Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, filled with family and delicious food!
I’m now at 27 weeks pregnant. The final week of the second trimester. Next week, 28 weeks, will start the third trimester homestretch. It feels like this pregnancy has gone at light speed. In the beginning, it seemed like it would never end, and now here I am nearing the end. Thank goodness really, I’m sick of being handicapped, and I’m ready to go back to normal for me, granted with a baby now. But still, mostly normal life! Most of all, I’m looking forward to riding again. Berry has been looking awfully smug these days, not having to do anything but loaf about in the field.
The Belly
I guess belly bumps can be cute. Women other than me have certainly worn them well. I, on the other hand, feel like a tanker. I’m slow to start moving, and I have to take my turns wide. My belly sticks out like the prow of a ship, and is surprisingly solid, probably able to slice through smaller icebergs. I used to be able to slip through the barn doors or the gates easily, and now I get stuck because of my belly.
I used to be able to pick up hay easily and toss it out to the horses. Now it’s like a three step process – kneel down, collect, brace legs out and rise. Combine that with not being able to get through narrow gate openings, and sometimes I’m just stuck for a moment between the gate and the post, while Pony (it’s ALWAYS Pony) uses this opportunity to eat the hay I’m currently holding, showering me with hay bits. If I’m lucky, Stu joins him from the other side so I have both of them ripping hay out of my hands from opposite directions, while I’m just trying to scoot the gate open a few more inches.
Gym Time
The best part of the second trimester has been having energy again. The first trimester I was so tired I felt like I constantly had the flu. But the glorious second trimester, I’ve felt basically normal, and therefore, great. So I took advantage of this and starting actually going to the gym again. It quickly became a highlight of my day. To non-gym goers I’m sure this sounds strange, but going to the gym is addictive, and just makes you feel great. And I did feel great. Sure, I had to modify some exercises because I couldn’t put pressure on my belly, and I kept everything low impact, but I felt better, slept better (I have serious pregnancy insomnia), and it gave me something active to look forward to. Until…
The Twisted Ankle
About a week and a half ago, I was walking down the street outside my office, when I stepped on a manhole cover and rolled my ankle much much worse than I ever have. It was the most painful thing I can remember happening to me. I had heard a pop, so I actually thought my ankle was broken. I either let out a scream, or other people thought it looked painful because a bunch of people asked if I needed help, or needed 911. But because people and spending money scares me more than a possible broken ankle, I assured everyone I was fine, and then limped slowly away to my office.
It hurt a lot, but the pain started fading as I arrived back in my office, so I assumed it would probably be fine. I was walking around just fine for the rest of the day, even though it was swollen and still hurt a bit.
As the next few days went on, I was careful, but the pain seemed to be fading. Until one morning, when I was feeding the horses.
I was in the hay shed when I stepped on uneven ground. My ankle choose that moment to roll again, and down I went, shrieking in pain. Then my lantern went out. Just like the start of a horror movie. As I lay there in the darkness on the soft hay, sobbing, I wondered how long it would take coyotes to find me and eat me. I was either scaring away all wildlife with my cries of pain or attracting the more opportunistic animals.
Eventually, I got back up, and limped around, passing out hay to the horses. Despite the pain, and the lack of being able to see what I was doing, there was no way I was going to make a second trip down there later to finish feeding. My superpower is being able to throw out hay to the horses by feel alone.
At the moment, it was a little bit frightening to be down there with a hurt ankle and no light, but in retrospect, it was kind of funny, mainly because I didn’t get eaten by wild animals. I laughed about it later!
But as hilarious as twisting my ankle has been, it’s effected my ability to just live normally, and go to the gym. I haven’t been doing as much walking, and I feel like I’ve gained 10 lbs just from that. And the bigger I get, the harder it is to get around, and I feel like I need a walking stick to get up. I haven’t been able to do my leg exercises at the gym, and now my legs are starting to cramp up at night. As I mentioned, I already have issues sleeping at night, so now in addition to a baby doing gymnastics with my insides waking me up, I have uncomfortable, cramped legs waking me, and no amount of stretching will relieve it. And the leg exercises at the gym were just my favorite! I suffer from a syndrome that causes fat to store on my legs, commonly known as “fat legs,” and those exercises really kep it in check.
The Glucose Test
Pregnant women can sometimes develop what basically amounts to pregnancy diabetes. It appears in around the late week 20s, and will last the duration of the pregnancy, going away after the birth. It’s not the end of the world, but it is a condition that has to be managed carefully to avoid complications.
To test for it, women are given a vial of sugar water to chug, and then their blood sugar is tested an hour later. I was given this test. And they were concerned about the results, so I had to go back in a week later to get a second test. The entire week I fretted about how I was going to have diabetes and how I might die from this pregnancy, or how the baby might die, or I’ll have diabetes for life afterward, and have to have a carefully controlled diet for the rest of my life. Basically, I read a lot of WebMD.
I went in for the second test, and this delightful test was 3 HOURS LONG. I had to drink the sugar water again, and I had my blood drawn four times. My veins felt so bruised.
Luckily it turned out that nothing was the matter, and I was just left annoyed that I should have fasted before the first test for a more accurate result. They had assured me it was fine to eat before the test, but I will no longer believe that. Just fast… it’s so much easier.
In Conclusion…
This feels like a huge complaint, but it actually hasn’t been that bad. With the exception of feeling like a tanker and the sleep insomnia, I feel mostly normal. I think I got lucky. I have plenty of energy, and everything seems to be progressing on schedule, and everything is healthy. Despite my earlier complaint, it’s pretty amazing to feel the baby moving around inside of me. Sometimes it’s a little tap, sometimes it feels like she’s doing flips. Sometimes the movement is so big I can see my whole stomach ripple with the movement. I feel like such a cliche when I say this, but I can’t believe there’s an entire little seperate life instead of me. Like, how it is possible that I made this?
There are no cravings of any sort. I always heard pregnant women would have weird cravings, but nothing. I have the usual moments were I think I’d really like a pound of sugar to stuff in my mouth, but that’s pretty normal for me, and unrelated to the pregnancy. Not sure if I’m just lucky about this, or if I’ve been lied to my whole life about these so called “pregnancy cravings.”
Overall, I feel basically like me. But I would like my body to be my own again, with the ability to eat what I want and be able to engage in more active activities. I look forward to that day. Only three more months!