Pregnancy Update

It never occurred to me that I should do updates on my pregnancy.  Seems silly since I only have 3 weeks and 2 days until my due date.  LOL!!!  Nonetheless, I shall pick it back up (I think I was doing some blogging about it while on bedrest.)

I had a tremendous amount of fear surrounding this pregnancy in the beginning.  God has been gracious to take that fear and turn it towards Him.  I was fearful of having no energy like my last one.  When I have no energy I am simply not an engaged mother.  Well, I certainly didn't want that again.  Talk about a blow when I was put on bedrest and essentially cut off from my family.  But I didn't allow myself to be cut off.  We still did school.  Even had our same fun for Thanksgiving (maybe even more fun since I was kind of forced to stop and simply do what I have been wanting to do for a long time.)

After the bedrest ended in December I seemed to have an abundance of energy.  It was the holiday season, which is my favorite, plus I was in the beginning of the second trimester so I was having fun just being able to be somewhere in the house other than my bedroom.  The energy level stayed at a high until my iron dropped at around 28 weeks.  That was easily fixed with my Florodix and some extra chloophyll.  I have kept that up pretty regularly since.

I wasn't until about 2 weeks ago that I really felt myself slow down.  I think the baby put on about 10 pounds. . .of wait, that was me.  LOL!!!  Or so it felt like she and I had both put on weight.  Come to find out, I have been carrying alot of extra water.  Even in the midst of that, God was gracious to give me energy and keep me going.

The past week has been a little rough.  I hit the peak on the excess water last weekend.  My legs had been swollen all along.  I thought I was just carry extra weight in them.  Then my ankles swelled beyond recognition.  It scared me a little, especially since my last urine test revealed that I was put off protein.  My blood pressure was fine but it still concerned me a little.  So I started extra doses of the herbs to flush my liver AND I sat in a warm epsom salt bath.  That helped flushed alot of extra water.  If I don't watch my sugar intake, then I start retain alot of water.

This weekend has been interesting.  I think the baby dropped on Friday afternoon sometime.  I could suddenly breath better.  But let me tell you, her big head was putting lots of pressure on my cervix and I pretty much the contractions changed.  The hormones started changing as well.  I have been very emotional, crying at the drop of a hat.  I am also sick to my stomach like morning sickness all over again.  I can't sleep either, at least not comfortably.

God's grace again reigns.  He's been gracious to help me persevere and not get caught up focusing on myself. The worship service yesterday was especially meaningful as He gently reminded me where my eyes needed to be at this time.  Definitely not on myself, but on Him.  All that I do should be for His glory.  Withdrawing into myself, as I always do at the end of a pregnancy, and feeling sorry for myself because I am ready to be done doesn't bring Him glory at all.  This was my greatest fear.  I didn't want to get to the end and completely lose my focus on Him.  And He's been helping me stay centered.  He's helping me to trust His timing in all this, even though I have prayed that she might safely come early. . .according to His will.

I have an appointment with my midwife tomorrow afternoon.  We start the weekly appointments now.  Yea!! My tub is set up in my bathroom and my birth kit is assembled.  I am still washing and fold all the extra towels and then will move to making sure her clothes are all washed and ready to be worn.  (I don't use dryer sheets but can smell the heavy chemicals all over the clothes I bought for her.  They were used from a consignment sale.  They make me sick just smelling them.  I am want to smell her sweetness NOT the dryer sheet's.)  I am continuing to keep school going for my older kids while I work around the house to fulfill the nesting desire that I have right now.  I have been working to purchase our new curriculum used and I am slowly collecting that.  And I have peace about her arrival and it's timing.

For the record, I have been praying that she would safely come early.  Why?  Well, honestly, I want to go to the homeschool book fair that is taking place 4 days after my due date.  LOL!!!  Isn't that silly?  But it's not just to go to the bookfair.  There is a precious family that Underdog and I have befriended through Facebook.  I think they found Underdog on this blog somewhere.  Well, the mom and her older daughters will be at the fair that weekend representing Rosetta Stone and I just really want to meet them.  I can forgo the fair if it's needed but I would disappointed if I didn't get to meet them in person.  They are just such a neat family.

One thing I did forget to mention is that I have started itching again.  My feet and hands are burning an itching.  This is usually where the cholestatis of pregnancy itching starts out.  I do have itching on the rest of my body but the burning hasn't started.  I would appreciate prayers over this.  Cholestatis can lead to stillbirth in babies its bad enough and you go past 38 weeks of pregnancy.  I have had it with all my girls and have gone past with 2 of them (my water broke with my first.)  It would be nice to simply induce labor next week but I struggle with the risk involved there as well.  The inductions never seem to work right.  I will praying for wisdom and discussing this with my midwife tomorrow.  In the meantime, I have to endure the itching and burning.  It's worse at night, hence the not sleeping well.