Well I hit 32 weeks pregnant this week and it seems I am getting into the somewhat uncomfortable stage. I can feel my ligaments and muscles all relaxing, which is not exactly a great thing when you are trying to use said muscles and ligaments! Yesterday I managed to do something to my wrist just pushing off the floor to stand up. If I grab something wrong today, try to squeeze too hard, a weird pain shoots up my wrist. Whoops! My ribs are still hurting from whatever the heck I did there, but thankfully that’s fading into just a dull discomfort, not a sharp pain anymore. My lower back is getting achy but I don’t want to go back to the chiropractor until my ribs heal more because ow did that hurt! (My back felt better after my last appointment… my ribs hurt more though!) And the heartburn at night can be just so gross. But All in all I’m doing really well still for having less than 8 weeks to go, but I am certainly starting to feel the strain of my growing belly.

My appointment this week was again pretty straightforward. Blood pressure remains normal, baby’s heartbeat is strong, I am growing just fine. I am very happy to keep having such boring appointments! I hope they can all be completely unremarkable until I go into labor.

I did really enjoy talking with the midwife, though! This time it was the one I saw for most of Kate’s pregnancy, I hadn’t seen her yet this time (I don’t think). So we chatted a bit about Kate’s birth and how close she came to being born in the car. I mentioned how registration had me answer a bunch of boring questions as I was about to give birth in the lobby. She said, “Well obviously you were just too calm!” I had to laugh at that, because she is right… they certainly did not think I was about to give birth. I told her how I labor, how I just zone out and relax and meditate and she was nodding and saying how hypnobirthing is like that and that you just need to trust your body to do it. She even mentioned how homebirth is generally quite safe and not a big issue, but just that our experiences and fears can make it seem like a scary proposition. I really love how my midwives are so relaxed, especially being a group that functions out of a hospital! I just don’t have words for how much I love them all.

She also talked to me about the iron pills and my blood being anemic. She explained that it’s not an issue with the baby, but rather that if you’re already anemic when you give birth and you lose some blood it can push you over the edge into “not good” territory… so they just want to make sure I get my iron levels up before then. Makes sense. And she also said how dairy inhibits iron absorption. Yeah…. I know. Which is probably why I’m anemic now when I wasn’t before… I’ve been craving cereal like crazy. So she said don’t worry about the rest of the day, eat what you want, take your prenatal in the morning, and then at night avoid dairy for two hours before bed, take the iron pill then. So that’s the plan, but still, no dairy?!

In addition to cleaning and organizing my house somewhat obsessively I’ve also started getting more into reading about, thinking about, and planning for birth. I still have a long ways to go, but I can tell I’m settling in and nesting a bit. :)