Highs and Lows

For most of this pregnancy, my stomach was so high that my boobs rested on it if I sat slouchily-- which I have been known to do. A couple of weeks ago my stomach suddenly dropped, much to DH's concern. I look much smaller now. But now the tummy is resting on my lap!

I don't remember such a dramatic change happening in my previous pregnancies. Well, they say that each one is unique and each of mine have definitely been different from each other.

One thing that is consistent from the last pregnancy to this one is that my face has grown fat now towards the end. SORRY-- I mean, I have filled out. Don't want to cause angst to any first time pregolas reading this blog (assuming anyone reads it). Don't worry, it's just water (or chocolate) and it'll go away as soon as the baby is born.

Brazil Belly

I weighed myself yesterday. All scales say different things and this was one of those quite unreliable digital ones that give you two different results in a ten second span. However I clocked in between 62 and 63.5 consistently over the time I was using that scale. Which puts me in at about 2.5 kg or 6lbs over where I would like myself to be. On the other hand, we are on vacation and I've been pigging out.

If the Skirt Fits

It fits! The skirt that I've been thinking should fit me but hadn't until now... fits! Which means that other clothes that depend on my hip breath should fit too!! Celebrate! My wardrobe and I are reunited. Now if I can only get toned up a bit and rid of this flab....
After my last pregnancy it took me 4 months to fit back into all my clothes. It's now about five and a half months since I gave birth now. Assuming that all my clothes really do fit and it's not just this skirt, I'm still not doing TOO badly.

Back To the Weighting Game

I just weighed myself for the first time in several months. I've been evaluating by back-to-pre-baby shape by the way my clothes fit, which is probably the best yardstick. However, it's always interesting to see how things are going in the weight department as well.

Well, the big news is that I'm at my pre-baby weight! About 138 or 139 lbs, assuming that my sister's scale is correct and that it corroborates with the scales I've been using since I gave birth. It took me four months to get here, or maybe less considering that I may have been sitting at this weight for a while and not known it. This is also how long it took me in my last pregnancy.

But before you pull out the balloons and streamers, note that my favorite skirt, which I managed to get on over my hips, is still barely closing and I actually busted the hook and eye thingy that holds it shut. I still have this belly. I'm back at my regular weight but I seem to have traded muscle for fat. Muscle is heavier. I'll have to start doing crunches or something. I can't stand the way things look across my middle. Also, my hips still look wide to me, though there's no real way of telling if they're back or not, or if they ever will be. At this stage after my last pregnancy I was back in my regular clothes. Well, it's okay. I am a bit older now and this is my second kid and it's okay for our bodies to change a bit as we get older. I just don't have the cash to restock my entire wardrobe right now.

After Birth Belly

I remember worrying so much about my after birth belly last time 'round. I did eventually go back to my original flat tummy, but it was never quite as firm as it had been, though I think it was only noticeable to me. Bellys are soft immediately after birth but they slowly do shrink back. I think that now that it's been 3 months since my second child was born, I'm softer at this stage than I was at this time after the last baby. I might actually have to do some exercises to tighten it up a bit. But who's got the time with two kids to look after? I suppose I could do it if I really wanted to. Instead, I've taken to wearing -- what are those tights called again?? The kind that sucks your tummy in. Not support hose... I have to go look in my drawer and see if there are any... though really any pantyhose or tights or leggings will do it. It's not comfortable but you have to wear them way high up to your rib cage and voila! No belly.

Aha. Control top. That's what they're called.

P.S. Let it be known that my husband loves my belly. Which makes it all that much easier for me to put off the sit-ups....

Weight! Size! It's three months later.

Well, it's been three moons since I had the baby. Although she doesn't latch well, that doesn't seem to impede her eating. After my last pregnancy I was able to fit into my clothes again at four months. This time I'm still wearing bigger-size things but people are commenting on how skinny I am. I think that maybe my hips haven't gone back to where they were, because my weight has pretty much dropped down but I still don't fit into my favorite jean skirt (which was the same yardstick I used the last time 'round.) Also I have a bit of a tummy which is really annoying. DH doesn't mind it, but I do. It makes my shirt ride up and I think it sticks out too much compared to how big my boobs are-- which they aren't. I shouldn't complain. Some women don't go back. My sister says that she doesn't drop back entirely until after she finishes breastfeeding. That would really suck.

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.

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.

Mirror Mirror: Body Image in the Third Trimester

My belly has filled out enough that, besides looking like I'm in my eleventh month of pregnancy, I'm kind of balanced out. What I mean is that whatever bulk I've gained my stomach is bulkier so I don't look really fat any more. Just really pregnant. At least, that's the way I see it. And I look overall broader than I used to be. But most people besides me wouldn't notice that.
Baby bump? Hah! More like a baby mountain. I think that I must be using up double the calories to complete the same task as any normal person would be. Climbing the stairs,rolling over in bed, typing...
In my home bathroom I only have a small medicine cabinet mirror. In fact, the biggest mirror in my house is only a 1/2 length one which, if you stand as far back from it as is physically possible within the dimensions of my hallway, gives you a 3/4 view of yourself. And I don't often stand around naked in my hallway. So when I was staying at someone else's house the other day and I caught a glimpse of myself pre-shower, my shape came as somewhat of a surprise. I don't feel like I have a graceful arch in my midsection. I feel more like a snake that's swallowed an ostrich egg. An awkward sort of bulge where it should be smooth. Ah well. With clothes on I don't feel as bad, and that's usually how I spend my days.

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.

Fat Feet

I've got that edema thing going again. A lovely surprise in my second pregnancy. My feet were so fat yesterday that I almost didn't recognise them. I thought it would go away when I went to sleep, but this morning I had to coax my feet into my thong sandals. I sure hope my foot size goes down after I give birth. I don't want to buy whole new set of shoes. Besides the fact that we can't currently afford it, I hate hate hate buying shoes. My feet are big anyway, and I am tall, and still they don't make decent flat shoes. How many 5"10 people do you know who want to walk around in two-inch heels all day? Or in any high shoe, for that matter?

I know the swelling should go down when the baby is born, but some people's shoe size gets permanently changed. That would bring me up to a size 11. I don't care about the number itself but shoot, have you ever tried to find a size 11 women's shoe? It's not an easy thing to do, at least not if you care about selection.

My Weight

I was at the pool the other day, the one where I weigh myself on the scale that COUNTS. In other words, it's the scale upon which I actually gauge my weight gain, as opposed to the scale at my monthly appointments which I keep skipping/missing (this is, after all, my second pregnancy.)

I wasn't too upset by what I saw. I didn't gain too much compared to the rapid weight gain I underwent in my second trimester. The thing is, I must be developing a better attitude about my body because I can't remember the actual number. I think it was 74 kilos. I even ran into a friend who asked me how much I gained (we've known each other through a total of 3 pregnancies so we can talk about these things) and I remember telling her... I just can't remember exactly how much. Let's stick with 74 kilos. That sounds about right.

I know I'm much bigger now than I was even at the end of my first pregnancy just because of the way clothes fit me. My maternity clothes from last time are all less comfortable and they don't fit the way I want them to-- though I guess I wouldn't exactly call them small.

More on my OB visit

I don't remember the last time I got excited about any development in my pregnancy. Usually it's just 'HOW MUCH weight did you say I gained??" or "you want to do WHICH test? And WHY?" But last night when the OB told me that the baby is turned around-- sitting on it's little fetus head in my belly-- I got happy. Dunno why. I guess it might be because I was concerned for some reason (don't pregnant women always find reason to be concerned) that the baby was breach. And why? Because I was feeling kicking from both sides of my belly, and I thought that maybe the baby was horizontal. Logical? No. Normal behavior? Yes. Other than that, most of my concerns during this 2nd pregnancy have revolved around the new one's relationship with my DS and if I'll even be able to love it. Again. Logical? No. Normal? Yes.
By the way, my husband explained that breach is not when the baby lies horizontally. That's called transverse (I had to look that up). Breach basically means that the baby hasn't turned over yet.

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.

Inflation

I went to the pool again yesterday. That's where I weigh myself. I'm up to 73 kilos. Couldn't believe my eyes. That's more than I gained my whole 1st pregnancy, and I still have 2 months left to go on this one. I'm feeling it too. I looked down at my legs the other day, which are usually chicken-thin. They had bulk. They had substance. And it's not edema. It's... did you know you can gain weight on your legs? I guess if I think about really heavy people they have a lot more flesh on their legs.
In the mirror when I got dressed I reminded myself of one of those Russian Babushka dolls-- the kind with all the little dolls inside. I don't have a proper full-length mirror at home, which is maybe fortunate for my self-image lately. What I saw was a tiny head on top and big and sturdy on the bottom (wouldn't want the doll to fall over.) I was wearing a full skirt and a scarf in my hair, which only helped encourage my imagination. I was only missing the frilly apron. Hey, I even have the little doll inside. A coincidence? I think not.

An ounce of prevention is worth...

I read recently somewhere that Heidy Klum typically gains 40 lbs in each pregnancy. The books and doctors all reccomend 25-35. Maybe she's a little bigger than the rest of us (that's why they call them super-models. ) but that's still off the charts.
Then today I read that Mila Jorovich (sp.?) went up 75 lbs when she was pregnant!!! She was nearly 200lbs when she gave birth. Nobody told her about being alowed to continue physical activity through her pregnacy, I guess. Can you imagine? She must have been a house (as opposed to a whale like me).
All I want to say is that if supermodels and actresses (what does Mila do for a living again?) get to go up that high, I have nothing to worrry about.

Baby Bump

I hate that expression-- baby bump. It's all the rage now. You want to stop teenage pregnancies? Don't make them sound so damn cute and desirable. Thinking of getting pregnant? Think risk of stretch marks, increased risk of losing bladder control. Think nausea and aches and pains. What 16 year-old wants that?
And it's not just the 'bump.' It's more like a bumper. It throws you off balance. It makes other parts of your body bulge. Your hips spread wider...
Look, it's for a good purpose and frankly, I had a great pregnancy last time and a pretty good one this times so far. But to make it sound as if a baby bump is the next hottest thing on the runway then they should just start making burp cloths and nursing aprons in Home Ec.

Ring Update

Okay, my rings are coming off just fine now. It was just a scare.

Ring

Ohmigod. I could barely get my ring off last night. Then I was afraid of losing it so I stuck it on my other hand-- figured it was just a nighttime slight swell. Now this morning also can't get it off... barely. This only happened at the very very end of my last pregnancy.