Thirty weeks and counting.

 The blanket (and the belly, as you can see) keep growing.

THIRD TRIMESTER

28 weeks

Having reached 28 weeks as of this past Friday, I am officially in the THIRD TRIMESTER! It amazes me to think about the progress this baby has made (and that any baby makes) in such a short time. Since it doesn’t seem so long ago that the presence in my belly was so teeny-tiny I couldn’t even be sure it was there, it’s crazy that a few months later I can’t forget about his presence because he’s made my belly so big. There’s no time now that I don’t feel him in there, either squished way up at the top of my uterus, trying to squeeze under my ribs, or somewhere else, turning around or kicking, or even just resting. I can feel his body by pressing lightly on almost any part of my stomach.

As I know is normal (or am learning so), in the last week or so I have started experiencing breathlessness really frequently. Where a gal’s diaphragm usually needs to go down and expand out for her to breathe in and out properly, the baby is now occupying that space. This makes me feel like there’s just not quite enough air to breathe, and as a result I get head rushes very easily, and a throbbing feeling in my veins, even when I’m lying in bed trying to get to sleep. It’s such a strange feeling, and I know it’ll only get more intense as baby gets bigger. As my mom says, it’s nature’s way of making me want to finally have the baby!

Our prenatal class from last week was cancelled because we had a snowstorm that day. So we start it this Thursday. It’s six weeks in duration so it’ll be the end of February by the time we’re done. At that time I’ll want to have perfected my Kegel routine. I still only do it randomly, and it’s usually at work that I practise, because I have to stand for large amounts of time. With being so easily winded now though I need to take sitting breaks pretty frequently! The hours are great; the standing and lifting 10-15lb baskets of apples, not so much. 

 I've noticed I'm not gaining much weight at all in the past couple of weeks. I'm not particularly worried, but I do want to gain a healthy amount. Since I currently eat tons of healthy food, I don't see how I can gain at a much faster rate. The baby has measured normal at all the appointments we've had, so I assume that's the most important part.

Happy moving, little baby! Enjoy it ‘cause you won’t have that much room to do it soon!

Pretty Purple Vegan Coleslaw

There’s something about making a salad, even a simple one, that seems like a ton of extra work. Even though I love salad and want it all the time, I can rarely find real motivation to make one.  Maybe it has to do with needing to wash all the lettuce and everything else, not to mention all the chopping… Let’s just say that when a salad that someone else made is put in front of me I am completely and utterly delighted.

Yesterday I had red cabbage in my fridge, though, and got an idea for a really quick salad- Coleslaw! Somehow this one didn’t seem as daunting a task as making a garden salad; I don’t know why. I figured out a basic dressing recipe after consulting a couple different slaw recipes.

1 ½ cups shredded red cabbage

1 medium carrot, grated

½ red pepper, thinly sliced

Dressing:

¼ cup vegenaise or other vegan mayonnaise

2 tbsp red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar

1 ½ tsp sugar

Salt and pepper

Combine veggies in a medium bowl. Whisk dressing together, adding a little water to thin if necessary, and toss with slaw. Enjoy your pretty salad!

I had this with roasted sweet potato fries, and it was the perfect lunch. Don’t, however, eat an apple just before consuming this. I knew it was a bad idea to combine fruit (very easily and quickly digested) with high-fiber cabbage (very slow to digest); I was just desperately hungry waiting for the sweet potatoes to finish baking. It later resulted in a terrible belly ache lasting all evening. I’m still not recovered from it this morning. While I would usually try and use the belly-massage technique Patrick learned from a massage therapist once to help dispel the problem, it’s relatively impossible to do when there’s a baby on your intestines.  Plus, belly massage is something that should be avoided during pregnancy.

Next time, I’ll know better.

Sideways baby vegan under ribs.

Baby's big brother, waiting patiently? Or grieving?

I love thinking about my tiny barefoot vegan. It’s hard not to, in fact, as he spends a lot of time wedging himself up partway under my ribs; his very favourite position, and though it doesn’t really cause pain, it does feel pretty weird.  He also seems to prefer one side of the womb in particular so I only ever feel him under the ribs on that one side.  

At our prenatal visit last week (26 weeks) the fundal height was 23cm, about 1 cm behind average. The doctor said that was most likely due to the fact that he was positioned sideways.  I can’t believe how much he makes me giggle! His heart rate was 155.  Which I take as a hopeful sign that, with Patrick’s help, I haven’t been doing too much accidental sleeping on my back.

Thankfully it’s getting closer to our last visit with this doctor, who we’ve come to find rather difficult to communicate with.  She asked us which obstetrician we wanted to be transferred to as if we already would have known. Since we weren’t familiar with the list of available obstetricians, we did not know who we wanted. Little things like that seem to happen when we talk to her that make me feel weird, since she’s been doing this for so many years. As our healthcare guide, why would she not assume that since it’s our first ever pregnancy, we don’t know how all these processes work? I also had to look into the public health prenatal classes myself; I don’t think she was going to volunteer any information on that to us at all.  Anyhow, it doesn’t help to gripe about the doctor. I think maybe she got wary of us when we began questioning the idea of a 28 week RhoGam* shot.  When I told her at the last appointment that I had decided against the second injection and only plan to get one after the baby is born and blood-typed, she proceeded to almost literally shut down the session, quickly saying “see you in 4 weeks” and making for the door. Unfortunately we had more questions for her. It’s like she wants to be an authority figure and has a hard time admitting she doesn’t really know much about a certain subject. Perhaps we’ll seek out another physician after baby is born.

As symptoms go, they are relatively the same. My January work schedule is fabulous, totalling 25 hours a week, with 4-6 hour day shifts. I tire more and more easily, my hips continue to get more stiff and sore under the 16 pounds of belly weight I’ve gained, and when I walk I have frequent pain in my pelvic bone as it shifts to accommodate that weight.  It sounds dramatic! Though it can be uncomfortable I am actually feeling great. I’ve continued to eat really well and do my best to snack throughout the day. Snacking is the best way to go, as I eat very slowly and it’s hard to eat big meals without getting bored or the food getting cold.

Tomorrow two things will happen: I will go for blood work and a glucose test in the morning, and in the evening we’ll attend our first prenatal class. I am really excited for this, as I’ve been feeling the urge to start mentally preparing for the practical aspects of parenthood without really being sure how. It will also be great to meet other first-time parents!

*RhoGam, or WinRho, is an injected dose of immune globulin, a blood product made from Rh Negative blood that has become sensitized, meaning it has formed antibodies against Rh positive blood cells (which 75% of humans have) that have been introduced to it. In accordance with the nation’s health program, it is typically given at 28 weeks to Rh negative women in case of any blood mixing to take place in the last 12 weeks of pregnancy if the baby’s blood is Rh positive.  The way this would work is: since the mother’s blood would begin to develop antibodies against an Rh positive baby’s blood if shared, the dose of immune globulin, or pre-made antibodies, would attack any of the baby’s blood that had made it into the mother’s system in place of her own antibodies, so that her blood would not continue to produce more, which could then attack a second, future baby’s blood more aggressively, causing potential health problems.  The injection at birth would lower the chance of sensitization from 16% to 2%, and an earlier second injection at 28 weeks would lower that chance to 0.4%. The catch for us is that the 28 week injection of WinRho, even if there are no antibodies already present (most likely), would be able to cross the placenta and attack the baby’s blood cells in a similar fashion to what my own blood would do, except it wouldn’t be necessary.  We would rather find out the baby’s blood type at birth, as it could be negative, making it totally unnecessary to take any injection at all. I will still be 98% protected, even if I do have another baby, which isn’t likely.  We did get a call from the Rh Program Administrator after we told our doctor we were doing this, who confirmed with us that we would most likely be fine without the 28 week shot. What a relief! It’s been a long few months of investigation into this and I’m finally feeling resolved with it.

The Craziest Year of All

Happy 2012! With all of the unbelievable things going on in the world, I actually feel weird pairing those two words together. This year is an ominous one to put it mildly, and I have such strong emotions, hopes, and fears when I think of everything that's happening. We have the beginning of a world war developing overseas, and more political outrage and poverty than ever. As I watch the United States gearing up for another election and continue to learn how much the media manipulates and twists information, I see the world is faced with two options: to remain enslaved by rich, powerful people who use very nasty ways to achieve very selfish goals, or break free from participation in these awful lies and wars that serve not the people but the power-hungry corporations and governments whose “care” we are in. Yes, I live in Canada, but things are not much better as our country likewise creeps more toward being a police state. While I am pretty much in the dark on most things political, I have learned to recognize some common tactics used in the media to warp information and attract followers to a certain side. For instance: there is only one man in Congress who insists on telling the truth about what’s happening in the world and exposing the dark agendas of the US political system, truly showing he cares about the people who live in the country and demonstrating respect for the original constitution. He is a sort of hero for thousands, but in every news video I’ve seen (except alternative “truth” news sources, fancy that we need that these days!) he is either called dangerous or crazy, or simply IGNORED, and it is held that he simply can’t win the election “so don’t vote for him”. Except that he actually has many thousands of dedicated supporters who fund his campaign, with no need for corporate sponsorship whatsoever.  I am nervous of what will happen to him even though I desperately want this beautiful man to win the election.  Check out this eerie video of the predictions he made in 2002.

But 2012 also represents the most exciting and transformative year yet in mine and Patrick’s lives. It seems a crazy time to bring life into the world. But in another way, maybe it is necessary. Having a new baby will perhaps remind us to return our energy to our most important goals. For us that is getting rid of any debt, being able to take care of ourselves by growing our own food, and further simplifying our lifestyle, especially now in a way that lets us focus on our baby as he enters the world. There is no time like the present to pursue this goal as rapidly as possible. It is crucial to me that our son sees us being true to ourselves from the beginning, and not sitting back, involuntarily participating in a consumerism and debt based culture. He will someday develop his own world view, but I can’t think of a more important sense of awareness to start him off with than that.