A Little Spud Update

I realized that I have been so busy filling everyone in on Spud's new house that I haven't really been reporting on the spud himself. He's still doing really well. Our last checkup went fine: heartbeat still strong, my blood pressure is good, weird headaches stopped, and I think my iron is more on track. I'm feeling much bigger these days which means he's growing like he should.

Only one sort of frustrating thing: right now he's head-up. I refuse to refer to it as "breach" yet because he still has about 3 weeks in which he will very likely right (well, upside down) himself. "Only 3% actually present as breach at labor," I always tell myself. He's got his legs down in the space between the ridge of my scary hipbone and the bottom of my ribs on the left side. He's kicked me in the floating ribs more than a few times! If I recline on my left side (like the books say you should do ALL the stinkin' time), he starts stomping around there. Thankfully, my nice midwife said that it's fine for me rest on my right or even on my back if it feels ok. Although, it's now started to bother me a bit to be on my back. I try to encourage him to somersault with gentle massage in (what I imagine is) the right direction. Of course, because I'm silly, I always worry that I'm going to poke him the eye! I hate getting poked in the eye ;).

In other Spud news, we had a wild and crazy weekend. On Saturday, Spud went to the coolest, sold-out concert in town: DeVotchka! They were GREAT. So tight; so talented. Spud didn't seem to be too horrified, and I think he may have even really enjoyed the stimulation. We stood at the back of the crowd so that all the bodies could absorb the sound. I kept moving my head down to my own waist height to do volume checks. It was WAY quieter down there, so that helped me to feel better. Aside from enjoying the show, I was pretty miserable the whole time because I had to stand. A heartless, legalist security guy made me stand up... even between sets, and I'm like OBVIOUSLY pregnant now! Anyone who's known me long can testify to how hard it is for me to be on my feet in one place for too long because of my back problem. Well, it's 10 times worse pregnant! Thanks, PNB :). I paid for my fun at the show with 2 consecutive days of pretty bad residual back pain complete with sciatica. Oh well. I think it was worth it; the show was good. I'm glad it was good! That's the last show I'm going to for a while, I suspect.

Thankfully, I recently moved to a once a week schedule for physical therapy. Marsha is wonderful, and I don't know what I'd do without her! If you need a PT and you know me, email me for her info. My ribs still hurt often and much, but it's WAY better now that she's been working on them weekly. She significantly improved the sciatic pain too. Now, she's started working on my feet. I didn't even tell her they hurt. She just was looking at how I was standing and said, "oh, so your feet are starting to bother you. We'll work on that." Amazing. Of course, every time I tell her she's amazing and clever, she says, "Well, that's why you pay me. I'm supposed to know all this." :) I think Spud loves Marsha too because the better she makes me feel, the more willing I am to get out and move around, and Spud likes his human carrying case to sway as much as possible!

A final report: I have one pair of (non-extremely-schleppy) pants that fit me :(. Hopefully, the rumored hot weather will actually arrive, and I can start wearing skirts!