33 Weeks

Wow... It's been a little while since I've posted. I feel bad. But, I feel like I have some pretty good excuses.

Well, complaints, lol. (This is most definitely a complaint post!!)

First, Evie and I have now been sick for 16 days. It's "just" a cough... a terrible, terrible, violent cough, that sounds like it should be coming from someone who's smoked 5 packs a day for the last 20 years or so. Evie's cough hasn't seemed to bother her too much, except at night; it's worse than in the day and wakes her up a couple times a night :/ but really other than that, she doesn't seem to mind the coughing. Me, on the other hand, I've been miserable. I'm exhausted, and the coughing is so horrible on my extremely stretched out belly muscles. I have tried every suggestion that everyone has had to cure it/get rid of symptoms, and nothing has seemed to do much of anything. So frustrating!

Trying to take care of Evie while being pregnant, sick, and utterly exhausted, has been tough :/ Karl has tried to be helpful, but he's, of course, been extra busy lately... So, yes, it's been tough.

Aside from the coughing, baby has also recently moved into a position where he's been putting a ton of pressure on my bladder. I feel like I have to pee constantly! Also, I'm so big I seriously cannot find a single comfortable position to be in :/

I'm totally exhausted... My sleep, the last week or so, has started to look something like this:

I lie down, toss and turn trying to find any "allowed" position that doesn't cause cramps in various parts of my body, my hips or back to scream in pain, various body parts to fall asleep, and doesn't make me feel like I can't breathe. I have a few coughing fits that make me even more uncomfortable. Then, when I finally find a semi acceptable position, I realize I have to pee. I go to the bathroom, come back, and start the process all over again. I repeat this little cycle several times, and then just as I am finally able to start drifting off, Evie wakes up and needs me to come lie down next to her bed on the floor.

If I thought my mattress was bad, it's luxurious compared to sleeping on the floor!

I finally get her back to sleep, go back to bed, and fall asleep for about 2 or 3 hours before she wakes up again. I usually end up sleeping on the floor in her room for the rest of the night, as it's really the only way to keep her sleeping. I wake up so sore!

I'm so tired!

And, as of my last appointment, I found out I'm more anemic than I was last month :/ I started out mildly anemic, but my levels have dropped even more despite my efforts in taking iron supplements.

So, in summary, I've been sick for more than two weeks, I can't sleep, and I'm anemic. I don't know if I'll ever be un-tired again!

On the bright side,we're finally down to appointments every two weeks! Only 7 weeks to go!

Also, this coming month is packed! I hope it will go by super fast :) We've got one one ultrasound, two midwife appointments, our prenatal meeting with the doula, two baby showers, my birthday, and Valentine's day!

On the other hand, I'm really not prepared for him to come yet! Half of me is just so ready to be done, I'm having such a hard time, but we don't have anything ready, we don't have a name we can agree on (starting to worry we never will!), and I don't know how I'm going to have a newborn AND take care of Evie.

I know it will work out, but wow, lots of emotions going on right now!

The Things People Say...

Tonight we took Evie to the playground at the mall. It's too cold and gross for her to get out much, so the mall is a pretty regular trip for us these days.

Anyway, I was sitting near another mom of a toddler who looked to be about Evie's age. I was just sitting there watching Karl chase the little monkey around when the other mom came walking back to her place on the bench after chasing down her own monkey.

Now, I kinda tend to try to seem as antisocial as possible in hopes of avoiding uncomfortable small talk with strangers, but it didn't work this time... she walked right up to me and asked if I was okay, which caught me off guard, and then she followed up with "you look SO exhausted".

I kind of laughed (now trying to pull off the social persona, since forced into interaction) and said I was pretty tired, but I assured her I was fine. She then continued on to ask how much longer I had (in regards to my giant belly) and how old my child was, and told me that her son was about the same age and how she could NEVER be pregnant and deal with a toddler.

I did my best to complete the conversation in an appropriately lighthearted and congenial manner, since I'm assuming she was just trying to make small talk and get some non-toddler socialization in her day, but I have to admit, I'm really not sure how I feel about the whole encounter.

First off, how horrible does a person have to look to have a complete stranger ask if she's okay? I actually thought I had been doing pretty well tonight (at looking like normal human being), so that was a little disappointing. My problem with that comment was mostly a matter of pride I suppose, Lol

Then there's the second part of our conversation. I'm sure she meant it completely innocently and I shouldn't dwell on it or anything, but I kind of feel like the implication was that I'm crazy for doing the pregnant thing while I have a 2 year old. Then again,  I would acctually have to agree with that most days...

I don't know why the whole episode has me out of sorts, I think the biggest thing is that it really surprises me the things that total strangers will just say, out of the blue, when you're pregnant.