I figured since it’s been about 6 weeks, it’s time for another update. I’m now 25 weeks, which is considered 6 months. I still can’t quite believe it, and knowing that there are only 3 months left to “get ready” is, honestly, quite terrifying.
It’s pretty weird to look at the medical plans during open enrollment for my employer and need to take into consideration how much it will cost to add a dependent. Or to realize we really do have to start getting the guest room ready to convert into a nursery. Or to remember that we should actually start reading the books about babies since neither my husband nor I have any idea what we’re doing (we’ve both managed to avoid changing diapers most of our lives).
I’m still in the second trimester, which is supposed to be the energetic/feeling great trimester, but that is not what has happened. Sure, I can eat a wider variety of foods (still no meat other than turkey bacon or chicken sausage though), but I can’t eat until I’m no longer hungry. I have to stop while still wanting more otherwise Gilgamesh gets annoyed that my stomach is trying to take up some of his space and forces me to eject said food to make room for him. So, eating small amounts of food all day long is the way to go. I’m fairly certain I eat something in every single meeting at work. And, the first trimester nausea morphed into second trimester acid reflux and heartburn. Thankfully, the OB gave me a prescription-strength prilosec-type med, and while that hasn’t gotten rid of vomiting entirely, I typically only vomit once or twice a week instead of almost daily. I’ll take that as a win.
I’m still pretty tired — getting up in the morning is not fun, especially because pregnancy insomnia has kicked in and wakes me up for 60-90 minutes sometime between 2:30am and 5am most nights. I have learned that the birds in our backyard start to wake-up sometime around 5am though, which is soothing to listen to.
I’ve also sort of “popped.” I don’t have a big pregnancy belly, but there’s definitely a bump that can be seen when I’m not wearing an oversized t-shirt. And, that makes getting comfortable quite difficult, whether it’s trying to get settled for bed or trying to work at my desk. I spend a lot of time switching my desk and monitor between sitting and standing, because neither is comfortable for very long. Unfortunately, I haven’t quite gotten used my body’s growing depth, so I frequently end up hitting my chest against the doorframe, which is NOT fun.
I don’t feel a ton of movement because I have what’s called an anterior placenta, which means there’s more padding (for lack of a better term) between the baby and me. I do occasionally feel what I can only describe as bubbles moving inside of me with the occasional strong bubble that breaches the surface, but that’s not a frequent occurrence, and of course never when I try to have my husband feel any movement.
I did take time for myself and spent a week at CookieCon the first week of May. It was SO MUCH FUN and also utterly exhausting. The hotel didn’t have a lot of vegetarian options so eating was a bit challenging (there’s not really time to leave the hotel to eat in the local area). There’s so much to do at CookieCon and while I made sure I took time for daily naps, I still was on the go most days from 8am or 9am until collapsing into bed around 11:30pm. That was hard. And I’m paying for it now because I came home with a bad cold that still hasn’t gone away. Right now my voice sounds more like a mouse squeaking, which makes Zoom meetings for work lots of fun.
I did have an OB check-up right after I returned home. It was a normal visit — they basically just check to make sure there’s a heartbeat at the right measurement, check my blood pressure and weight, and then I’m free to go (after I get through my list of questions). I’d feel a lot better if they checked more — maybe measured something, felt my belly, anything really other than just the heartbeat doppler. At each visit, the practice has me see a different doctor because they’re on rotation and it’s never a guarantee who will be on call when I deliver. So this visit was the first time meeting one of the doctors. I really liked the first OB I met at my previous appointment. This visit’s doctor, however, was not one I cared for.
He started off by asking me how my nutrition was. I answered honestly — that it’s probably not as great as it could be because Gilgamesh doesn’t let me eat a lot and only lets me eat certain things (even if there are more certain things I can eat). The doctor responded something to the effect of “well, you know it’s important to have good nutrition when you’re pregnant.” Thanks, doc. I wasn’t already anxious about that so you’ve helped immensely. [insert eye roll] Then he asked me if I was feeling a lot of movement. I said not really, and then he proceeded to turn to a nurse/tech/another person in the room with the laptop and started peppering her with questions around when my last ultrasound was, what it showed, if I have another scan coming up, and so forth. It was a response that would have made me seriously panic if I didn’t already know that having an anterior placenta meant that it will take longer to feel movement. I tried to tell him that the ER told me I had an anterior placenta, but he wasn’t listening to me.
When the nurse/tech finally confirmed what I had already said, he didn’t tell me that it was normal. He said something like I should start to feel more movement soon, but in a way that indicated if I did not that it wasn’t good. Then, somehow protein came up and he asked if I was getting protein. I said that was another concern of mine because Gilgamesh has forced me to be a vegetarian. His response? You can’t even eat a little fish or chicken? No sir. Vegetarian means vegetarian.
At this point, I was pretty fed up, but I did need to ask another question. At my last appointment, I confirmed that it would be okay to do our normal two-day drive so we can visit family up north. They said yes as long as we stopped frequently. I wanted to double-check that was still true, so I brought up the travel and asked if it was still okay for me to go. The doctor’s first response was to tell me that I’m at high risk of blood clots. Okay, but did that mean it isn’t safe for me to travel? He kept repeating that I was at high risk of blood clots (which I know because pregnancy + age), but wouldn’t give me an answer. Finally, he said as long as we stop every 2-3 hours so I can walk around a bit it would be okay, and he recommended that I wear support hosiery. (Who says hosiery anymore, anyway?) But at least I finally had an answer — it’s safe to go. So, I’ll be the person wearing maternity shorts with knee-high compression socks over a 2-day car ride. Or maybe it’ll be a maternity dress with knee-high compression socks. I’m not normally a dress person, but they are definitely much more comfortable to wear than anything that puts any kind of pressure on the belly.
My next appointment is in three weeks. That will be another ultrasound (finally!), the glucose test, and a repeat of most of my labs. And it’s not with the doctor I saw last week.
In the meantime, I’ll continue falling asleep to my husband reading Gilgamesh stories at night. We’ve finished The Hobbit and are about to finish The Sword in the Stone. Next up will be A Wizard of Earthsea, assuming it arrives in time since neither of us could find our copies.