32 weeks (or maybe 33?)

32 weeks...how did it happen?  Ok, actually, I have to admit; I got a little confused about my week-number.  Somewhere along the line I got a little confused, so I thought I was 33 today.  But I recounted on the calendar and I'm 32...and my doctors' office says 32...but the hospital email  I get says 33...and they all have the same due date!  What gives Holy Cross?  You totally threw me for a loop!

Speaking of my doctors' office...wow, do I love that place.  I feel so blessed to be able to say that because I know a lot of women feel like just another number at their practice.  I also feel blessed to be able to say that because I've dealt with a LOT of medical intervention in my life and have had more than my fair share of negative medical experiences.  We currently have Kaiser insurance, and I have to say that every other Kaiser facility we've been to has been way lame.  But our center's ob-gyn practice is fantastic.  I met the last of their four doctors today and each one has been fabulous.  The doctor we met today was really interested when we told him we'd been working with teen moms at YoungLives camp all week, and told us about his medical missions trip to Honduras with his church.  He was great, and the baby's heart is right-on as well as her size.  I'm stressed a little though because our benefits are up on August 30th and we still don't know what's going to happen with that.  It's even harder to know that stressful change is coming when I love my doctors so much and I don't want to switch.     

Pregnancy continues to fascinating to me.  It's difficult physically, but it's so utterly joyful.  I love being pregnant.  I love the wiggles and squirms of this baby. I love planning for her, thinking about her, talking about her.  I love wondering what she'll look like, what she'll sound like, what she'll smell like.  I love that during this season she's so mine.  I love when other people ask about her, and I'm probably one of the only people who actually loves it when other people touch my belly.  I feel like they are getting to shake her hand or something.  :)

I've also been feeling so much better in general.  My heart palpitations I've been monitored for all pregnancy have finally gotten better.  It was so weird; a couple of weeks ago, after a few days of feeling pretty awful (the racing, rapid heart rate was exhausting and making me feel so dizzy and sick) we were having dinner with friends.  We ended up cutting the evening a little short because I was so uncomfortable.  I was having some Braxton-Hicks and I swear it felt like the baby was trying to karate-chop her way out of my side!  Nothing felt wrong or scary, she was just moving so much and it was really uncomfortable.  Well, somehow she twisted her way into a better position, because my heart has been feeling SO MUCH BETTER.  I still have the palpitations, but nowhere near as bad as they were.  It's AWESOME! 

I have two health complications that are related to Celiac Disease.  I don't talk about it much, but I have mild chronic fatigue syndrome and moderate fibromyalgia.  They actually affect my daily life in a negative way more than CD.  (Although I wouldn't have them if I didn't have CD...so I guess it's all the same).  I always wondered and worried how those would affect pregnancy, and I can say that for the past couple of months, the chronic fatigue is gone!  It disappeared about the same time as the nausea.  It's been great to just feel energized.  On the flip side, the fibromyalgia has been quite a bit worse, coupled with the other pains of pregnancy.  But the blessing is that the energy increase makes coping with the pain SO much easier.  I'll take the ouchiness over exhaustion any day.  I wish I could keep this forever!  Even with sleeping less at night, I hardly want naps or feel like I'm dragging.  When I do get tired I feel really grumpy, but not sleepy or foggy.  That said, I know it will disappear as I get bigger, but I sure have loved enjoying it now.  It made our grand adventure to Niagara Falls and YoungLives camp so wonderful.  I'd been worried about that trip, but I knew that people were praying for me and the baby and we were SO BLESSED by that time.

So anyway, more on our grand adventure later, as well as a few other things.  I just wanted to get these few thoughts down so I won't forget them later!  I'm starving and will probably drink milk and eat fruit with lunch; my two constant cravings!  And chocolate...but I don't think that craving can really be blamed on pregnancy. :)

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