I’m a few days late writing this entry because last Thursday was such a busy day! We had our 24 week appointment and heard our son’s 145 bpm heartbeat! The doctor also poked around to measure my uterus by figuring out where it starts and stops. This time it was 23cm at 24 weeks pregnant, so it’s right on track. They like to see +/- 2cm from the number of weeks you are pregnant (so at 24 weeks, the doctor wants to see a uterus measurement between 22-26cm). When I was 19 weeks pregnant, my uterus measured 17cm, so it was on the low end, but still within the ‘ok’ range. So far, I’ve only been measured those two times. Although, it’s a simple measurement on top of your tummy…somehow it hurts like crazy then they poke and dig to find the top and bottom starting points!
To continue the ‘no pain, no gain’ motto this week…I had a week long issue after my last entry. Two Thursdays ago (7/22), I was reading my baby book (which I hadn’t read in weeks!) while working out on the elliptical machine. I was so excited about the reading that I ended up doing 150% of my normal workout (45 minutes instead of 30 minutes). That was compounded by the fact that I was continuously highlighting the reading, so my legs were doing all of the work on a high resistance setting, while my hands highlighted. That proved to be one of the worst mistakes (pain wise) of my pregnancy. I couldn’t sleep at night for almost a week because of the unbearable joint pain in my hips. Walking, bending, or simply standing were extremely painful and I didn’t know for sure if it was workout-induced or just a new side effect of pregnancy. After getting advice from friends and waiting out the pain…everything is back to normal now. I am however, sleeping with a pillow between my knees and feet at night to help relieve pressure on my hips (thank you mom-friends for that advice!). I will most likely continue that practice until our son arrives.
The final ‘no pain, no gain’ this week, just happened over the weekend. I realized, no matter how much I WANT to help or how strong I THINK I am…I need to let other people carry the load instead of always trying to assist. To explain, Phil and his dad were unloading a heavy wooden swing set from Jim’s truck on Saturday. It looked SO heavy (and it WAS), so I helped just a little to lift and stabilize parts…but the shooting pain it caused in my lower stomach didn’t stop for 2 days! It’s time to modify my thinking and finally realize I can’t do the same things when I’m 24 weeks pregnant that I could pre-pregnancy!
On a more exciting note…this is the final week the baby will be stuck as a papaya!
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