Up, Up and Away!

Faster than a two legged turtle.
More powerful than the toddler next door.
Able to leap out of bed to rush to the toilet in a single bound.
Look! Sitting in front of the computer. It's a walrus. No, it's a whale.
It's SuperHime!
Yes, it's SuperHime - strange female from a voluntarily non-babydoll childhood who came to the Northwest with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal pregnant women.
SuperHime - who can obsess about everything all at one time, eat more peanut butter than a ravenous elephant, and who disguised as just another prego, mild-mannered neighbor moved here from the east coast, fights a neverending battle against swollen feet, carpal tunnel, and the Dairy Queen down the way.

Sigh. Yeah. That's me.

I had a OB/GYN appointment on Friday. Not much has changed. I am still only at 1cm and the baby has moved just a "bit" lower. Her head is way down in my pelvic area now. Doc said that if it feels like I have a bowling ball stuck down there, it's the baby. I guess I'm still close or a little more than 70% effaced. Get on with it, kid! Whatcha waiting for?

I forgot to tell ya'll last week that I tested positive for that GroupB Strep bacteria. Bummer. This means that I'll have to be treated with IV antibiotics at least 4 hours prior to giving birth. What they do is hook up an IV line into the back of my hand. Every 4-6 hours they'll plug me in and shoot some antibiotics through the line. So, the rest of the time I can get up and walk or move around to my hearts content. The bacteria can be very harmful to the baby, so this is a must do.

The baby's heart rate is fine, my blood pressure is normal. The problem is that in the past week I have gained another 6 pounds. 6 pounds in one week. The week before that, I gained 5 pounds. What is going on here? According to everything that I've read about the last month of pregnancy, your weight gain is supposed to slow or stop. That is just not happening. Of all the body changes that I have gone through, I think this is the worst. It seems impossible that I will be able to lose all this extra poundage after baby is born. But, everyone (and I do mean EVERYONE) says that the pounds melt away. Hmmmm. I'm sorry, but I am a bit skeptical.

According to the doc, the weight gain can be attributed to my swollen ankles/feet and hands. I am retaining a lot of water. As soon as I give birth, this should all go away. That's all fine and dandy. My feet will once again look human, my wrist won't ache and my fingers won't be numb but what about all the other "spots"? What about my double (soon to be triple) chin, what about my ever-widening ass, what about my globulous upper thighs? Ugh. I think it doesn't help that I haven't done any excercise (besides unpacking boxes) in a week and a half. It might sound to you that I am being hard on myself and, quite frankly, yes I am. I don't like this whole not being in shape thing. This whole, "I can't go out and run a mile if I want or hike up a mountain or lift that garsh darn box" thing. It's just the way I am. Huzbend is out right now biking his way around the county and I am stuck here doing laundry. Total suckage.

I also asked doc about the carpal tunnel issue. Do you know that only about 20% of pregnant women experience carpal tunnel due to the swelling of the blood vessels in their hands? Yes. I am THAT lucky. She said that I could either get physical therapy or buy myself a wrist support. I chose the later. I use it only at night to keep my wrist stable. This magically eliminates the ache and for some reason my fingers come back to life. I'm afraid to wear it too much during the day as I don't want to weaken the tendons and muscles.

When I put the thing on, I feel like a superhero. I guess, kinda like Spiderman. Like, I should be able to press a button with my middle finger on the metal support bar that covers my palm and have a web or maybe soft serve ice cream shoot out of it. How cool would that be?