40 Weeks and counting...

well, this is my first ever blog post and i must say, it feels as if i have crossed over into a new dimension. but i've always been a journaler so i guess this is the natural progression. my unborn child will probably have a blog all her own in a couple of years where she will share her daily comings and goings, including ways in which her parents have embarrassed her or otherwise cramped her style. so i figure i'd better get with the program so i can be hip with the kids (as if...).

i am now in my 40th week of pregnancy and as predicted, there has really been no progress toward delivery. pregnancy, in general has been pretty kind to me relatively speaking. perhaps i can summarize with a quick review for those who might be interested...

FIRST TRIMESTER: i had some morning sickness (queasiness and fatigue) for the first 12 weeks which graduated into full blown hurling - prompted by a head cold - between weeks 12 and 15 (good times). being on the verge of barfing all the time makes you a bit of a bathroom connoisseur. i seriously would avoid places that had terrible bathrooms (or people that might smell... like berkeley) because nothing compliments morning sickness worse than a "purell moment" in a public restroom. of course walking into my office building every morning in downtown oakland - which serves as a homeless encampment by night - was no picnic either. every day was an exercise in mouth breathing and dry heaving. super fun! no really. probably the most embarrassing place i hurled was the target parking lot. jon could only helplessly stand by and watch. the poor thing.

the first trimester was a weird time, not only because i'm not typically a squeamish person, but also because i am also not a low energy person. however, i could fall asleep during the pause of a comma and be out for hours. and when i awakened, i felt like i'd been up all night and that i could sleep an additional 8 hours. it's like the worst hang over you ever had without the benefit of the buzz the night before. i have also never been without an appetite (unless i was sick... and even then only for, like, a day). and yet, i didn't experience hunger for about 2 months. cooking (which ordinarily i LOVE to do) and grocery shopping (which frankly, i'm happy to delegate under any circumstances) grossed me out too. at around 8 weeks, i went to wisconsin to visit my dad and stepmom and enjoyed the most relaxing vacation ever. their home is in a small town and is quite tranquil. i slept most of the time since most activities (such as climbing the stairs, flipping channels, petting the cats, eating lunch, etc) would tire me out. i think they were thrown off by my lack of appetite and my round the clock sleeping at first, but once i declared after a 4-hour post lunch nap that "this is the best vacation EVER!" they began to relax.

that all changed on 6/7/06. yes, i do remember the day very specifically because when you haven't been at all interested in food and you suddenly feel hungry, it feels very urgent. in fact, i believe that i made jon drive me to the el pollo loco for lunch, where i purchased a decent sized meal. and then promptly began to panic because i was not sure i really had enough food. up until that point, all i could choke down was fresh fruit - like pineapples and mangoes - cereal, rice, sushi (the cooked kind, although i would have eaten the raw if i could) and the occasional cheese on a stick from "hot dog on a stick". i'm sure jon, who became principle nagger of the house, was happy to see me eating a meal unsolicited. i think he thought aliens abducted his wife and replaced her with this sleepy facsimile. kinda boring and high maintenance. i mean, the brittany he knew never had to be told twice it was time to eat (in fact, you really don't have to complete the sentence...). i'm sure that day, after he saw me finish the food on my plate for the first time in months, he did an in-zone/touchdown dance. for me, having an appetite for real food, with actual protein, was like a homecoming for an old friend. (hellooo old friend!) despite all this, what i went through was really nothing compared to what some friends went through, so in retrospect, it wasn't that bad.

SECOND TRIMESTER: as i started to get my energy back, i was able to work out more. although i wasn't working out 3-4 days a week as i did in my pre-pregnancy days, i was able to get in 1-2 days of strength training and step aerobics during the week and a long run on the weekend. i was able to run all the way through my 6th month of pregnancy. of course, that run gradually looked more and more like a traddle (combination trot and waddle) as my belly grew and people did look at me funny when i was running on the trail. but it made me feel good so i didn't care. plus, i am generally used to people looking at me funny, after all, i did have waterfall bangs in high school.

i got to travel during my second trimester as well. for my birthday, i went to atlanta with jon and my friend leah (the picture of us, is on tybee island. we took a quick overnighter to savannah, ga and tybee island is just outside of savannah). and despite the crushing heat and humidity, we had a fabulous time. i also went to a training conference in baltimore. while the conference was fun, and i got to eat more than my share of maryland crab while i was there (DE-licious!), the air travel was rough - it takes all day to get there because of the multiple stops and i had to eat at burger king, like 2 times! ugh... the direct flight service to baltimore from oakland for southwest airlines didn't start until the day after i got back. brutal.

all in all, my second trimester was pretty easy. i didn't have an outrageous appetite so i really didn't gain a lot of weight like i was afraid i would. i was grateful to look more pregnant than fat, so my maternity clothes would look better. despite that, some people didn't seem to notice i was pregnant until i was actually 6 months along. it does make me wonder what did they thought was going on before (since i was wearing maternity jeans by week 8)? i did lose a bunch of weight about a 3 years ago so maybe they just thought i was gaining that weight back. gosh, i hope not... but people did make a lot of comments about me glowing and "looking good" and keeping my weight down. funny, it seems that people observe different social rules with pregnant women. most of the time, people wouldn't dream of touching another person's belly or commenting on their weight out loud and on a daily basis. but people i barely knew did it all the time. outside of the unsolicited belly rubs, the running weight commentary, the burger king, and the people who tell me casually that i should stay home and take care of my child (as if mortgage payments grow on trees), the worst part of my 2nd trimester was the leg cramps. these were helped when dr. gentry (my fabulous obgyn) suggested i take calcium and potassium but they were still pretty heinous when they came.

THIRD TRIMESTER: frankly, these last few months have been relatively easy as well. the sonogram photo is from 9/12, around 28 weeks (her hand is near her face in these shots). it does seem that once i hit month 7, some of the more typical pregnancy complaints (TMI alert!) like hemorrhoids, became an issue. but certainly there was nothing debilitating. while i definitely slowed down, and i clearly no longer walk, so much as waddle from place to place, i haven't really felt super uncomfortable. i still sleep pretty well (although the number of pillows involved has grown exponentially with every passing week) and i haven't had an insatiable appetite. and i up until about 34 weeks, i was still able to work in one session of strength training per week, which really helped me feel good. plus i did my long walks on the weekend (3-6 miles) with my friend jenny (who's pregnant with twins - together we call ourselves, "party of five"). around this time, i stopped bending down to pick things up. instead, when something drops, i try to remember to tell jon about it so he can pick it up when he gets a chance. sometimes a couple of hours would elapse between the droppage and the notification but jon was always very dutiful nonetheless. i have often thought to carry around post-it notes so that when i drop something i can write something like "pencil down" and post it on the wall near the fallen item so someone can pick it up.

but during week 37, my feet and ankles started swelling pretty badly and my blood pressure spiked. dr. gentry not only took me off work on 11/9 (a week earlier than i'd planned), but she threatened to induce labor the following week if i my hypertension didn't subside. that kinda freaked me out because i wasn't ready. while i certainly wanted the baby to come before christmas but i had no intention of having a pre-thanksgiving baby. i had errands to do. the house wasn't clean. the baby's room wasn't finished. i had plans! and while i expect the baby to disrupt up my plans, i didn't expect the doctor to. fortunately, my blood pressure went down immediately and i didn't have to be induced.

the week of thanksgiving, i got the second cold of my pregnancy which quickly turned into bronchitis. and after a brief run in with a rude answering service lady, dr. gentry prescribed antibiotics which knocked it out pretty quickly. once that was gone, i was back to just feeling pregnant and a little tired. which is about what you feel at 39 weeks.

so that brings us back to doh o-o-o oh... week 40. the projects are done. the house is clean. and now jenny's off work too (party of 5!) so we lounge around our respective houses and lunch with friends. it actually feels pretty luxurious. i fully recognize that this is the calm before the storm. although, i frankly think that storm will not come without some sort of pitocin cocktail (that's the drug they give to induce labor).
and so, we wait...