Diploma Dash

Well today I am exactly 26 weeks pregnant! The book I've been going through says that this is the first week of the third trimester however when we asked our midwife last Monday she said that the third trimester starts at 28 weeks so I don't know, if I'm not there yet I'm at least almost there. And I think I am now starting my 6th month, this pregnancy timeline can be confusing! 

Well sometime between last week and this week the baby's eyes should be starting to open!!! That's exciting, she's growing so fast! She can now make coordinated movements with her hands and feet, make a fist and grab hold of her toes! I am now feeling a lot more movement at regular times throughout the day. Whereas before I could mostly feel strong kicks or pushes I'm starting to feel a different movement that I can only describe as the baby rolling around. It's not as forceful as a kick, sometimes I can touch my belly and feel sometime sliding across my hand, sorta tickles. I'm definitely starting to feel "more" pregnant, I have to be careful not to overeat as this makes me very uncomfortable and usually causes stomach ache or heartburn. I feel heavy when I run, speaking of which I ran my first 5k of the year last Saturday Feb. 25th! The UTSA Diploma Dash, I've run it every year for the last 4 years. It was a lot of fun because throughout the race I ran into several people I knew and hadn't seen in a while! It was difficult because for some reason my right leg cramps up now, I'm talking my Quad, Calf and Anterior Tib. all cramp up in unison, it's awful! Left leg is great but the right leg gets tight, not sure what's up with that. I finished the race in 35 minutes and 15 seconds! My Pregnant PR! My actual PR was last March, I ran the Culinaria Wine Run in 23 minutes and 45 seconds, I can't wait to see how running feels after I have my baby! 

Crossing the Finish Line! Woohoo!

The Importance of Your own Understanding

In this 25th week of pregnancy my baby should weigh about a pound and a half and be about nine inches long, but of course how would we know for sure? Even ultrasound scans are not always accurate.  This brings me to another issue that I've been hearing/reading about lately, and that is this idea that the baby's due date should dictate exactly when labor will begin. This isn't an issue that I would consider myself an expert on but I just want to point out some things that I think people need to think about.  I was talking to a friend who's wife is pregnant and she's due early March however the Doctor says the baby is already weighing 7 lbs and because we don't want her to give birth to an 11 lb baby we will probably be inducing her 2 or 3 weeks before her due date.  I asked him if they would induce her with Pitocin, he didn't know how they would induce her but he also had never heard of Pitocin, didn't know what it was or what effects it has on the body. So I explained to him how it worked and then I suggested to him "don't you think if the baby was ready to be born your wife would go into labor on her own?"  What really bugs me about this is that it was obvious that he and I assume his wife also, had not done any research of their own. They have completely given their pregnancy and birth experience over to their Doctor.  I'm not saying we should not listen to our Doctors but when we are educated about a subject then we are able to ask better questions, even a simple question like "well how do you plan to induce me?"  But if you don't already know that there are multiple ways to induce labor then you probably aren't going to think to ask that question.
Another similar story that my Bradley instructor shared last Thursday was about a pregnant woman who was also told that her baby was already weighing something like 8 or 9 lbs therefore the baby was ready to be born therefore we should induce labor now. So they did and long story short, this unnatural labor process led to a C-Section and as it turned out the baby only weighed 6 lbs. The Doctor was wrong? (Sorry if I didn't get that story exactly right but I think I made my point). C-Section for a 6 lb baby in a woman who was not even high-risk, that's UNNECESSARY.  Yes there are some cases where inducing labor is necessary, maybe the placenta has stopped functioning properly or other rare cases like that. C-Section can save lives, it saved my life when I was born, but we have to admit that lots of unnecessary ones are performed in our hospitals. I've also said before that sometimes the use of drugs in labor and delivery can cause a C-Section to become necessary when it otherwise would not have been. 
I think it's important for women and men to know the facts, do the research so that you have some control over what happens during your pregnancy. Yes it's short but it's also an important experience.  

24 weeks Exactly

Already 24 weeks, pregnancy has flown by thus far, we'll see how I feel during that final month! I don't have a lot of updates with the pregnancy itself this time. We have decided to reveal her name soon, not sure when exactly. The original plan was to wait until she was born to tell people her name but I'm just too excited to keep that secret longer, it's just another detail I'd like to share with people! I started decorating the letters of her name that will be hung in the nursery, of course I will not share pictures of them yet. 

I have still been lifting weights and running however this week I am taking a break from running as my right foot is still having some pain. I've had this pain for several months and actually started going to the Doctor for it right before getting pregnant. By the time the specialist was able to see me I was already pregnant and since he couldn't take X-Rays he couldn't diagnose the problem so I will most likely go back after I have the baby. I've had foot and ankle problems for a long time so it was about time I did something about it. For the most part as long as I ice and do constant ankle strengthening I'm good, but the feet are a whole different issue.  Anyway I am taking a short break from running because I am signed up to run the Diploma Dash in two weeks and I'd like to be fresh for it, not that I plan on breaking my PR but I'd still like to be able to jog it.