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Thursday, March 22, 2012

28 weeks

I am trying really hard to have my monthly pregnancy pictures taken the same way each month so that I can see the difference each month makes. Having my 7 year old be my photographer is making this rather difficult.

That being said this is the best of the 20+ picts. taken.

You can tell by Miss Emily's face that by this picture she was done!





When I compare today's picture with the 24 weeks pict. I feel a little frusturated. I don't see a difference at all. I felt this way last month when comparing the 20 week pict. to the 24 week pict. If there was a difference it didn't seem very noticable to me.



However, seeing the difference the past 8 weeks have made (20 weeks to 28 weeks) makes me feel a bit better. There is a difference. There is a reason that some of my shirts that I use to wear on a weekly basis is having a harder time covering up that hideous maternity pant panel. I am getting bigger. It's not all in my head!


Pregnancy Facts

I still crave those dark green vegetables, paticularly broccoli.


I don't crave eggs like I use to but I still like them for breakfast a few times a week.


I get the shakes if I don't eat anything between breakfast and lunch or lunch to dinner. I've got to snack between meals. At the same time I can't eat as much as I use to during the main meals during the day. If I eat to much I just don't feel good. It gives me the desire to lay down and not get up for a few hours. I feel like I'm going to be sick when I eat what I would consider my pre pregnancy "normal" amount. This is so contradictive to the fact that I need to eat every few hours or snacking between meals to keep the shakes abay. This is kinda irritating. I guess it's an inconvienience as we are not a snacky family.


I continue to take my multi vitamine on a daily basis. I'm not nearly as tired as I use to be.


I get headaches on a daily basis. It started about my 23rd week. At my 24 week doctor's appt. I mentioned this. I was told that pregancy headaches are pretty common. These headaches are usually a cause of dehydration or sleep depreviation. I was told to monitor my water intake and keep track of how much sleep I was getting. If it wasn't enough I needed to try to increase it. I came right home and started keeping track immediately. I drink anywhere from 10-12, 80z. fluids a day, mostly being water. I'm getting anywhere from 9-11 hours of sleep a night. Now true I get up 2-3 times a night to pee. Could it be due to all the water I'm drinking??

Anyways this wasn't always the case at 23 weeks but it was really close. Since monitoring daily I make sure to get what I'm suppose to be getting plus some. Unfortunately this is not making a difference at all. I also started to swell. I couldn't wear a pair of sunday shoes 2 weeks ago because my foot wouldn't fit. I had to take my wedding ring off about 3 weeks ago because of my swolleness. My fingers and feet almost feel numb or maybe a better way to describe it is that they are always tingly. During a 7 day period one-two days usually ends in a migraine. A few weeks ago not seeing any difference I started researching to see what else all these symptoms could be.


This past saturday and sunday I ended up with a mirgraine during the 48 hour period that I could not get to go away. Oh how I hurt! I was going to call my doctor 1st thing monday morning because my research showed that swelling and daily headaches/migraine CAN be a sign of preclampsia which if not careful will turn into toxemia which is known to cause placenta deprevia (something I had with Brayden but didn't know it till after his birth). I feel like I have been keeping myself hydrated and getting enough sleep and it's not making a difference. Could it be something else?

Monday morning came and seriously I felt like a miracle had taken place. No migraine and no headache all day long. I didn't call my doctor. Tuesday came along and once again no headache or migraine all day long. YEAH!!! Wed. a headache didn't make it's presence known until the afternoon. Unfortunately today has been a normal "headache" day but no migraine. Despite the migraine this past weekend I felt like my swelling was going away. This morning wanting to see if I was just imagining my swelling disapearing I tried on my wedding ring. It fits easily. My feet still feel a little swollen but each days seems to be better.


I have been concerned with the thought of being diagnosed with preclampsia. What research I've done shows the signs up preclampsia as the following:


high blood pressure

swelling

rapid weight gain

daily headaches or high amount of migraines

lack of urination

blurry vision or seeing dots

protene in the urine


I don't have what it takes to take my own blood pressure but at my previous appt. nothing was said about my pressure rising or being too high. I'm going to assume all was fine 3 weeks ago.

I have had the swelling for several weeks but it seems that's going away now. Will it come back? Time will tell.

I don't have a scale to weigh myself but I don't feel I've had rapid weight gain.

I do have the daily headaches or a high amount of migraines. It's when I have a headache that my vision does get blurry. When I have a migraine I have seen dots and almost feel like I could pass out if I wasn't careful.

I don't seem to have a lack of urination.

As of yet nothing's been said about having protene in my urine.


From reading what other's have said it seems that the swelling, headaches, blurry vision and the protene in the urine are the 1st signs of preclampsia. I guess being I have 3 of these 4 that I know I have for sure is whats causing some concern. But I don't have any of the other symptoms that I'm aware of. So maybe I've just got the normal pregnancy headache that I've never had with my other pregnancies and the regular edema that's just starting a little earlier with this pregnancy than what I'm use to. Could our high elevation have anything to do with the swelling?


Having a 3 hour commute to the doctors is whats keeping me from going in. And the fact that we've already discussed the daily headaches and swelling. I don't want to go in just to be told everythings normal and have wasted my time and money. At the same time I don't want to have a serious complication. From what research I have done there isn't much a doctor can do for preclampsia except to put the mother to be on bed rest. If it turns into toxemia and it becomes a severe case the mother could be hospitalized. Reading other's experiences being on bed rest didn't seem to do much good. If preclampsia is an issue doctors seem to take the baby at 37 weeks or earlier if it's turned into toxemia as this is really the only thing to make the preclampsia/toxemia go away. Preclampsia doesn't seem to effect the baby, just the mother. Toxemia however shuts down organs in the mother which will in turn effect baby. This is why in many cases babies are taken before 37 weeks and end up spending sometime in the NICU.


For the past 3 weeks I've been trying to be very careful. I have quit doing house work during the week and have saved it all for saturdays to much delight of my family. I no longer vacuum, dust or clean the upstairs in anyway at all. Kory keeps on top of the kids to clean the upstairs by themselves on saturdays. Kory's been helping with the cleaning downstairs, sweeping, mopping and bathroom duty, etc. I don't know if this is helping at all but it puts my mind at ease knowing I am trying to be careful, just in case. I don't want my symptoms to turn into preclampsia and be put of bed rest or worst. We've still got 12 weeks to go. Having the experience with Brayden that we did I am really hoping that I will make it to 38 weeks. If I go to the full 40 all the better. I can say this now but once I hit 38 weeks I'm sure I'll have the feeling of being done and wanting baby girl to come ASAP! Seriously though, what's another 2 weeks at that point. Being I've only made it to 39 weeks once and the the other 3 came at 34, 38 and 37 weeks it will be interesting to see at how many weeks this baby will be born at.


If more symptoms arise or my headaches and swelling continue I will call my O.B. Until then my next appt. isn't for another 2.5 weeks.

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