28 weeks

Where to start? The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur. I have now finished up work. Well, sort of. I've given up my day job, but I'm still doing my Tupperware parties. In some ways they are harder, because most people want to book them in the evenings, which makes for a rather late night for me. Really though, I am just taking it a week at a time for now.

I know I've written a bit about things swelling recently, but I was actually a bit worried the other day. So I self catheterise to go to the toilet. For those who don't have experience in this area, that means that every time I need to pee, I have to insert a catheter into my urethra, wait for my bladder to empty, then removed it. The trouble recently coming from the fact that everything in that area was so swollen that I couldn't actually find my urethra. I've been doing this for 8 years now, I'm pretty familiar with that area, but I was seriously lost. Obviously you can't just stop peeing for three months. My sister Ellie is a nurse, so I was on the phone to her (obviously she wasn't going to know any better than me where my urethra had nicked off to, I know that) to see if she had any ideas to help. I know women are often given ice packs to help reduce swelling post childbirth, so I wasn't sure if that might be an option. Realistically though, if things hadn't returned to normal, I would have required an indwelling catheter. As it was, I managed to empty my bladder using a different type of catheter (one that didn't flex quite so much) and by the next day the swelling there had gone down and things resumed to normal, though I did make a point of reacquainting myself with the landmarks, so I didn't get lost again. After all, I can't exactly leave a bread trail, can I?

My legs are doing the same old thing. Start off skinny, look like tree trucks within an hour. I have room in my jeans when I put them on, then have to peel them off at the end of the day. Literally peel them off! I'm still trying to get them up every day if I can, and get the zapper (neurotrac) machine on them as often as I can. I've used compression socks a bit, but they mark pretty badly around the back of my knees and the front of my ankles, so I'm a bit reluctant to use them. All this fluid makes my legs so heavy at the end of the day too. It's a real effort to lift them into bed! And as for shaving them... I just can't get them up on the shower chair anymore. Although to be fair, even if I could, there isn't any room for them past my belly! So deforestation of my legs now requires either light machinery or a second operator. Or both.
They have been kicking about a bit in the mornings too, so I've been trying to make an effort to stretch my legs before I get up each day. It's actually a good reminder. I just have to be careful when I first sit up that I don't get half way up and thrown back onto the bed, or even better, into the bedside table. I've done that before and I feel absolutely no need to repeat that exercise!

I had a few weeks sleeping flat, but I've built up the pillow fort again and I'm sleeping much better. I have started putting an extra pillow under my right hand side though, to tip the weight of my belly off to the side and off the nerves running along my spine. This is also meant to help prevent haemorrhoid's too. Did you know 50% of women get them when pregnant? I certainly didn't.
In the last two weeks things haven't been working quite so smoothly in the bowel department, so I'm a bit cautious that I could end up with haemorrhoid's. I don't know if it was the infusion itself, or just me eating less fibre as I try to eat more iron, but things aren't working as well as they were. Again, for those of you who don't know how things work for people with SCI, our bowels don't work by themselves. For me, it means I take laxatives every evening, then have to use a suppository of a morning, combined with stomach massage to empty my bowels. As with my bladder, it means I am pretty familiar with what works for my body and how. As a result, I usually pick up pretty quickly when things aren't right, even without being able to feel what's going on in that area. There is so much stuff you never even think of until you get pregnant and it happens to you...

I've had lots of suggestions since my last post, as to what to do for heartburn. I've tried some Zantac, which seems to work well, so thanks for all your suggestions there.

We had our next scan earlier this week. Everything is going as it should, baby is still about a week ahead of the dating scan, but a week either way is considered normal. It had its head burrowed into my right hip, so the radiologist couldn't see its face. We did get a picture of it hi-fiving the ultrasound though! You can't see the thumb, but it's definitely there, just hiding.   

Bub giving a (sideways) hi-five!

My energy levels have picked up a bit in the last week or so, now that my iron infusion has had a chance to kick in. I still feel tired, but I'm able to get more done in between. I'm taking time this afternoon to work on the quilt I'm making for the baby. I haven't touched it in about a month, because whenever I have had any spare time or energy I've been trying to get stuff sorted around home.

Tim and I headed down to Hobart for a few days a week ago. In reality, it was probably our last hurrah before baby arrives. We had a great couple of days, catching a show and catching up with friends. We have actually done a bit of eating out the last couple of weeks, which is good, apart from my very restricted stomach capacity. That is very disappointing. I'm enjoying getting out a bit though, before we have to factor baby sitters into the equation! And really, I'm not going to have the energy to be going out for dinner for a while after anyway!

I've had that stupid metallic taste in my mouth again lately. Again, one of those annoying pregnancy symptoms no one tells you about until you stumble across it in a pregnancy book. I have discovered pickled onions makes it go away though. That could be why so many pregnant women like pickles.

So a bit of a funny story to finish off. It wasn't funny at the time, but I can laugh about it now. I have gone off my poached eggs for breakfast lately, instead having pancakes with berries and yogurt each morning. Well, the other day I went to put the bag of blueberries back in the freezer and the bag came undone. The blueberries came out everywhere- all through the freezer, all over me, the floor and under my chair. I had pancakes and sauce cooking up, blueberries rapidly defrosting all over... everywhere!  Tim had just left for work, so it was up to me. I am at the stage now where things have to be pretty bloody important for me to pick them up off the floor myself, but without avoiding the kitchen all day, which I can't exactly do as a 'grazer' I kind of had to pick them up. It was probably only about a cup of them, but when you have to pick them up one at a time, that's a lot of blueberries! And they were too soft to vacuum of sweep up. I can't bend over forwards anymore, straight over the side wasn't working either, so it was a very specific angle I had to lean over at. I could only pick up about 3 in any one go too, because I couldn't breath! So I had a fabulous start to the day! I have since contained the remaining blueberries in a solid container, to avoid any future escape attempts. There were several lone escapees found in various places, very soft and soggy, throughout the rest of the day too. Like the pocket in the front of my chair.

Just some of the nasty buggers..

Until next time! No doubt I'll have some other disaster to share in a couple of weeks!