Texas Sass: 32 week bumpdate

Remember my adorable shirt that said “I run on coffee and lipstick”? Well, now that I’m in my 32^nd week of pregnancy, we should just change that to coffee and pajamas. Because seriously that’s all I want to do… stay in my pjs all day every day. I. Am. Exhausted. I am definitely missing my second trimester… the phase of pregnancy where you don’t even feel pregnant, you just feel great! Yeah, that’s over. And while I am still aware of how lucky I am in this pregnancy and how mild my symptoms are compared to a lot of women, I still feel gross and mega-pregnant.

In one ear I have people telling me I should relax, sleep, lie around and not push it. In the other there’s a nagging about everything I still have to get done. And somewhere in the middle is me. So basically I have days when I feel like wonder woman, taking charge and getting shit done; and then I have other days where I’m just like F this and I stay in comfy clothes and do nothing. Yesterday was a do nothing day. I just couldn’t. It’s hard y’all. I can honestly say I have a huge respect for women that work full time jobs and work up until the end of their pregnancy. I mean, WHAT? How do they do it? Seriously?

Last week we finished up our condo and it’s now on the market for sale. This involved about 5 days straight of me being gone from the house, cleaning the condo, running errands, moving stuff and staging. I was on my feet from the moment I woke up until midnight almost every day. It was awful. And while my body survived and my drive to get the condo up for sale pushed me to the extreme, I felt like I crash landed after it was done. I was in pain; body aching, every inch of me regretting that we hadn’t gotten this done sooner. My husband had been out of town for work and I was in charge. Thankfully, I have family very close by. But over the weekend I definitely realized that I had pushed myself too much. I felt like crap. I have never seen my feet as swollen as they were and they have never hurt like that, ever. Trying to rest was hard too because as soon as I would stop, my whole body would get stiff and it was almost worst than if I had just kept going. It’s a struggle when you try to listen to your body but your head keeps saying, “You HAVE to get this done”. I’m proud of myself but also feel a little bad for my body that my stubbornness took over and I couldn’t say, “No, I can’t do that”.

At least that is over. The condo is up for sale and hopefully it goes quickly. That place means a lot to me but I’ve hit the point of just wanting it to be someone else’s responsibility. I’ll be doing a post on the condo soon… what it means to me and all my life events that happened there… I’m going to miss it dearly. But 9 years is a long time and I know I’ve outgrown it. I’m excited to be in our new house and to have a new place to decorate. My style has changed a lot in almost a decade and it’s nice to have something that my husband and I picked together.

Ok enough about the condo (*tear*) and back to the pregnancy. I just thought I’d share my symptoms lately so you can know what 32 weeks is like from my perspective :)

I still have people that look at me funny when I say how far along I am. Like I’m not big enough to be 8 months pregnant… but let’s remember, every woman is different. I’m a small gal, always have been and [hopefully] always will be. I’ve met women that are smaller than I was in certain points of my pregnancy and women that are much larger than me and not as far along. Just a word of advice: no matter how far someone is, just tell her she looks good! Lol

Body:

As of last week, I’ve gained a total of 18 pounds. I’m pretty happy with that. My OB says that most women gain about 25-30 lbs throughout pregnancy. My goal is no more than 23. That is a completely arbitrary number I’m pulling out of my ass. I know I’m fine if I gain more and if I do, I won’t panic. I’d just like to stay a little further away from the 30 number. I feel like that’s a lot for my size and frame.

Swollen feet and ankles have finally caught up to me. Like I said earlier, last week was the worst because I was on my feet nonstop. I felt ugly when I looked down and I whined to my husband that I had cankles. After a few days of rest, the swelling has gone down a lot. But my shoes are still extremely tight and I’m starting to feel like a trip to DSW is the only thing that will make me feel better about this symptom!

Along with the swelling, the biggest physical change I see are my legs. I started to notice varicose veins weeks ago and yeah, they’re everywhere now. I checked on this symptom when they first started appearing and just like stretch marks, it’s mostly hereditary. Booo! I’ve always had poor circulation and I guess this is just my body’s best way of handling the extra blood I’m producing. There’s not really anything I can do, and frankly, I’m not thrilled.

Speaking of poor circulation, that has just gotten worse. I have hands and feet and legs go tingly and numb all the time now. Since I can’t sleep on my back anymore, I flip side to side all night long. I definitely notice parts of me going numb when I’m resting which can be scary since you have to worry about blood clots when you’re pregnant. I try to stretch and move around as much as possible on days I’m less active. The worst thing by far though is developing Restless Leg Syndrome. I don’t know that I “have it”, but the creepy crawly feeling I get in my legs matches the description I’ve heard about RLS. I have moments when I feel like I have something crawling on my legs (mostly near my ankles) and I look down ready to smack a spider and there’s nothing. It sucks, it grosses me out even though there’s nothing there, and it makes me feel old.

I’ve had more and more moments of being lightheaded and dizzy lately. Again, comes with the territory and not much I can do. When I stand up, I try to make sure I pause for a moment before walking. I am also definitely clumsier that I used to be. Another fabulously normal pregnancy symptom. I drop things, I miss my mouth when I’m eating and mostly, I dribble water down my shirt A LOT when I’m drinking.

*side note: Reading What to Expect WhenYou’re Expecting has been a big help in identifying normal symptoms. I haven’t read the whole book yet, but I try to stay at least a month ahead in my reading because it’s very accurate in explaining symptoms. Then when I experience something, I already have info on it instead of panicking and calling my doctor every week. I try not to do a ton of reading because I’m one of those that can spend way too much time on google or webmd and then be convinced I have cancer or something… but this book is good and very helpful.

Last but not least, I’m still extremely uncomfortable sleeping and just overall tired AF! I have always been a back sleeper and it really messes with me now that I can’t do that. I do have a body pillow and that helps. Pillows are key. My poor husband is being pushed off the side of the bed because I have to have extra pillows and extra room to flip over constantly. Some nights I just can’t handle being on my sides so I prop myself up with pillows (half sitting up) and that helps… kinda.

Cravings:

I am back to craving junk food. UGH! All I want is disgusting fast food and sweets. Give me all the sweets! Chocolate, ice cream, donuts, cupcakes… I am totally grossed out by myself. Other random cravings include sourdough bread and tons of dairy products… yogurt, cottage cheese, any kind of cheese really. I’ve also had a lot of tex-mex lately and I’m still craving pasta. After my glucose tolerance test, my OB said to try to limit sugars and carbs… yeah, that’s like all I want to eat! Go figure.

Baby girl:

My baby girl is strong and healthy! We passed the glucose tolerance test (although I had to do the second, more involved test because I barely failed the first round… not fun!!). She is also right on for weight and size. She moves a lot now! In the third trimester they really start running out of room in the uterus, and I can tell! She is kicking the crap out of me and poking out in every direction. I’ve had some painful days of her being stuck on my ribs and hip bones and just jabbing the shit out of me. Since she’s still only about half of her final weight, it’ll be interesting to see how she fits in a few weeks! She was also head-down in the last ultrasound, which is good. My OB said once they are head-down, they very rarely go breech again. Now I’m just hoping she doesn’t get any ideas about coming early because Chris’ work schedule is insane in the next two months and we’re hoping and praying that he isn’t out of town when I start to go into labor (please pray with us!)

As I mentioned in the beginning, I’m just trying to stay comfortable lately. I’m linking a few of my most comfortable clothes. A few things are maternity wear and a few are not! This week I’m working on getting my shit together to hopefully do a few bump photos with my photographer, Brandy. I’m also finishing up our baby registry and prepping for a baby shower in a few weeks. And we’re trying to finish up the nursery! There’s still a lot on my plate so I do have some anxiety, but I’m getting really excited to meet our little peanut! Thank you for following along with my journey! I am especially thankful for those following on Instagram and leaving me such nice comments lately! When a girl is bloated and can barely sit up without having help, it means a lot to read sweet comments on my pictures telling me I look cute!