Ward Words

We had another midwife appointment last Thursday. It was pretty uneventful--just a basic checkup (glucose and protein levels, blood pressure, baby's heartrate). Everything looked good. I do have a fun, somewhat pregnancy related, "extra" that I am currently "dealing with" (read: "hiding"). I say somewhat pregnancy related because it isn't something limited to pregnant women...anyone can get it. It just so happens that I happened to get it while pregnant, possibly because of lowered immune system functioning that comes along with being pregnant...or maybe I would have got it anyway. What is it, you ask? It happens to be called pityriasis rosea. I tried to find a picture most similar to what mine looks like, but all the pictures online are much more severe cases than what I have. I do have the "herald patch" on my upper left shoulder, and red patches all down my back, upper arms, and they are beginning to creep onto my abdomen and neck, despite my emphatic begging them not to. It is non-contagious. It seems it is most common in the fall and spring, and you catch it from the air, like an allergen. The good news is that you only get it one time in your life. The bad news is that I have it at all. It has no negative affects, it seems, other than appearance. Doesn't itch, won't affect the baby, doesn't require medicine...but it sure isn't nice to look at. The sites I've seen say it lasts from 6-8 weeks. However, and this is the interesting part, my good friend had a case of this last spring, and her's lasted almost 3 months. When she got it, she was pregnant (about as far along as I am), got her herald patch in the same place as mine, and worked in the same environment as me. We have concluded that work is to blame. There is another pregnant teacher who is about 3 months along. We decided that she should come hang out at the office when she is roughly 7-8 months pregnant, and if she gets it too, we will be sufficiently confidant to blame our office.

So, that's fun. Other than skin conditions, I've been doing just dandy. My back pain has subsided enough that I am sleeping fair-good on most nights. My feet have had some swelling, but I do walk around a lot during the day picking up kids for therapy, so that probably accounts for that. Lucas and I have had 5 child birth classes. For a fun little experiment, you can all try what we did at the last class. It was meant to simulate labor. Hold an ice cube in your hand and try to relax. You have to keep it in your hand for 1 minute straight. Then remove it for 1-2 minutes, and do it again. We did 10 reps. Super fun!! But, I think it was a good way to practice all the relaxation techniques we've been learning.

We've been working on the baby's room little by little. Lucas finished putting up bead board around the bottom half of the room last night. This coming weekend we are going to install the floors. Then I will try and get some pictures up here.

This feels ramble-y. I will end here...
Expect more frequent updates. Starting next week, we are up to weekly midwife visits.

Me at 28 weeks pregnant at Austin City Limits. It was disgustingly hot and dusty, but we had a good time. I think the baby did, too. It seemed to like Beck a lot.

Here is a pictures last week, 33 weeks along. I think the picture makes me look a tad bigger than I am (not that I am not huge...just maybe not that huge. Yet. I'm sure I will be.)