Third trimester

This is what is happening with us: I'm on sick leave and as it now looks like not likely to return to work before my maturnity leave begins. Sick leave sounds very serious and in a way I do feel like someone recouperating from an illness. However, the problem is mainly the fact that I haven't really been able to get a proper night's sleep more than about once or twice a week. Most of the time I feel so uncomfortable that the nights are at times closer to nightmares than anything else. The baby, on the other hand, is getting bigger and stronger by the day and seems quite oblivious of her mom's discomfort - as she should, too.

Unfortunately we were - or rather I was - getting so tired that both my mood and even the baby were being affected by my tiredness. My stress levels rose and when they do then our poor daughter gets really restless in addition to which the amount of false contractions started to be a concern. On the other hand, my blood preassure hasn't been affected which is a great blessing. Another blessing is of course that I have a great doctor who immediately saw how I was doing - me bursting into tears because she just gently asked how I was doing might have given her a bit of a hint :).

I'm now home for the second day and little by little I'm starting to realize that I might not be irreplacable when it comes to my job. There are some things I need to do but I've come to the conclusion that it really mainly is to make a list of things for Outi to help her when she starts in February. In addition, I take care of the emails, of course, but I'm hoping that's pretty much it since in all honesty I really just want to be home at this point. Weird, though!

One of the reasons for my discomofort is that the baby is a pretty big little girl - there's an oxymoron for you :). My body's metabolism is not dealing with sugar as it should. My condition is - at least for now - a mild one so they're not calling it pregrancy related diabetes but there is a risk for it. Next week I go for more tests in our local univeristy hospital.

For now I've been put on a diet (watch the fats and avoid sugar) which is of course always good but it isn't the easiest thing to do when you're tired and love sweets. I am actually doing quite well, though, and really pleased about that but there's almost three months to go and I worry that I might not have the will power to stay on it. On the other hand, this is about both mine and the baby's health so that does fall under the category of if you ever had a reason to diet this is it! The idea is not to loose weight since that isn't good for the baby but to keep my blood sugar as steady as possible.

Excercise is also a part of this. The embarassing thing is how slow I've become. Little old ladies are starting to pass me on the street. The fact that we finally have snow - yay! - is also a problem in that it is somewhat slippery and pregnant women are not supposed to take falls. But it's great out there so I do intend to get our butts out there and just walk veeery carefully. And we do have a cross trainer at home, too.

Talking about butts :) those muscles are the ones being most affected by the increasing weight. They support us upright and in my case I've managed to get an inflammation to the left side already once - before pregancy - and the problem is that there is a pretty powerful nerve there that is quite painful when the muscles get too tense. Sitting especially affects it so there's another reason why office work is a bit impossible at the moment. These are of course things you really want to know about your pastor, right? Sorry about that.

But (no pun intended) this is what is happening now. The baby moves as actively as ever and since she's gotten bigger the kicks are at times really powerful. Monday she tried to expand her living quarters by pressing outwards which felt really funny and strange. Apparently she's already turned which is great and we hope she stays that way and doesn't decide she'd rather be head up after all.

If she continues in her current rate of growth, despite diet, there is a chance that labor will have to be induced before the due date or that we'll need a c-section. I really hope and pray it won't have to come to that but this is in God's hands. I've been praying that He bless the delivery from the beginning of this pregnancy so I have to trust that He knows what is best for us both and that He will give the doctors wisdom to make the right decisions. I am worried, though, because letting nature take it's course would be the best opition for the baby and my body, too - provided of course that we both could take it.

Husband is being his sweet, loving and helpful self so I have the best support in the world in him and in God. We might just make it to the due date!