Miscellaneous Jibber Jabber

Since I'm not monitoring contractions anymore (except mentally) and I'm not checking my blood sugar four times a day, I almost have nothing to say anymore. I have no reason to be awake at regular intervals anymore, so I haven't been, if I can help it. I feel so crappy that I just sort of lay around drifting in and out of consciousness. That's only partly true, but it's what it feels like these days. I've lost any sense of structure to my day, and I'm really okay with that. I do still get up every morning and get dressed, which makes me feel somewhat human, but that's my one nod to actual humanity. The rest of my day is devoid of useful activity, for the most part, which is fine, because I really don't have the brainpower for much more.

I am less and less able to move about without assistance. Getting out of bed is a chore. Just getting to the bathroom takes serious motivation (but since a really full bladder triggers contractions, that's usually motivation enough). The babies are all kinds of squirmy, sometimes in fun ways, sometimes in uncomfortable or painful ways. I'm trying to enjoy it, because I know that I'll miss the fun ways at least once they're on the outside. I'm not ready for them to come out, but I'm very uncomfortable, so I know once they're out, I'll be grateful to have my body at least partially back to myself. I had to increase my terbutaline dose again last week because the contractions were just getting too painful. It's done the trick for controlling the contractions, but makes my muscles even weaker than they were (this is a common side effect) and makes me a little shaky, so don't trust me with anything that requires good fine motor skills!

One great milestone of the week was that our soon-to-be-four year old felt the babies kicking for the first time. He got a HUGE grin on his face when he felt it and seemed to really understand what was happening. It was terrific. My husband has also been able to feel them more than usual... normally he gets near them and they suddenly fall asleep. But he's been able to feel AND see them move more than he had been able to even just a couple weeks ago, which is great. Now at least he doesn't think I'm just making it all up. It definitely feels different from the outside than from the inside, but I still appreciate that they can share a teeney bit of the experience.

One less positive milestone of the week is that yesterday suddenly my rings were too tight to remove (I did get them off eventually), and my blood pressure shot up. It's still not alarmingly high by normal person's standards, but my BP normally runs a bit on the low side, so it's a pretty huge shift upward for me. The diastolic (the bottom number) was averaging around 90 all day, and seems to be doing the same thing today. One day of high blood pressure is not alarming, so the only thing to do is wait and see if it's a trend. But I still don't like it. Swelling in the hands, elevated blood pressure and sudden weight gain (oh, did I forget to mention that I seem to have gained back last week's four pound loss overnight??) are all signs that point to, well, they're not great signs, let's put it that way. So I'm just going to sit around waiting to see if it's a trend. Because really, I'm so close to the end of this pregnancy, I see no good reason why it SHOULD be a trend. I feel like I should catch a break already.

Oh, and I still have this cold. Which is probably not helping the BP issue. Colds are supposed to run their course in about 7 days. Today is day 8. It is time for it to go now. My throat hurts and it's hard to breathe (which makes it hard to distinguish whether the terbutaline side effects are problematic or if the cold is annoying). I'm stuffy and gross. Sudafed and other products don't seem to help. I would like for it to stop now, please. Not far now, my little smurfs. Not far now.

In other news, I sent myself a Pajama Gram for when the babies are born. I decided I was entitled to some nifty nursing pajamas. I had trouble deciding what size to buy, though... My pre-pregnancy size? That's what I've been wearing throughout my pregnancy... for the most part, I haven't been wearing maternity sizes. So what to do? Well, I went ahead and bought my pre-pregnancy size, on the theory that I'm 99% sure I'm having a c-section, so it can't hurt to be a little too lose on me, right? Besides, who knows how long it will take for some of this triplet belly to go away. Maybe it won't ever. Anywhozit, I will soon own some snuggly jammies.

Now what I really want to know is why didn't my husband ever buy me this super cute Vermont Teddy Bear?? (Besides the fact that I would have strangled him for tempting fate and for putting more clutter in my house?) And furthermore, why does Vermont Teddy Bear sell twin teddy bears, but not triplets? Okay, admittedly, I'm sure if I called them, they'd make it happen, and it's not terribly surprising that it's not available as a standard on their website selection. And it's not like I actually want them, because seriously, what am I going to DO with them? But still. I'm just saying!

And that, I believe, is enough jibber jabbering. I have to go back for my morning nap. I've been up for two and a half hours. I think that's long enough, don't you?