hype-- or if it's even sold under that name anymore.

I took about 18 doses of the maternity Omega 3 pills in my first pregnancy. That's because my husband brought home a couple of free samples. I can't tell you that they made a difference, but who knows? Today they are packaging the stuff for kids as 'brain suppliments' and stuff like that. Crazy.

Already Ahead of the Curve

I was just reading some forum postings about people whose ultrasounds don't necessarily correlate to how old they think the baby is, and I forgot until now that it's exactly what I thought at fist.

Apparently getting an ultrasound before 12 weeks is the very best way to measure the baby's age. Also, they count the weeks based on your period, which feels wrong but I guess turns out more or less right more or less of the time. I mean, so far things are staying on the track they told me I'd be on.