Today, August 28, I am 28 weeks prego, Alexa is 28 months old and I keep thinking I am still 28 years old. Ha! Well, that is on my good energy days and today thankfully was a good energy day. But, sadly, every few days I am so exhausted I feel like it is too much to even stand up straight, like I’m 82 years old or something. On my bad energy days, the daily chores of doing dishes, doing laundry, sweeping the floors, wiping the counters, cooking and grocery shopping all suffer. And my time with Alexa turns into one morning outing, arts-and-craft afternoons and evening movies. That’s all I can handle. It truly feels like a struggle to change over a load of laundry or empty the dishwasher or take Alexa swimming on those dreaded days. And my work suffers too. The second Alexa finally falls asleep at night I have to go to bed too on those low energy days. I can’t bare to stay up another minute to push out any Graphic Design. I am constantly doing the Alexa, work, chores, rest juggle. I did not struggle with these low energy issues when I was pregnant with Alexa. Only in the first trimester was my energy low, but this time… I have low energy 5 out of 7 days in a week. 9 to 11 more weeks of this “chronic fatigue”. Yes, yes, I know, after baby is born I will be sleeping even less and juggling more. I get to step into an entirely different exhausted mode taking care of a new born and a toddler. But, at least MY BODY won’t be this exhausted anymore. I’m looking forward to the challenge.
I’ve been tracking my weight a bit more closely this time and despite the fact that I feel like a manatee, since 8 weeks of pregnancy, I have only gained 14 to 15 lbs. What the doc’s don’t know is that in the first 8 weeks of pregnancy I actually gained 6 lbs making a total of about 20 lbs so far, but we are not going to count that until after baby is born and I am trying to get to my pre-pre pregnancy weight again. I look in the mirror and see BIG. George can’t look at me naked without laughing and looks everywhere else but in my direction when I’m laid out on the beach like a beached whale or attempting to bounce my fat ass and watermelon belly around the waves with Alexa. But, when strangers find out I am 7 months pregnant, they are shocked saying things like, “Wow! You are small! You don’t look 7 months pregnant at all!” Am I smaller than I was at the same stage with Alexa?
I’m not sure, but I definitely remember having to take my rings off at 27 weeks of pregnancy last time as my fingers slowly mutated into sausage fingers. This time, I have no problems with swelling so far and I am doing everything I can to keep it that way. I’ve completely cut out salt out of my diet and I am pretty sure I am drinking more water than I did last time, lots more.
Another drastic change in my diet from last pregnancy to this one is my protein intake. I am definitely consuming way less protein than I did before, however, still being careful to get an appropriate amount daily. Any animal product is tough on my digestive system this time making me think this little one will surely be a vegetarian like her mommy. I am eating free-range, organic eggs pretty regularly as well as yogurt, cheese, the very occasional fish and other vegetable source protein (and unlike last time, I’m excluding soy for the most part). Concerned about my protein intake I recently started drinking organic whey/soy protein shakes once a day. I tried this the first trimester of this pregnancy and it made me vomit. With Alexa, I drank these whey/soy shakes daily with no problems. I actually looked forward to them mixing in bananas, berries and other yummy additions filling two large cups of the stuff for my breakfast each morning. This time, this baby, hates it. My stomach has been seriously messed up since I started back on these shakes and I’m only drinking a fraction of what I drank last time in the day. Here’s the gross part, since I started on these shakes I haven’t had a real poo in a week and instead a couple times a day I am getting diarrhea style cramps in my intestines only to sit on the pot for extended periods of time over and over while only small semi-solid drops of poo appear… sometimes. My poor little butthole is sore and I wonder if I might be getting the dreaded pregnancy hemorrhoids. I’ve never had them before... is this what it is like? These intestinal cramps are awful. I would rather have any other pain than intestinal pain. Labor better not feel this way.
It must be the shakes since I haven’t changed anything else in my lifestyle or diet. This baby does NOT like animal products, period. My Mom thinks it is in my head.
I’ve continued trying to drink this stuff for a week hoping my body would either get used to it or hoping maybe it isn’t the whey or the soy causing my pain, but alas my intestines hurt and my butthole hurts … so no more whey protein shakes for me!
One last little note… a bird pooped on my head this morning at the park and three days ago a jelly fish stung me all over my baby bump and back. I really think the animal kingdom is trying to tell me something.
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