I love looking down at my belly & watching it dance around! heehee, it makes me giddy! That is the one thing I do love about pregnancy...feeling our little girl move has been so awesome ever since it started around 16 or 17 weeks. Right now I can tell she is getting a little more cramped in there, but it's pretty cool now that she's big enough to actually see the movements from the outside!
Just 5 more weeks to go now! I can hardly believe it! I have 3 weeks left at work now, & I'm so looking forward to being done & having some time at home before she comes.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Hello again!
Wow, it has been so long since I've posted!! I figured I better get on here & update. So I'm now in my 3rd trimester, plugging along! I'm 32 1/2 weeks now, so I have less than 8 weeks to go, which is amazing!! Oh & I forgot to mention, we are having a girl!! :) We would have been thrilled with either, but it's just so exciting to know! I seriously cannot wait to meet her at this point! We paid to have a 3D ultrasound at 17 weeks to find out the sex, & that was a really fun experience. My mom, my hubby's mom, & my 7 year old sister-in-law came to the appointment with us, & that was really fun. :) We've all taken bets too, on various things, including what the sex of the baby would be. We have 4 categories that everyone bet on, including sex, the date the baby would be born, the weight, & the height. Our family members & close friends all got in on it, we wrote down everyone's guesses, & everyone put in ten bucks. Whoever is closest in each category will get a "point", & whoever gets the most points will win all the money (it's a $140 pot at this point), so it should be pretty fun to see what happens!
I've realized that pregnancy takes a really long time, lol. Maybe for some people it flies by, but for me it feels like it has been forever, lol. Maybe if I wasn't dealing with a lot of pain it wouldn't feel that way, but either way I'm sure I would be so anxious to meet our baby!! I'm totally fine with it taking this long, knowing that the best things in life do take time, & that it's taking time to help our beautiful little girl grow until she is ready to meet the world! Both the hubby & I are getting so anxious to meet her. :)
As far as the pain stuff, I started having horrible pain in the middle of my back on the right side, right around 23 weeks. It actually started on the first day of a vacation that we took to Mexico this summer! It was an amazing vacation, & I'm so glad we had the chance to do that, but I AM sad that the pain interfered with things so much. While we were there I took a lot of Tylenol, got a massage, & had to lay down a lot, but as long as I wasn't sitting straight up for long periods of time it was manageable. There were a couple times where I was literally in tears though because it hurt so bad. My sweet hubby massaged my back for me ALL the time, because I've seriously never had back pain like that in my life...I kept having these huge knots right by my spine that wouldn't go away, & the pain would burn & radiate around to my side. The pain has stayed with me ever since, & a few weeks back it changed from back pain to rib pain in the same place on my right side. So now the pain is coming from the inside, & my right rib constantly feels like it is burning. It hurts in the front & on the side especially, & strangely what feels good is to dig my fingers into my ribs & massage between them. My doctor said it sounds like I have costochondritis, which is inflamed cartilage in my rib. She said that can happen a lot, especially with a first pregnancy, because the uterus is causing the ribs to expand (and they don't go back). I'm hoping that means that maybe I won't have this pain in future pregnancies? One can hope. :) But there's really nothing they can do for it. Sitting or standing in an upright position is what makes it hurt (so it hurts all day at work), but thankfully I do get relief when I go home & can lay down, oh man that is the best! So overall I haven't really been "enjoying" pregnancy the way that some people do, just because it has been pretty rough on my body, but all I can say is it is so SO worth it, regardless!
Other than that, I have some pretty awesome personal news as well! Just earlier this week I passed the first huge state licensure exam for becoming a licensed therapist!! I still have one more to take before I'll be officially licensed, but the first one was the "big one" (4 hour, intensive exam on a LOT of material), & I'm SO relieved to have it out of the way!! I don't think I could even possibly explain what this feels like. I've known these tests were coming since I graduated with my master's degree over 3 years ago, & it has been hanging over my head or in the back of my mind since then (I hate that they make us wait so long to take them!) as I gathered my hours (we have to get 3000 hours of experience in the state of CA to get licensed) & then waited for my hours to be approved. I always imagined myself being at this point where my tests would be finished & I would finally be fully licensed, but it always felt like so far away, & now it is finally here! I should note that it was extremely stressful once I started back at work this fall, working full time (40 hours a week), & was still studying every night after work for a couple hours. My mental exhaustion was overwhelming, & it was just so difficult sometimes to have to stay focused for so many hours of the day, as well as just being exhausted in general from pregnancy. I had my moments where I was definitely exasperated & close to breaking down. It was hard, but I really wanted to get these exams out of the way before the baby comes, so it was worth it. I still have to study for my 2nd test, which I'm hoping I'll be able to finish before baby comes as well, but it's way less material that I need to study for this one, so I already feel tons better about that. Also, the 2nd test is only 2 hours rather than 4, so in general I feel much less stressed about that one. Having that first one out of the way is seriously a dream come true, & I think if I can finish the 2nd one on time I'll be the happiest person alive!
All in all, things are going great, just under 8 weeks to go before we meet our little girl, & I'm so excited for everything that is to come! I've been doing a lot of things to prepare for her arrival - my hubby & I took a CPR class, we are signing up for life insurance (makes me feel old!), & taking Bradley birthing classes. I can hardly believe we've been able to successfully fit so many things in our lives! I'm so proud of us. We work so hard for what we have, & we try to be as prepared as possible. My baby shower is this weekend & I am so SO excited!! Now that my first exam is out of the way I feel like I can really relax & enjoy it! :) Anyway sorry this was so long, I guess I had a lot to catch up on!
I've realized that pregnancy takes a really long time, lol. Maybe for some people it flies by, but for me it feels like it has been forever, lol. Maybe if I wasn't dealing with a lot of pain it wouldn't feel that way, but either way I'm sure I would be so anxious to meet our baby!! I'm totally fine with it taking this long, knowing that the best things in life do take time, & that it's taking time to help our beautiful little girl grow until she is ready to meet the world! Both the hubby & I are getting so anxious to meet her. :)
As far as the pain stuff, I started having horrible pain in the middle of my back on the right side, right around 23 weeks. It actually started on the first day of a vacation that we took to Mexico this summer! It was an amazing vacation, & I'm so glad we had the chance to do that, but I AM sad that the pain interfered with things so much. While we were there I took a lot of Tylenol, got a massage, & had to lay down a lot, but as long as I wasn't sitting straight up for long periods of time it was manageable. There were a couple times where I was literally in tears though because it hurt so bad. My sweet hubby massaged my back for me ALL the time, because I've seriously never had back pain like that in my life...I kept having these huge knots right by my spine that wouldn't go away, & the pain would burn & radiate around to my side. The pain has stayed with me ever since, & a few weeks back it changed from back pain to rib pain in the same place on my right side. So now the pain is coming from the inside, & my right rib constantly feels like it is burning. It hurts in the front & on the side especially, & strangely what feels good is to dig my fingers into my ribs & massage between them. My doctor said it sounds like I have costochondritis, which is inflamed cartilage in my rib. She said that can happen a lot, especially with a first pregnancy, because the uterus is causing the ribs to expand (and they don't go back). I'm hoping that means that maybe I won't have this pain in future pregnancies? One can hope. :) But there's really nothing they can do for it. Sitting or standing in an upright position is what makes it hurt (so it hurts all day at work), but thankfully I do get relief when I go home & can lay down, oh man that is the best! So overall I haven't really been "enjoying" pregnancy the way that some people do, just because it has been pretty rough on my body, but all I can say is it is so SO worth it, regardless!
Other than that, I have some pretty awesome personal news as well! Just earlier this week I passed the first huge state licensure exam for becoming a licensed therapist!! I still have one more to take before I'll be officially licensed, but the first one was the "big one" (4 hour, intensive exam on a LOT of material), & I'm SO relieved to have it out of the way!! I don't think I could even possibly explain what this feels like. I've known these tests were coming since I graduated with my master's degree over 3 years ago, & it has been hanging over my head or in the back of my mind since then (I hate that they make us wait so long to take them!) as I gathered my hours (we have to get 3000 hours of experience in the state of CA to get licensed) & then waited for my hours to be approved. I always imagined myself being at this point where my tests would be finished & I would finally be fully licensed, but it always felt like so far away, & now it is finally here! I should note that it was extremely stressful once I started back at work this fall, working full time (40 hours a week), & was still studying every night after work for a couple hours. My mental exhaustion was overwhelming, & it was just so difficult sometimes to have to stay focused for so many hours of the day, as well as just being exhausted in general from pregnancy. I had my moments where I was definitely exasperated & close to breaking down. It was hard, but I really wanted to get these exams out of the way before the baby comes, so it was worth it. I still have to study for my 2nd test, which I'm hoping I'll be able to finish before baby comes as well, but it's way less material that I need to study for this one, so I already feel tons better about that. Also, the 2nd test is only 2 hours rather than 4, so in general I feel much less stressed about that one. Having that first one out of the way is seriously a dream come true, & I think if I can finish the 2nd one on time I'll be the happiest person alive!
All in all, things are going great, just under 8 weeks to go before we meet our little girl, & I'm so excited for everything that is to come! I've been doing a lot of things to prepare for her arrival - my hubby & I took a CPR class, we are signing up for life insurance (makes me feel old!), & taking Bradley birthing classes. I can hardly believe we've been able to successfully fit so many things in our lives! I'm so proud of us. We work so hard for what we have, & we try to be as prepared as possible. My baby shower is this weekend & I am so SO excited!! Now that my first exam is out of the way I feel like I can really relax & enjoy it! :) Anyway sorry this was so long, I guess I had a lot to catch up on!
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