Turn Baby Turn

It’s been a while since I’ve updated, but then again “I’m laying on the couch some more” is not very prolific blog post material.

I took my glucose screening test a couple weeks ago, and I learned that abstaining from sweets for 24 hours wasn’t worth the dread I had brought upon myself for the month leading up to it. I passed the test with a 51 — so far below the 135 cutoff that I was concerned that I am actually hypoglycemic. However, Dr. Roberts said for this particular test he’s not concerned about any numbers except those above 135. I accepted that answer indifferently — I have enough nesting concerns swirling around in my brain that I can’t burden myself with unnecessary worry right now.

I found out through those same test results that I’m anemic, so Dr. Roberts recommended I start taking iron supplements. Minh, my favorite pill skeptic, has been reminding me of the nutrients in spinach and poultry in addition to cooking in a cast-iron skillet each night. I’m slowly feeling less extreme exhaustion, though it may be the placebo effect — but I’m fine with that.

This past weekend was Halloween. I dressed as Larry the Cable Guy (complete with a “beer” belly) for a work costume celebration. I didn’t win the costume contest, but I assured myself that had everyone realized that my costume’s accessory was a real live baby and not 50 pounds of extra fat, I would have surely nabbed first place. Maybe my fat tire was so convincing that no one could tell I’m pregnant.

My second Halloween victory was convincing my coworkers to dress up as CMYK.

On Saturday, I experienced pretty moderate cramping for the better part of the evening. Minh force-fed me water, which helped to the point that I was able to fall asleep, but I still hit up the on-call doctor just in case. He said as long as I wasn’t bleeding and baby was moving normally, I didn’t need to drive to the hospital and could wait until Monday morning to call Dr. Roberts. Throughout the weekend I convinced myself that I had a bladder infection due to the sharp, shooting pain I felt when Leon kicked downward. I even got up to pee every hour during the nights — what else could it be?

Turns out I don’t actually know what a bladder infection feels like because this was the second time in my pregnancy that I cried wolf, only to be reminded in the doctor’s office that “peeing a lot” is just another symptom of a normal pregnancy. By the time I saw the obstetrician on Wednesday, the cramping had subsided. Dr. Roberts explained that Leon is in the process of trying to turn, so the pressure I felt was him pushing downwards, and now that he’s about halfway turned, the pain in my right set of ribs made sense as well. I’m hoping he’ll be able to turn completely; I was warned at 7 weeks that he may be breech because of my weird-shaped, tilted uterus, but I’m holding out hope that he’ll figure it out in the next nine weeks.

Minh’s been taking to my new convex-shaped belly more and more lately. He likes to feel the kicks and put his ear down to my belly to hear Leon move around. Sometimes Leon will even kick his cheek as he’s talking, then Minh will giggle and read to him, sing to him, and even ask him about how his day went. I’m not sure how well Leon is able to “react” to external non-threatening stimuli yet, but he’s been more consistent at wiggling around when he hears his daddy’s voice.