Part 2: Doctors and the bump

(Part 1 is here.)

3. For the past few weeks I'd been feeling like I needed to crack my lower back but couldn't because my stomach was in the way. It was affecting the way I ran but wasn't exactly painful, definitely nothing I couldn't run through and nothing that bothered me when I wasn't running. At the same time I was noticing an occasional sensation in my pelvis -- not really pain, it just felt like my hips or pelvis was spreading. Amanda said she'd felt the same thing so I didn't give it much thought.

Then last Tuesday I ran my normal trails in Rassie Wicker with Lauren R. and my lower back was killing me by the end of the run. For the rest of the night I literally could hardly walk -- I used both hands and the railing to make it up three stairs from the garage to the house. It was borderline excruciating to walk or even stand.

I got online and self-diagnosed it as a problem with my SI joint. Apparently, near the end of pregnancy your body releases a hormone to relax the pelvic area and prepare the joints for childbirth. Occasionally it releases too much and the ligaments get too loose and unstable.

Normally I would wait out this kind of thing but a) the pain was really, really bad and b) I am terrified of chronic back problems and c) everything thing I read said this problem could get worse with future pregnancies, of which I'm hoping for several and d) I will go insane if I can't run again soon. All in all it seemed like something I should try to nip in the bud.

After NINE DAYS of not running the pain is much better but I still can't really walk without limping. So this morning I had the first chiropractor visit of my life. He said it's definitely an SI joint issue but the good news is it should improve a lot with some specific exercises (that I have to go back next week to get -- paying another specialist co-pay, annoying).

He said I should take another week or two off from running while doing these exercises, but after that I should be able to run again (while continuing the exercises for several months). I'm sure it will be awesome running for the first time after two or three weeks off in mid-June at 36 weeks pregnant, but whatever -- I won't complain. I was sure he was going to tell me to just hold off on running until after Claire's born (which I would have ignored, but it's nice to have official approval). He also "adjusted" me and it felt great.

4. This afternoon we had the routine 34-week appointment. Starting with the next appointment (36 weeks) we'll go weekly. Everything looked fine, baby's heart rate was great, urine was clean, etc. I didn't see my regular doctor and this one told me to keep my heart rate below 140 when running, but it's a little too late to worry about that.

He also told me to try to gain a pound by the next visit because apparently I haven't gained weight in the past month, but I'm not sure if he was serious. I am an eating machine -- anyone who's spent time with me will attest to that -- and I don't know of any other way to gain weight (except to cut back on exercise ... hmm).

5. Here's today's bump!

Part 1: Nursery and mystery gift

I guess I have some catching up to do, blog-wise. Here goes:

1. The nursery furniture is finally finished and for that we owe a HUUUUGE THANKS to Terry, aka Nana. She did all the dirty work -- priming, painting, glazing, staining when it turned out to be a much more ... vivid ... green than we had expected, and polying. On top of all that she intended to sneak back in with a drill and install the new handles, but we foiled her plan by coming home from the beach a day earlier than planned. I helped with the (three!) base coats and applying the glaze, but other than that, she did it all. Terry, thank you SO MUCH!

The awesomeness doesn't come through in the pictures. You should come see it for yourself.

Now all we have to do is organize all these piles of clothes and accessories (the girl has more shoes than I do) in the drawers. I'm hanging as much as I can but the closet is filling up fast. I didn't take a picture of that but I should have. It's a little shocking.
We had picked up the crib a week or two ago but it was just sitting in the box because we weren't inspired to put it together and there was no point anyway because we needed the floor space for painting the dresser and chest of drawers. Finally we got around to it Tuesday night, and can I just say thank goodness for a husband who can interpret instruction manuals with vague directions, not-that-helpful diagrams and extra screws.

We don't have a crib skirt yet, but we do have the matress and three fitted sheets -- $6.99-$9.99 at Target, nice! -- and I couldn't resist a trial run. My conclusion is that the total package is very cute. I love the way everything looks together.

2. When we got home from the beach we were really excited to find this package from abbyslane.com waiting for us! In retrospect I probably shouldn't have opened it until this weekend's shower, but I got ahead of myself. All of this is from my registry -- a BumGenius 3.0 one-size-fits-all cloth diaper, a super-cute Planet Wise wet bag for dirty/wet cloth diapers when we're on the go and a reusable wipe.

The only problem is I don't know who it's from so I don't know who to thank! I have a feeling a note or something was supposed to be included in the package, but it wasn't. If the generous gifter happens to read this blog, please identify yourself!
(Read Part 2 here.)

'An endless essay'

From "Loud and Clear":

"What those books [on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early childhood education] taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations and the older parents at cocktail parties -- what they taught me was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all. Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything.

"One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can only be managed with a stern voice and a time-out. One boy is toilet trained at 3, his brother at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome.

"As a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself."

Thank you, Anna Quindlen.

Counting down

Yesterday was the 32-week doctor's appointment and it was, as usual, uneventful. The most excitement came from the fact that we were going to eat at The Villager as soon as it was over. But boring is good when it comes to doctor's appointments.

Claire's heart rate has been in the upper-130s for the last couple of visits, down from the 150s several months ago, but apparently that's good because it's supposed to slow down as the pregnancy progresses. She's already positioned herself bottom-up, which is also good.

It was way early to be bringing this up, but I asked the doctor about the clinic's policy on inducing labor. He thought I was asking how early they would agree to induce me, and he told me 38 or 39 weeks if there were no red flags with the baby. But what I really wanted to know was how overdue I'd be allowed to get, because I'd much prefer to avoid an induction unless it's medically necessary, and he said I could go up to 42 weeks.

I hope and pray I don't go two weeks overdue (my amazing mom endured going THREE weeks overdue -- twice), but I'm glad it doesn't sound like they're going to rush things. I've heard horror stories of people having to fight not to be induced even just a few days after the due date. Which seems stupid since due dates are usually just an educated guess.

The heat of July could usher in a change of heart -- you never know -- but at least in that case it would be my decision, not something they're forcing.

Here's today's 32-week bump picture:In other news, Babies "R" Us called yesterday and said the crib came in, so we're going to pick it up tomorrow. Which means ... Remington Grill!

Short because I'm hungry

I actually took a bump picture during week 30 but I just got around to posting it. For the sake of chronological accuracy, I added it to this post, if anyone's interested. The belly is getting BIG (compare it with the 28-week picture!) -- but so is the baby! She weighs about four pounds now, and is almost as long (tall?) as she'll be at birth. Which, by the way, will take place two months from today if she's right on time. Craziness.

I recently read two articles loosely related to the "free-range kids" concept that I love. One was in The Wall Street Journal -- Dad gets credit for finding and forwarding it -- and the other was in Newsweek. I'm not in the mood to editorialize right now; suffice it to say I wholeheartedly endorse the general perspective and parenting philosophy they reflect.