Smiling Through the Rain

My mom and I decided to treat ourselves to a day at the spa today to celebrate both of our July b-days. We went to a spa in OKC and had a foot treatment and then a massage. Let me tell you how much Gil and I enjoyed all of this. It was a full 2 hours worth of treatments and we were in heaven! My body has been working hard to tote around these extra 30 pounds of " sexiness ", and it felt so incredible to have someone work out the tissues formerly known as muscles. My therapist was a 21-year-old who found pregnancy quite interesting (like a circus side-show)and had lots of questions about it. I thought it was cute and didn't mind answering them. Especially because I love to talk about my pregnancy and this sweet baby. To anyone who will listen. And sometimes people who don't want to hear about it... Gil seemed to be really enjoying the whole thing and I was feeling sweet little rolling movements and gentle pushing inside until the scalp massage. Apparently, the...

We went to the doctor's office today for my weekly follow-up. My body is still hanging in there- trace protein in the urine (been there for many weeks), blood pressure was 122/78 (highest it has been, but still okay), and my belly is measuring a couple of weeks ahead (way to grow, Gil). Baby's heartrate was in the 130's, and is definitely head down. Seems like the doctor is actually trying to kill me when he checks fetal position and measure my fundal height. I was pretty sure the baby was going to just shoot out from all the pressure. Which I feel a lot when I'm walking nowdays- kind of like a bowling ball trying to fall out of your hoo-hah. He doesn't do cervical checks until 38 weeks, which is really alright with me. It doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, and certainly doesn't feel good! Last night, I had quite a few painful contractions and some menstrual like cramping. At one point, I was questioning how bad it had to get before I did somet...

One of my long-time blogging friends got news today that she has a birthmom interested in choosing her to adopt the baby she is carrying. She's been waiting a LONG time for a baby, and I just want to tell her congrats and that I'm praying super hard that this works out for her. I can't leave a comment on your blog since you don't allow them and I'm not sure how else to send you a message, but I had to let you know that I'm so excited for both you and your husband! Keep us posted!!! (I'm not including your name on here to protect your privacy.)

Gil and I have made it to the 9th month of pregnancy! It's a wonderful feeling to know that even if this baby made an appearance today, things will be okay. We're just working on plumping up from here on out (both of us!) We've gained 28 pounds now, so we're still a little under the 150 mark. I'm still feeling pretty bummed that this pregnancy will be ending soon and I feel really good overall. The half-days have restored my sense of well-being and I'm still enjoying pregnancy. * Proving all of those mean women wrong who have been saying all along, "just wait until the end of your pregnancy." Hard to tell for sure, but I feel like the baby is starting to drop. This child has moved around so frequently throughout this pregnancy that my belly shape is different from day to day and I'm never quite sure if I'm carrying high or low because it depends on the day. I feel more pressure down really low now though and I have a lot of space betw...

I've been a little under the weather all weekend, so I've spent all but about 3 hours of it sleeping. Which always bums me out, so today I was super excited when Aaron got the opportunity to go to an exotic animal park by us today and we got to play with some wild animals! Granted, I probably should have laid around and stayed out of the heat. But it was such a great day! My mom couldn't help but tag along, and we got to play with a 3-month-old tiger who was feeling very playful and wouldn't stay still for the picture. Notice: my cankles are temporarily gone again and my ankles have shown back up. I promise to post a pic of the swelling once it returns... These half-days have really helped. :) We also got to hold a serval, which is a type of wild cat. This little guy is about 5 months old and won't get a whole lot bigger. I wasn't too sure if he was going to be over my weight limit for holding, but turns out he isn't really all too heavy. Then we held the ...

Saw the OB today and I reported what the cardiologist told me. I then tried to tell her that my heart has been acting a ton better since being put on part-time and that I didn't think we didn't to repeat the holter monitor as he has suggested. She proceeds to send me across the hall to our cardiology department to get one put on before I left the building, knowing that if she let me do it tomorrow at my clinic, it probably wouldn't ever get done. So here I am... attached to this bulky, uncomfortable monitor for 24 more hours. Well, we're actually down to 17 hours and 15 minutes now. I at least talked them into letting me take it off at noon tomorrow when I get done seeing patients so that I don't have to drive it back to their office, I can drop it off at mine. The results will get sent to the cardiologist eventually and he will get around to reading them in the next couple of weeks. So the baby could potentially arrive before we even know the results. Which the r...

Met with the cardiologist today. What an exciting man he is. Good thing he's smart, because there is not much going on in the personality department. Anyways, he asked me tons of questions about my symptoms and pregnancy, and didn't really give me an answer to what is going on. We know my heart has a small irregularity which can predispose me to arrhythmias. Apparently, he thinks now that my heart is pumping for the two of us, it's getting stressed out easily. He first mentioned bed rest, at which point my heart actually just quit beating all together, but then luckily said I should just reduce my work schedule and take it really easy from here on out. If that doesn't help, I should do even less... He actually said no shopping. That would be more of a problem for my metro husband. :) And my legs decided to swell like balloons again today before I got in to see him, so he wasn't too impressed with that. He'd like a repeat holter monitor, but I'm go...