Tag Archives: Round Ligament Pain

My Form of Early Nesting

I bought a minivan.

Yeah, I’m probably crazy. Yeah, minivans aren’t “cool” by any means. Yeah, I’m losing some gas mileage (like 8 MPG sadly). But I bought myself a minivan which I am thoroughly happy about and I stayed out of debt in the process.

I’ve wanted a minivan for a while. Everyone thought I was silly because I only had one child and don’t you need like 10 before you consider such a thing? Honestly, I hated getting Peanut and all of our stuff into and out of my tiny Mitsubishi Lancer. That car was great when I was just me or just adults, but with her in the middle having someone on either side was cramped to say the least and after this new baby was born I wouldn’t have been able to take more than one adult with me in my car at any time. Plus trying to do something like driving to Vegas when we only had one kid worth of stuff was so packed in that car that when a thing of water spilled it ruined like $50 worth of things we had packed in there.

So I’ve been tired of that car for a while, but didn’t want to tie myself into a car payment (both of our cars were paid off) and wanted a nice minivan, so I figured we’d wait. Then in all of the paranoia (which I still call paranoia because I’m convinced it’s not twins by this point) I realized that if we do have twins, we’d have to get a new car. Still not wanting to tie ourselves into a car payment, could we possibly get one that wasn’t up to previous standards and stay within budget? Turns out yes. Even possibly that our prior standards were kind of silly.

Before I wanted a new (or near) Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey. When it comes to cars, I don’t care what you say, Japanese-made are the best. When I bought the Mitsubishi I gave my parents back the 1990 Toyota Camry they bought me thinking it was on it’s last leg and four years later it’s still running strong. When it comes to minivans, Every. Single. Source. says that it’s either the Sienna or Odyssey that outshines the rest. Part of my new life of trying to simplify and downsize means that I don’t necessarily have to have the best. Of course it also doesn’t mean I have to buy a clunker, but I could find something nicely in the middle.

I started researching vans and quickly threw out the Dodge Caravans and Kia Sedonas from reviews on trusted sites (Edmunds has reviews for every make, model, and year that are very nice, though sometimes dated). I decided that I would like to stick to either a Ford Windstar or Chevy Venture with a possibility of some others. I found plenty of cars worth looking at, but the caveat of buying a minivan was that I would have to sell my car and at least break even (definitely preferable if we could make some money in this process and put that towards debt).

We decided to spruce up my car and put it up on a local car buying site, just to see if there was interest. Oh boy there was interest. We listed my 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer that had a Kelley Blue Book value of $4300 for $4000. We had about 4-5 different groups (mostly teenagers with their parents) test drive it, 4 offers (some of which hadn’t even come to see the car, which is kind of silly), and eventually sold it for $3800. This all happened within 5 days. I stuck to my guns with the price because, while it wasn’t in perfect shape (though who would expect a car that’s 8 years old to be in perfect shape), the Blue Book for a car in good shape was the $4300 and my car very much fit into that category. I knew that if I didn’t get enough to buy a minivan, it wouldn’t be happening, so why would I sell my car short? One of the people seriously offered me $2500 without even seeing the car!

When we found our buyer, I decided that it was time to get serious about finding a minivan. I start school next week and while we would have survived on one car, it wouldn’t have been fun. I went to town with my mother and looked at cars I had found online and all of them ended up being bleh. While trying to find an address, we passed a dealership with a van out front and decided to stop. Wow, this van was amazing.

When we went back to town the next day (money in the bank from my car sell), we still couldn’t find a van that matched up to this one we saw. My husband was feeling sketchy about the miles (161K, which is pretty high for an 8 year old car), but it was just so obviously well taken care of. It had all of the nice little things like a mirror to watch the back seat, DVD player, power driver’s seat, etc. for $3500 (which ended up being $3900 with taxes and what not). We decided a car with higher miles and pride of ownership was worth it over a car with lower miles that was beaten the crap out of. No better way to state it.

When I was reading my pregnancy book this morning and it was talking about nesting, I started to think. My house is a mess, I’m not at all ready for school (and Peanut’s preschool) to start, and I often go hours without even thinking about the fact that I have a baby in my belly. I haven’t even kept up with the blog about my pregnancy! Obviously, I’m not nesting, right? Wrong. I took my nesting in a different route this time. I spend a considerable amount of time over this last week or so preparing my vehicle for our new arrival and keeping our finances in check all the while. I am nesting, just in a different way than I expected.

19 weeks 0 days

I am 19 weeks and 0 days today. Things are pretty happy around here. I’m still getting round ligament pain and it’s getting worse, but that might be because I’m running around like crazy and haven’t had a whole lot of time to rest. The dizziness is getting better and that is lovely. I also have a bit more energy now-a-days, but I’m still yawning come 6PM. My boobs are huge and my fingers are swollen. ‘Nuff said there.

I’m finally gaining weight now. I went down to 8 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight (possibly lower because I think the pre-pregnancy guestimation was a bit on the flattering side) and stayed there for a while. Now I’m up to just 4 lbs below. I’m sure that has something to do with my ravenous appetite. Wow, I could eat a whole cow. Mmm… I want a hamburger.

I also think my colostrum has come in. Peanut didn’t nurse at all for a couple of days. One day because she just didn’t ask and the second day was because she asked right when I was rushing out of bed to get our Canadian friend to the airport, so I didn’t have time to sit and nurse, then she didn’t ask again for the rest of the day. Then yesterday she asked to nurse in the morning and I heard her actually swallowing. It’s a bit more painful now and still gives me the heebeegeebees, but it’s not enough that I’m thinking weaning. She even asked to nurse a second time that day after she hit her head, but then she wanted to spend the night at her grandparents’, so we’ll see if she nurses today at all (since she really only asks in the morning it seems and I obviously didn’t see her this morning). I told her that Twig can hear her today (because it said so in my email) and so she was just talking up a storm to him/her. Hopefully she stays this excited about her new sibling throughout the whole pregnancy.

The Art of Not Knowing

17 weeks 5 days

We live in an age of entitlement.

We want it now. We do not wait. No pleasure is stemmed from patience. When someone comments on our Facebook status, our smart phones tell us immediately. When you want to go buy a new rug, you don’t save up for it, you buy it on credit. When you want to know the sex of your baby, you just get an ultrasound and voila, you know.

It hasn’t always been this way.

Lately, I’ve been wondering if I could be pregnant with twins. Last time around, it wasn’t even a thought in my head because I had an ultrasound at 7 weeks that showed one lovely beating heart. While early ultrasounds don’t always catch the second twin, my second one at around 19 weeks most certainly would have. Beyond that, wasn’t in any of the groups that increased my chances of twins nor did my symptom-free first trimester give me any reason to suspect.

This time around, it’s been a bit different. First off, I haven’t seen Twig on any sort of monitor. I’ve listened to the heartbeat once (to put my mind at ease that there is indeed a baby in there). I’ve also had a lot more symptoms than last time, am absolutely huge, I feel like I have an octopus in my belly, and I was breastfeeding when I conceived (did you know that increases the chances of twins? I certainly didn’t). So I’ve been wondering. Alright, maybe even worrying.

I know all these things I’ve described can easily be a singleton pregnancy. Regardless, I have that nagging worry in my mind that it could be twins.

I asked one of my friends who knows a lot about pregnancy what she thought. Basically she said that it could go either way, but in the course of the conversation something occurred to me–why do I want to know? Why is it so important that I find out this second if it’s twins? It’s not.

I spoke to my midwife and she basically said that it should be obvious if I’m pregnant with twins. Beyond twenty weeks, she said most twin pregnancies start shooting up in weight and fundal height. In that case, she’ll recommend an ultrasound and that’ll confirm or deny the suspicion. If it turns out to be twins I can still birth naturally and at home, which is what I would choose regardless.

So there’s no point in knowing now. I’ll know soon enough and it won’t change a thing that I know a bit later. I don’t need to worry about it and I don’t need to stress. I’ll just continue doing what I’m doing and within the next few months it’ll become apparent one way or the other. I can deal with delayed satisfaction. I can wait.

I am now 17 weeks and 5 days. Still super thirsty, but carrying around the big jug of water deals with that. I have a couple of skin tags and that’s super weird. Round ligament pain is getting worse. Lots of walking almost always brings it on now. Really, lots of walking in the hot hot sun makes me feel really exhausted really quick. I feel like I could sit around all day and be happy.

Twig is still wiggling like crazy. Sometimes it’s a couple of days between movement, but then I’ll feel like I have an octopus in my belly for 20 minutes out of nowhere. Honestly, the days between might just be particularly busy ones, so maybe I just don’t sit still long enough to feel the movement. :-P

Variations of Normal

16 weeks 2 days

Every pregnancy is different.

That’s something I keep telling myself lately. I’m a bit of a worrier, so sometimes it’s not so easy, but I just keep telling myself that it’s okay for things to be different. Not all pregnancies are the same and while many would like you to subscribe to the train of thought that different means bad, it’s simply not true. Take my current situation for example.

Yesterday I ate: 2 packages of strawberry oatmeal with milk, 1.5 rolls, 1.5 pieces of chicken, a handful of potatoes, two big spoonfuls of green beans with bacon, a soda, 2 cookies, half a very big steak, one corn on the cob, a big serving of these delicious buttery mushrooms, multiple handfuls of grapes, and a bowl of porridge with a large amount of butter and sugar. After eating the porridge I decided to weigh myself out of curiosity and I’ve lost another 3 lbs.

Last time I think I lost a few pounds in the first trimester, but immediately gained it back when I hit the second. I also figure that while nursing and being pregnant does take extra calories, it certainly has to take a substantial amount less if my milk is nearly gone. Guess not?

When I went in to my WIC appointment (we decided to try it out again after boycotting it–more on that in a later post) the lady wasn’t phased at all that I was still nursing Peanut, but she did seem concerned that I was losing weight. That was a day before my last midwife appointment and I think I had lost 4 lbs at that point. She just wanted to make sure that I was indeed getting enough food and I told her I’m eating like a cow (see above where I literally eat four meals plus snacks in one day). The next day when I went to my midwife she wasn’t worried in the least.

This is where I go and tout all the benefits of a home birth midwife again.

She said the baby is growing and that’s all that matters. At this point my fundal height is just about to my belly button and she said that’s great. I’m getting to the point where people are probably pretty sure that I’m pregnant rather than fat when I go out (I’m certain that they’re definitely sure if I’m wearing a tight shirt). Things are going swimmingly no matter what the number is on the scale.

My midwife went on to tell me about how one of her daughters loses 25 lbs every pregnancy even though she eats awful foods. This same daughter births 8.5 lb babies, so there’s not a single worry in the world about her weight loss. So long as the baby is growing there’s no reason to worry.

I'm not big on bare belly photos, but I took this to reiterate--does it look to you like I'm not getting enough food?

For some, it’s so easy to chart my weight onto a graph and tell me that I’m not normal. It’s so easy to compare me to everyone else in some data pool and say that I’m below average. It would be so easy for them to make the inference that since I’m not going by the book, something is wrong. But different doesn’t mean wrong. Different doesn’t mean bad. Different can so easily be my normal.

I am now 16 weeks and 2 days and oh boy I’m pregnant. I can’t get off a couch by myself (I swear my stomach muscles just run away and hide while I’m pregnant no matter what I do). I’m having round ligament pain (I don’t remember it starting this early last time). I’m still peeing and drinking a ton. I’m feeling ravenously hungry and seem to be a bottomless pit. Seriously I’m contemplating another bowl of porridge right now and it’s 1am.

The most exciting development this week is that I felt Twig move. I have been laying on my belly prodding for weeks now trying to get some sort of movement, but nothing. I’ve even gotten really excited a few times thinking I felt a movement maybe, but then of course it ends up being gas. A few days ago I was just sitting at my computer one morning getting the HTML for the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival ready and I felt a kick! Not a flutter, not a twing, but a kick! I swear if I would have been looking at my stomach I would have seen it it was that hard. I’ve felt him/her move every day since and, while this may be an over-share for some of you, I can actually tell the difference between movement and gas when I have gas. You moms who have been pregnant before will realize how big of an accomplishment that is.

Twig just keeps randomly popping in during a conversation to say hello and it’s awesome. It’s even multiple times a day. It’s hard not to get a huge smile on my face every time I feel something. That’s something I didn’t realize that I missed so badly until now.