[Poasplus] How am I gonna make it through the next three weeks?

[Kathryn Tewson]

My due date is in two weeks, but my doctor is encouraging me not to think of
the 13th as a "magic day" but rather the 20th, because that's when the
answer to the question "Can we not DO something about this?" becomes "Yes,
let's talk about options." 

I am really getting miserable. The heartburn is terrible, I'm in horrible
pain all the time, I can barely move. I'm not sleeping well, and I have a
stuffy nose, no idea if it's a cold or just pregnancy rhinitis. Every time I
stay still for more than about 45 minutes, my hips lock up, and then moving
is a ridiculously hurty challenge. The top of my uterus is a full eight
inches higher than the bottom of my rib cage, and she is all the way up in
it, too -- I felt her kick me in the sternum this morning -- so I can barely
breathe. Bending over even a little bit is a complete no-op, which means no
laundry, no dishwashing, no putting the sheets on the bed in the nursery, no
nothing. 

My feet are so badly swollen right now -- an hour after I got up -- that I'm
seriously wondering if the skin on them is going to split. I tried
abstaining from caffeine yesterday (one mug of tea, not a quad mocha or
anything) to help it, and now I have swollen feet AND a caffeine withdrawal
headache. If I sit with my feet up for too long, the pressure on my low back
and my pelvis gets unbearable. Over-hydration and salt abstention is
probably the only answer, but between the hips and the feet I can't stand up
long enough to cook my own food, and everything pre-prepared has about a
year's worth of your RDA of sodium in it. 

It could be so, so much worse. I don't have PUPPS (shudder), I don't have
GD, I don't have pre-e. I carried this baby to term, and she is big and
robust and healthy. This is misery, but it's petty first-world misery,
frankly. And I know when the little girl gets herself born and I get to meet
her that it will all be worth it a thousand times over; I just feel ground
down and tired and in pain right now. 

If you made it this far, you probably deserve a medal.  Thanks for listening
to me whine.