26 Weeks
Good news, world! My love affair with bagels does not have to end!
I was convinced I would have gestational diabetes the moment I learned that it doesn't just happen to people that are at high-risk for "regular" diabetes. The Sunday before my test I bought three packages of bagels at the grocery store, thinking it was some sort of insurance against testing positive. I thought every carbohydrate I ate may be my last, a particularly daunting thing for a person that subsists mostly on carbohydrates.
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| Sweet, sweet glory. |
The glucose challenge was not nearly as bad as I thought. I also read that if you vomit they won't let you finish the test, so of course I was then convinced I would be that person. The drink is not nearly as bad as the Internet told me it would be. I honestly don't even remember what it tasted like, but it was kind of like a sweet, flat Sprite. The worst part was the blood draw, which I always hate no matter what. I just learned today that my results were well within the normal range, so I got a decaf caramel macchiato to celebrate. Nothing says "I don't have diabetes, yay!" like a giant cup of fat and sugar.
I guess I can say "a lot of changes are happening in my body right now!" at any point in pregnancy, but it seems like the last month has been pretty significant. I'm now very obviously pregnant, and my belly has grown so much that I feel gravity pulling it downwards. I can feel the muscles and ligaments straining, and my doctor suggested a "maternity belt" to help. It does help, and I get the joy of looking like this very fashionable woman from the 80's:
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| Hairstyle not included. |
Adam swears he can't notice it under my shirt, but I still feel like a weird, lumpy, uncomfortable cyborg when I wear it.
I also recently went to a chiropractor for the first time in my life. A particular doctor's name kept coming up in my yoga class, as she works with a lot of pregnant woman. They practice the Webster technique, which is supposedly helpful in realigning the lower back and pelvis. Apparently it's particularly helpful to get a baby's head down before birth. I've always known that my lower back and hips were, in graceful words, ~screwed up for life~. It's not really my fault, it's just how I was built. So, I guess it's my parent's fault.
As I said, I have never been to a chiropractor before. Adam can crack his neck and back at the drop of a hat - I have never been that way. It was not a painful experience, but it was certainly horrifying. I didn't know my neck could make those noises. Really, I'm hoping to just get some relief from my constant back pain and help my hips open up more before birth.
Now that I'm less than 15 weeks out from my due date, I've realized that pregnancy really embodies the "grass is always greener" saying. I was so eager to feel the baby kick, but now it's not as cute when it happens at 4am every single night.. and when I get kicked awake I realize how badly I have to pee.. and then it's hard to fall back asleep.. and, oh wait, I'm hungry and kind of nauseous, too..... Or when I'm in the middle of a conversation and all of a sudden get a swift punch to the bladder and risk peeing my pants. Or now that my "baby bump" is more of a "baby-soccer-ball-uterus", there's very few ways to exist that are truly comfortable. And yes, I do know that it will only get more uncomfortable. I can see why every woman I have ever talked to has said "by the end, you just want it to be over with".
Speaking of being hungry, eating has become a chore. People like to laugh about how much pregnant women eat, but trust me, it's not always fun. I go from "I'm kind of hungry" to *trying not to gag in the middle of this sentence* in about 3 minutes flat. My gag reflex goes insane the minute I'm hungry, which is about 450 times a day. The hunger of a pregnant woman is not simply just someone that missed breakfast, and to me, at least, it's not "funny" or "cute" or "something to point out". It's rather annoying. I ate two eggs, corned beef hash, and a bagel about two hours ago and I already feel the pit in my stomach. The irony is that you require more fuel but the baby smooshes your stomach into the size of a freakin' pea, so have the appetite of a Viking with the stomach capacity of an infant.
The funny thing about pregnancy is that it puts you in some other class of people that have special privileges but also certain restrictions in social contexts. For example, someone may say, "I'm so bad! I've just had a bag of chips and now I ate a Snickers and I'm STILL hungry", and I say, "trust me, I feel you on that one". That person will, I almost GUARANTEE you, say "oh, you're pregnant, you have an excuse." Sure, I do have a reason to be snacking. Can't I just relate to you as a human person for a second, though? Can't I also complain about the fact that I've eaten four chocolate truffles because it's not time for lunch yet and I feel like I'm dying of starvation and it's the only snack I left in my desk and if I don't eat it I might start gaging out of nowhere? And I also kind of feel shitty about that? Ba-humbug.
The grass is always greener - I couldn't wait for the first trimester to end and to get my appetite back, but now it's become a complicated mathematical equation to figure out how to eat in order to satisfy my needs.
The grass is green here, too, though. Despite the back pain, straining muscles, interrupted sleep, bladder-that-is-now-his-trampoline, I have to be grateful that things are going so well. I'm just worried that this baby's activity levels indicate that he might eat as much as his dad when he comes into this world, which will surely bankrupt our family.
