Broke 'n' hip

Well, I had my last monthly OB appointment yesterday; my appointments will be every two weeks from now until the end of September and then they'll go weekly for that last month. So far, everything continues to go really well. I passed my glucose tolerance test, so no gestational diabetes for me, and my iron level is staying high, so hopefully I'm done with the blood drawing for a while. I am measuring a little big for 27 weeks, but I'm not surprised, since my husband was a larger baby (close to 9 lbs) and comes from a family of large babies. Of course, it could indicate that my pregnancy is further along than we originally thought (although I don't really know how because I did document when my period was in January), and so it's possible that I will be delivering earlier than October 23. We'll just have to wait and see how everything works out.

I did have a couple of complaints to bring up at my appointment. One wasn't really a complaint; it was just that I've started noticing the Braxton Hicks contractions, and they are kind of annoying. But my main complaints have to do with my hips. Since early on in the pregnancy, I have been very very uncomfortable in bed. Since I can't sleep on my stomach or my back, I'm left rolling from side to side and sleeping on my hips and shoulders. We have a very firm mattress, and it's not really made for side-sleeping. Because of this, my shoulders hurt, and I'm getting what feel like pressure sores on my hips. I thought that a memory foam mattress topper might improve things, but after putting a nice 3-inch one on the bed, I'm not feeling a significant improvement, and I don't really like how soft it makes the bed (and my husband doesn't either). The only suggestions for improvement I'm getting from my friends who have gone through the same thing are various pillow placements. I asked the doctor the same thing, and that's exactly what she said. I need to just pack myself in with pillows and ride this out. Not happy. The other hip complaint seems to be a pinched nerve in my left hip. It manifests itself as a sharp pain just to the left of my tailbone, with pain crossing the top of my left butt cheek and difficulty putting weight on my left leg. My right leg occasionally hurts as well, but it's almost always my left leg. I don't know what causes this, but it's a problem I've had since long before I got pregnant. I used to be able to rock back on my tailbone and the back of my pelvis and something would *pop* and the pain would subside. If I couldn't get it to pop that way, I could lie on my stomach and have my husband stand over me and press down on my tailbone and pop it. But since I've been pregnant, the pain has been worse, and it won't go away. I can't get it to pop by rocking back on my pelvis, and of course I can't lie on my stomach so my husband can't try popping it either. No one seems to be familiar with this pain of my previously pregnant friends, and when I mentioned it to my doctor she suggested I see a chiropractor. I'm not sure if I want to put forth the money for something like that, but if it gets worse I may have to. I can still walk right now, but if it gets worse I may not be able to. We'll just have to wait and see.

While my hips are in pain, they are not broke. However, I am. Financially, we are in quite a pinch. With my not bringing in any money this summer (no tutoring and no subbing), we're really starting to hurt. I've interviewed three times for positions in the local schools, and I haven't gotten a position yet. At least twice I've gotten the impression that I was their second choice for the position; they told me if another position opened up to be sure to apply for that one as well. I'm very disappointed, while we weren't originally expecting my having a teaching position this fall, because I feel a little unwanted. I'm used to be the golden child; I was a popular teacher at my previous school, with both the students and the administration (wow, I sound so full of myself). It really makes me feel kind of low that they haven't hired me, even for a part time position. I'm working on the test for the first unit of my ASI indexing certification, but it's going to be quite a while before I can get an indexing job. And tutoring won't pick up until school starts up. So I just don't know what else to do. We really need money, and I'm not sure where we're going to get it.

In need of some support

At almost 26 weeks (tomorrow), I have come to the realization that the most important thing right now is not getting the nursery ready or getting a list together of the items that we still need. It's getting a *&^%$#@ bra that actually fits.

When I bought my first maternity clothes, I bought a nursing bra off the rack, without trying it on. Big mistake. I don't think the bra would have fit me even if I weren't pregnant. Then I ordered two "sleep" bras, which do fit and are quite comfortable, but they offer no support whatsoever. They really are designed just to keep the puppies reined in while I'm in bed.

The most obvious thing to do was to order bras online from a maternity clothing company, and to follow their sizing instructions to the letter. I measured my ribcage just below my breasts, and then measured my chest at the widest part. This particular company gave a place to input those numbers, and it specifically told me what size to get. How helpful. I ordered two underwire support bras for day-to-day wear, since that's what I usually wear, and two sports bra-style bras that were less supportive but supposed to be pretty comfortable.

Well, I don't know where this company came up with their equation, but it didn't work. The sports bras barely fit; while they technically cover everything, the soft cups inside do not. What's weird about it is that my breasts kind of conform to the odd shape during the course of the day. At the bottom of the bra, where my excess boobage sort of escapes from the cups, they take on this weird flat shape that has a slightly different texture than the rest of the breast. I guess this is from the milk ducts and glands that are in the process of forming. But it's weird. And the underwire bras don't fit at all. I'm at least one full cup size bigger, probably more like two full cup sizes. And it isn't that my breasts have grown since I measured them; they are just too darned small.

So out of the seven maternity bras I have purchased, two of them fit well but cannot be used during the day, two of them fit somewhat but leave me rather lumpy and kind of uncomfortable, and three don't fit at all. The good news in all this is that I'm pretty sure if I go up a couple cup sizes, I'll find something that fits. But now of course I'm concerned that if I order something now, at six months along, it may not fit in three more months. I'm already big as a cow (at least it feels that way); how much more am I going to grow in three months?

Boy, won't this be fun!

Well, I had my ultrasound a couple weeks ago, and we found out we're having a boy! I know there's always a possibility the ultrasound tech got it wrong, but based on the picture she showed us, she's got good reason to think it's a boy (there's a pretty obvious pee-pee in the picture). As far as names go, we're still leaning towards Brendan James, which we had nailed down early. Girls' names are so much more challenging! Guess it's good we're having a boy!

Anyway, I scored big at my sister-in-law's house a few weeks ago. She was ready to unload a bunch of baby stuff she'd been holding for quite some time (my nieces are 7 and 9, and the youngest kid in the rest of the family is at least 3). She gave us a crib, a bassinet, a stroller, three car seats, a breast pump, a highchair/swing, and tons of toys, baby clothes, and assorted linens and things. Hopefully this will save us quite a bit of money in the long run.

I filled out a baby registry at Babies R Us the other day, and I had to put out a plea to my friends on Facebook who are parents, to see what I had missed. It was so overwhelming! I had no idea what to put on the list. I still have to go through a couple of boxes that my sister-in-law had given me, to see what I have vs. what I still need. But we're starting to prepare ourselves. We assembled the crib last night and got it set up in the bedroom we'll use for the baby.

So we're on our way! I'm 25 weeks pregnant right now, so I've got 15 weeks (or less) left. I'm still feeling really good, although I'm uncomfortable at night (I can only sleep on my sides, and my hips and shoulders hurt when I lay on them too long), and I'm getting bigger every day. Yowza!