I'm 29 weeks along now, and I'm back to being couch-bound. I always forget that that second trimester window of mobility and energy is so very fleeting. But now I'm getting big enough that it's hard to move around, and the baby is sitting right on my lungs, so it's hard for me to ever get a full breath. I always feel like I just got home from running a marathon - except the thing that has left me so out of breath is not, in fact, some great feat of athleticism, but usually something more along the lines of trying to change out of sweatpants that are too tight. (Yes. The waistband of my sweatpants is now officially too small. Sigh.)
So, it's been a week of observing life pass me by while I'm horizontal on the couch... yet again. I have spent a good portion of that time reading, finishing up a Sally Clarkson book, working my way through Little Women and Slow Medicine, and starting a Nancy Wilson book. But honestly, I'm pretty sure my brain is underoxygenated, so reading hasn't even taken top priority. I kind of hit a crisis point yesterday when I was like, "I'm so bored, but there's nothing I even want to do instead."
I'm hoping that the baby will drop at some point and give me back some breathing room. I really think I would have more energy if I could just catch a breath.
In more positive health news, Stumpi seems to be making a miraculous recovery from her mystery illness. Before, she was lethargic, basically immobile, and pale, and wouldn't eat or drink much. But after installing her new UVB light, all of a sudden she's like a new turtle. She is on the MOVE, friends. Eating like she's starving, motoring around her cage on a mission, peering up at me with her beady (and, dare I say, grateful) little eyes, stretching her little nubbin-leg out to soak up all those sweet, sweet rays of sunshine. With results like these, I'm starting to think that there's a reptile lamp-shaped hole in my own life. Maybe my problem all along has not actually been the toll of pregnancy, but of the lack of a reptile lamp pointed at my face all day.
In news NOT related to my obsession with our hand-me-down pet turtle, I took all the kids with me to a midwife appointment on Monday, and they did swimmingly. I was so surprised. Callista just chilled in the umbrella stroller like a total champ (sometimes I give out Star Kid awards as bribery for good behavior in public, and she definitely won Star Kid), and the other kids just sat and looked at books. I'm glad they seem able to keep it together in the cramped exam room, because I'm starting my every-two-week appointments now, and we'll be in there quite often. The appointment itself went well - they let me decline the glucose drink in favor of just having an A1C blood test run, and I was cleared to cancel my upcoming ultrasound appointments.
I just really feel in my gut that the baby is okay, and extra ultrasounds make me nervous. Spending a bunch of time looking for problems that may or may not be there will only end up with interventions that might not be helpful or necessary. So I'm grateful the midwives were totally fine with me just waiting it out unless there seemed to be a clear reason for another ultrasound before the birth.
Monday night, Atticus accompanied me on a grocery shopping trip, and then we hunkered down for the forecasted Polar Vortex. Oh, did you not hear? Were you living under a well-insulated rock? It was cold this week, as proven by the one billion screenshots of local temperatures all over Facebook as everyone attempted to win the Coldest Victim of the Coldest Cold Ever award.
In truth, I can afford to be snarky because I don't work outside the home, and I didn't have to drive my kids anywhere, so I honestly am just taking everyone's word for it that it was cold outside. For us, life looked pretty normal. Todd even walked to and from work, like always.
As for the rest of the week, it has been supremely uneventful. School. Books. Daily naps. Repeat. Not too shabby!
1 comment :
i believe you said it best, "i'm a snow-baller" yo! it was also fun to take Atticus and Penelope with me to Salt last night so that they could hear their dad preach. I love preaching and I love that they like to enter into that and enjoy that with me. it's fun to be able to have these memories and hopefully stir in them the same joy that i've found in hearing the Word of God opened and proclaimed.
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