January 17th, 2004

I guess it’s about time for a pregnancy update. I’m actually really tired right now and not feeling up to gushing or anything like that, so we’ll see how accurately I’m able to represent what is going on.

I had my doctor appointment a week and a half ago and everything seems to be going well. I was a bit embarassed because I had to ask her for a note. Yes, my personnel office now requires a note from my doctor proving that I am pregnant before they will allow me to take any time off for doctor’s appointments. Ludicrous, isn’t it? I’m five months along and this is my second baby: it’s patently obvious that I’m with child. It’s humiliating and stupid and unbelievably high school that I have to ask my doctor for a note. I can’t imagine anyone faking they were pregnant in order to take medical leave, and it makes me wonder why they implemented this change.

So I’m six pounds up, which was less than I thought, and pleases me because Kurt’s parents kept trying to stuff me full of food the whole time I was there. I expected to be up eight or ten, which really would have been too much, too fast. As it is I’m uncomfortably bulky now. It’s difficult to get around and sleep was starting to be hard to come by. I remember this from last time, having trouble getting comfortable and sleeping through the night. However, we got a firm new mattress at the same time that we bought Sophia hers, and it has helped a great deal. Our old mattress had a spring sticking out of the side. Last weekend I bought a body pillow, which was a complete life saver last time around, but which died a messy Sergei eaten death shortly after Sophia was born. This combination has worked wonders for my ability to sleep and I’ve had some particularly comfortable nights in the last week. The kind where I’ve woken up and realized that it’s the first time I’ve woken the whole night, and that I’m not uncomfortable, and that I just need a slight shift and I can get right back to sleep.

This baby moves a lot more than Sophia, or else I’ve forgotten how much Sophia used to move around. I’ve also had more hardcore kicks from this child than from the previous one. It has taken my breath away four or five times, at least. There’s usually three periods of heavy activity: in the morning when I wake, right after lunch in the early afternoon, and at night when I go to sleep. It is strange to feel that I have this little creature for company at all times. I am never alone. Most of the baby’s movements are like Sophia’s were : turns and rolls that give me the sensation that he or she is just swimming around in there or possibly stretching like a cat. I love feeling those movements.

Yoga is getting really difficult. I’ve had to abandon a number of poses, and others that I think should be ok hurt me. What’s worse is that I seem to be weaker. I can’t hold the poses for as long as I used to. I try to take it easy, but it’s really frustrating when I know my body had the capacity for these poses, and it doesn’t seem like I should be worse at them now than I was four months ago. There are a couple of poses that I’m actually much better at, but that’s little consolation.

I am suffering from periodic groin pains, and I’m not sure whether this is normal or not. I don’t remember this from last time. It’s a sharp pulling kind of pain and it usually happens when I shift positions, like when I’m rolling from one side to the other at night, or when I’m standing from a seated position, or sometimes simply when I’m taking a step forwards. I feel like I might actually have a pulled muscle or something there, but I imagine that’s not the case, as it would likely hurt constantly if it were. The intermittent groin pain along with the return of the charley horses (which I absolutely did remember most vividly and was mentally cheering myself on for not having had this time) has contributed to raise my physical suffering level in the past few weeks. I’m definitely a low pain tolerant sort of person and I can be expected to be extra whimpery and whiny about these types of things, despite the fact that they are not serious and are fairly common. Still hurts, even if it’s not life-threatening to either one of us.

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