Funny Feelings

OK, I'm trying not to obsessively read through my library of a million zillion pregnancy books (I haven't - I swear) or search the Internet for some definitions for what I am feeling, but I will share and if you have any thoughts, I would LOVE to hear them.

As you may recall, my last visit to our favorite midwife got me started on 200mg of Evening Primrose Oil per day orally (her recommendation which seems less than others have suggested but going with her instructions). She did say I could also take it internally if I got the big caplets but right now, I have the smaller ones.

I'm also drinking Raspberry Leaf Tea - Earth Mama Angel Baby's Third Trimester Tea - and a hand-mixed Raspberry Leaf/Hibiscus/Cinnamon blend from Apothecary Tinctura in Denver.

So here is what I've been feeling, especially pronounced in last few days...

1. menstrual crampy - throughout the day but especially at night and early in the morning. Getting to the point that I'd really like to take a Tylenol to ease the discomfort because my lower abdomen is pretty achey (as are my hip joints and quads - I wake up and have a hard time walking when I first get out of bed).

2. lower back pain - similar crampy sensations in lower back - comes and goes but often joins in with the lower abdomen cramps for an all around crampy feeling.

3. nausea/icky - this is not at all like 1st trimester nausea - this is just this overall internal feeling of yuck. Sometimes eating helps, sometimes it doesn't. Don't feel like I'm going to barf exactly but just not feeling very good.

4. Braxton Hicks come and go and not sure how often because sometimes I don't notice them but then I get this weird feeling in my heart - sort of like palpitations or the onset of an anxiety attack but I'm not anxious at all. I'm pretty darned relaxed and just letting things happen. But that heart sensation contributes to the icky feeling.

5. Activity in the vaginal/cervix region- I feel weird tingly sensations and the occasional sharp but very quick pain. I keep wondering if my mucous plug will plop out at any moment but there isn't much extra discharge and no blood or other stuff. So I'm guessing I'm still closed and plugged up.

I'm just going about my business, trying to go outside to get a little exercise by walking the Black Lab to the park. I'm moving slowly, snail-like, but again, I just go with it and don't worry too much about it. I sort of like waddling down the cul-de-sac like the very pregnant woman I am. To tell the truth, I'm feeling pretty proud of my current state of being. (So sue me for being such a show-off.)

Overall, I just keep having this thought "Things are changing. Things are happening" but not sure what it all means.

Any thoughts on the above?

Weird Dream

I've had very few dreams that I can remember throughout my pregnancy but last night, I had one that was vivid and weird so here it is:

I gave birth to a white rabbit with a French accent wearing a velvet lavendar tuxedo. He was wondering why I was the one who gave birth to him. I tried to explain the randomness of birth. He was clearly displeased about the whole situation but was trying to be polite. He wanted to go somewhere else, be with other parents who were more like him. I knew I had to let him go.

The birthing room was like a hotel room but with a long hallway leading to the bathroom and another hallway with doors leading out to the main hall where a very loud party was going on. People kept mistakenly walking through our birthing room so we had to barricade the doors to keep strangers out.

There you have it. Me and my French Rabbit!

Comments

[Michelle]

Sounds to me like things are getting ready for delivery(yahoo!!). I felt very similar starting about a week before I delivered. Crampy, icky, tired, restless(but couldn't move to much), and I started getting braxton hicks. I hadn't had any up to 6 days before I delivered, and I beleive they actually were doing something because I my delivery was FAST! Almost to fast.

So I would guess you'll be early, but on the other hand I know women who've had contractions and been 4cm for weeks.....you just never know!

[Kat]

Do you like the number 4? I see June 4th. I think you're gonna be early my friend.

[Panda]

I too felt just like that for the last week or so. The menstrual crampyness is all part of the braxton hicks experience. I think the tinglyness in the nether regions is from pressure on nerve endings. I didnt really feel any sensations prior to the plug starting to come away, but then my cervix didnt really do much of anything.

And have you been reading Alice In Wonderland? Thats a very bizarre dream, but the velvet tuxedo is a nice touch!

[Kier]

Your list of new feelings and physical changes are identical to what I felt about a week and a half before I went into labor- I especially remember the strange heart palpitations because no one had ever told me about them!

Hope you don't mind, but I just read your dream aloud to my husband, and he officially declared your mind to be even stranger and more creative than mine! (a big feat, he says). I cracked up about the tux!

[plucky punk]

I, too, have been feeling weird twinges in the vaginal region...I get similar twinges right before my period begins usually, which I always kind of figured was my cervix rejiggering in preperation for menstruating. I agree it's probably the mucus plug doing stuff, but probably I should just ask my doctor.

The main thing that's been bugging me is incredible pain in my hips and pelvis, especially when walking, getting out of bed, getting out of the car, or basically anything that requires putting one foot in front of the other.

I asked my doctor about that and he said it was the relaxin hormone making the cartilage on the front of my pelvis widen in preperation for birth. But wow, it seriously hurts to the point where I've been walking with a cane. Once my hip actually gave out and I fell over.

Maybe that means I'll have an easy birth.

[aliza at babyfruit]

Yeah, that loosey goosey hip thing is just intense! I've had even more pain in hips and quads getting out of bed or getting out of a chair and this morning toppled into the wall on the way to the bathroom - just a gentle stumble but simply because my joints gave out momentarily. I'm now walking like a 99 year old woman - a cane would sure come in handy.

[Mia]

Sounds like the beginning stage of labor to me (which can come weeks ahead of time). A few weeks before I had my son, I noticed a sharp pain in my upper rib cage (like a runner's stitch). Found out later that was labor pain. During more active labor, it moved to the front and radiated down to the pubic area.

Everything is pushing towards your pubic area which may explain the twinges of pain (?).

I felt like you did about 2-3 weeks before labor, and was weekly going to the Dr and I was only 2-3 cm dilated. Eventually my Dr would schedule my induction, and I don't know if it was because it was scheduled, but I always started feeling better once it was. Also my ob erred on the low side, and my 7 lb baby were nearly 9 lbs.
My daughter and I's favorite picture from her birth is moments after she is born, her Dad holding her. He has tears running down his face and a huge smile, you can feel his love. She graduates from kindergarten this week with a big event, and we expect Dad will be teary-eyed again.

[Mrs X]

Ok. The dreams. Gah, the dreams! Pregnancy? Does very strange things to your head. Or, it has to mine and given the french rabbit, I'd say yours too.
I once had a dream that an ice cream truck was being driven down our street with the music blaring at 4 am and being chased by the police. It was so real I actually got up, after the second pass of said ice cream truck, to see what was going on.
My husband has yet to let me live that down.
And there was the one where I gave birth and the baby immediately began to eat my arm. As in my entire arm was in his mouth. Clearly? Disturbed.

Point is, hormones do funny things to the mind.