30 week update

Tomorrow I will be 30 weeks, with 6 left to go. My last day of work was yesterday (YAY) and if all goes as planned, I won't return to work until September 20th. I am on one hand, relieved to be done with the stress and responsibility of working. After all, I really feel like my ONLY job right now is to grow these babies another 6 weeks. This is truly a full time job, as I'm at the doctor's office more than ever these days. I see my OB once weekly for ultrasounds, the hospital once weekly for NST's, the PT 3x's weekly for my back pain & my chiropractor as needed for hip pain. (Boy, that's a lot of doctors appointments!) Trying to work right now is just not in the cards for me. I find myself stressed out about the smallest things and I'm glad to be done for a while.

So, at 30 weeks I'm doing prety well. I have the usual complaints, but I think I'm actually getting used to being so uncomfortable. It's very difficult to walk, even getting up from the couch or bed to use the bathroom elicits grunts and invokes pain. The walking itself isn't very hard, it's the getting up from the couch/bed that's difficult. My edema has gotten worse; my hands are swollen no matter that I wear wrist braces and drink tons of water. I wake up during the night with stiff fingers, wrists and elbows - it's very painful and just something I have to live with for another 6 weeks. My feet are starting to swell also - but not like the hands (yet). My belly feels tight as a drum. I seriously wonder how can I stretch any further? It seems humanly impossible, yet I know I will continue to stretch as they grow. They are a little over 3lbs each now - hopefully will be 6lbs by 36 weeks. My back still hurts nonstop, but I think I'm getting used to it. The PT helps a bit, but I find that the heating pad on my back in the evenings does wonders.

So all in all, I'm okay. Today - I feel like I can handle this. Somedays I feel the onset of panic; "How can I continue in this state for another 6 weeks???" But there are moments when I feel like I can do this. I stay calm and try not to think about the 43 days left until my c-section. Sometimes I think about the relief I will feel once they are out of my body. I will able to take deep breaths again, bend over again, shave my legs again - wow - I'm looking forward to that day. But until then, I need to take it one day at a time and try to relax. I'm working very hard at that. Don't be surprised if I whine a few more big whiny posts here before my July 12th due date!!

On another note - I've started buying some much-needed items for the babies. I ordered the Chicco Cortina Together Stroller - which I'm hugely excited about. It's a brand new double stroller/travel system which fits the superb Chicco Keyfit 30 car seats. It's not widely available yet, but I managed to get the stroller on Ebay and the car seats at Dimples. If you're interested, Dimples gets the stroller on a limited basis and will have some next week, but I couldn't wait that long. I needed to buy the car seats and in my head, I needed to be sure I had my hands on one of these strollers before I spent $360 on 2 car seats. So yeah, I've spent a lot of money this week ($700 for car seats and stroller) but I'm excited that I got what I wanted.

Because I have all of Kara's things still, I only had to purchase crib bedding and clothing for the baby boy. I love this bedding for him, and I had this bedding already for Kara, which I'll use for the baby girl. We repainted the nursery to a pale yellow after Kara died (we painted it pink while still expecting) so both bedding sets go nicely in there, match each other, and the wall coloring is different enough that it won't cause me heartbreak thinking about Kara and all that should have been.

I still haven't set up the nursery - I have all the goods, just haven't set anything up yet. I still can't bring myself to do that yet - but it's nice to know that I have pretty much everything I need and we can set it up once I give birth.

So that's my update - I hope everyone else is doing well also.