Playing Footsie – 33 Weeks

This week I have discovered that I can feel his feet in my belly. He will stick them out and rather than it feeling like a general, non-descript large blob of baby, there is some definition enough to tell that it is, in fact, a foot! Too long to be a hand, but short enough, it has got to be a foot! I was sitting at my desk working on a project earlier this week when I felt it the first time. He has gotten more and more active lately, and as usual, he was moving around a lot. I put my hand down on my belly to calm him down a bit, and there it was! That distinct bump that is all foot! I could wiggle it and everything! It was pretty exciting.

I have learned to sleep on my side over the last several months. Now that he is so big, when I lay on my side, the bulk of his little body will slide with gravity down towards the bed on whichever side I am sleeping on. I can feel that once I/we get into this sleep position, he starts wiggling his little hands and feet on the other side of my belly. Well last night, he was sticking a foot out! I was so excited because Chris was there, and I wanted him to feel this new foot development. Well the coolest thing happened! The baby started playing with us/me! He would stick his foot out, and I would wiggle his little foot until he would put it down. A moment or two later, he would jab it back out again! I would wiggle it again until he put it down. Again, he would stick it back out in one quick movement. We kept going like that for about 10 minutes or so until I think I wore him out. He would fake me out sometimes sticking his foot out by my belly button, or up high, or down low, etc. His movements were so funny. I definitely think he enjoyed it as much as I did. It was so great to interact and play with him! It was crazy to see my stomach jut out like that. Chris and I were both laughing at how funny he was being! Can’t wait to meet this little guy!!

PUPPPs vs. ICP

Sorry for yet another PUPPPs note, but I learned something new that I wanted to have down for any future women I run into with severe itchy skin in their 3rd trimester!

I have been taking prenatal yoga since I was 12 weeks pregnant. The woman who teaches my class is just about the best person you can put yourself in contact with if you are pregnant in Colorado Springs. She is widely respected amongst the birthing community here and she knows EVERYBODY! I mentioned to her that I have PUPPPs, and she immediately thought of one of her former students that she knew that had the same issue really bad, to the point of electing to be induced rather than live with it any longer. She then formed a support group (no longer in existence. This was years ago) for women with the same issue. My yoga teacher put me in contact with her. The two of us have been emailing back and forth a bunch this week.

This lady didn’t have PUPPPs, she had something much more serious called ICP (Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy). It is very dangerous to the baby, and needs to be watched very closely. Women are commonly mis-diagnosed with PUPPPs when they really have ICP. That happened in her first pregnancy. They told her she had PUPPPs. Her second pregnancy when it happened again she did more research, read about ICP and insisted that she be tested for it, and discovered that she had it. Fortunately, both of her children came out fine. In her support group that she used to run, she strongly encouraged all the women to go get tested for ICP even if you really think that isn’t want you have. Better to be safe than sorry, and it’s a very simple blood test. Nothing invasive or difficult to do.

From my understanding (and please google it to get a more official explanation), ICP is an allergic reaction to pregnancy just as PUPPPs is. Both make you extremely itchy in your 3rd trimester. There are some subtle differences between the two, mainly in the onset of symptoms. ICP starts in your hands and spreads to the rest of your body. There may not necessarily be a rash associated with it. It is also genetic (although not always). If other women in your family get itchy 3rd trimester, it could be ICP. PUPPPs starts on your belly and spreads from there, and you definitely have a rash. ICP effects your liver primarily. Your body makes this acidic bile that your liver processes. If you have ICP, your liver stops processing the bile, and the responsibility of processing this stuff passes to the baby’s immature liver, for both mom and baby. As you can imagine, this can do considerable damage to baby’s liver and related organs, and can lead to intrauterine death. Women who have ICP are usually induced as soon as it is viable to do so. Very serious stuff.

My itchiness started on my belly and spread, and I definitely had the rash, so I don’t think I have ICP. I did have rashes on my arms and hands, so my doctor agreed that it would be a good idea to test for ICP just on the slim chance that that’s what I have. I went today to have it done. As I mentioned, it is a simple blood test. You have to fast for 12 hours before doing it, so I made an appointment first thing in the morning at the lab, so I could just roll out of bed and go. They took 2 vials of blood. It is kind of cool, they have to freeze the blood before testing it for some reason. I will find out the results in the next day or so. I am not anticipating that I have ICP by any stretch, but just want to be sure.

Anyways, I thought that was good advice to just go have it checked, and will remember to tell any women who are dealing with this to do the same since the two things (PUPPPs and ICP) are close enough in symptoms that you should really be thorough and check for both to make sure you are treating the right thing.

Thanks for reading!

Flight of the Conchords!!!

For Chris’s birthday this year, his brother Mark went all out and got him tickets to the upcoming Flight of the Conchords concert at Red Rocks in Denver. Chris was over-the-top excited! We never thought we would see these guys perform because the last time they came into town, the ticket prices were amazingly high. Somehow, Mark got a deal. The concert was last night, so we drove up. I had never been to a concert at Red Rocks and had heard so many awesome things about it. It was a pretty incredible place! The rocks were so beautiful. Amazing how they just naturally fall in this shape, perfect for an amphitheater! It sits up high on the mountains, and you get this amazing view of the Denver lights just beyond. Nature and city together. Awesome.

Being at Red Rocks 7 months pregnant was an interesting experience.

Drawbacks:
1. Dodging all the cigarette and pot smoke.
2. The HILLS!! Oh my goodness, when I am 9 months pregnant and desperate to get this boy out of me, I think I will need to go take a walk at Red Rocks. It made for some precarious walking, but we just went slow and took breaks. As a matter of pride, I refused to let it beat me so we kept going!

Upside:
1. When we finally got to the top, and I had caught my breath, next order of business was to find the ladies room. There was one bathroom up there (a onesie one too) and a line that was kind of long. I am pregnant and have a little one punching on my bladder, so what’s a girl to do? I got in line. As soon as I did, everyone in line around me started yelling “hey, let the pregnant lady go first!!” It embarrassed the crap out of me, but they insisted, so I got to go to the front of the line!
2. Then, after we made the rounds exploring the pavilion up there, the opening band had finished, and they were moving on to their second opening act. I was ready to sit, so we found this little area with a ton of empty chairs with a good view of the stage. There were a lot of people standing around behind it, but I didn’t pay much attention to them. I went and sat because that was what I needed to do. Turns out, that was the handicapped/medical risk people area! Because I am obviously pregnant-out-to-here, no one made us move! One security guard came by to check in on us to see if we were ok, but otherwise, thanks to my big belly, we got to have padded seats in an un-crowded area with an awesome view of the stage that was also right next to the bathrooms! Once the show started, there were pretty much no lines at the bathrooms, so we were all set! (Funny what becomes important to you when you are pregnant!)

The second opening act ended up being Arj Barker, the guy who plays Dave (pawn shop guy who is Bret and Jermaine’s good friend). He did some stand up comedy for a while and was incredibly funny. After he wrapped up his set, it was time for the main act, the Conchords! They came out in their robot costumes, and they didn’t do any upgrades on it since the show. It was seriously cardboard boxes painted silver. They did their first song in the costumes, and then they took those off and just wore their normal stuff. It was a really great show! No flashy sets or props or anything. They just sat up there and sang songs from both the first and second seasons of the show, and did funny banter in between.

They made fun of the audience every so often. Like they thought they saw someone holding a British flag. Jermaine asked if that was one quarter of a New Zealand flag. Upon closer inspection, it turns out it was in fact a New Zealand flag. Another point in the show, they announced that they were one of only two bands fortunate enough to tour with the New Zealand Orchestra. The other band with that honor was OMC – the band that had the hit 90’s single “How Bizarre.” Brett did a quick bit with his guitar making fun of the song. They brought out the New Zealand Orchestra at that point, and it turned out to consist of one cello player. They used to have a guy who played trumpet, and another guy who would dance in the background, but due to cutbacks, all they had now was a cellist. They were just regular guys! Every so often, they would ask their tech guys to raise the lights on the audience so they could see how many people they were performing for. They would then get freaked out and tell the tech guys to turn it off! They did songs like Business Time, Hip Hop-oppotomous, Mother-uckers, I’m Not Crying, Too Many D***’s on the Dance Floor (they opened with this one), and several others. Their encore consisted of a new western song they’d written and Alby the Racist Dragon.

It was a late night! We got home at 1:30am. So worth it though. We didn’t stress about getting up there or getting home. We just took our time and enjoyed ourselves. Thanks to Mark for a really fun evening!!

Sleeping with Gloves On

Ok, so forgive that I keep posting on this whole subject, but I just know that somewhere down the road I am going to run into some other poor soul with PUPPPs and she is going to say "you had it too?! What did you do to treat it?" and becuase I will have moved on and forgotten all the aches, pains and inconveniences of pregnancy I will wish I had written this stuff down somewhere!

My latest thing is that I am scratching myself in my sleep. I wake up and it is too late. I have unearthed another bad patch of PUPPPs that I then spend the next couple of days trying to avoid touching at all costs, even though it burns and crawls and I am dying to scratch it or do SOMETHING while it heals. The solution? Clip back your fingernails for starters. And, sleep in gloves. I tried this last night, and sure enough, I woke myself up scratching, but becuase I had the gloves on and there were no sharp surfaces, it did nothing. I have felt great today not having some delicate patch of it to care for and avoid like crazy. I think I am going to keep this up from now on, as much as it sucks to sleep in gloves. And with the prenatal vitamins my nails have been looking awesome lately, but nope. Those are weapons of torture in the middle of the night. I am 2 months away from my due date and I know it will fly by! Whatever I have to do to stay comfortable in the mean time!

The baby has been moving around a lot the last couple of days. I am starting to get to the point that when I feel him in there, it is less of a hard blob wherever he is, and now I think I can start to feel like a leg or arm or something. Some long hard thing that moves around. Everyone says he will grow to the point that I can make out his body parts - even see them through my stomach (foot, hand, whatever). Crazy stuff! He is cramped in there and trying to get comfortable for sure! It is fun to feel him move. Sometimes my stomach will twitch and stick out in odd places. Others can see it too. Sitting in meetings, or back in my office with my team. They have seen that movement. Chris has seen it too. I love it!

PUPPPs Update

Saturday I had another appointment at the acupuncturist. He asked me how I was feeling, and I said still itchy, but not so bad. Not sure if the improvement was due to the steroids or his treatment. He had me lay down, and put the jar with the concentrated allergen in it in my right hand, and did the thing where he had me put my left hand up in the air with my thumb pointed at my toe. Again he asked me questions (this time silently in his head) testing to see if I was still allergic to that sample in the jar. I am not (woo hoo!!). He then had me put my bare hand on my bare tummy and see if I am still allergic there. Boy was I! He then repeated the treatment he did last week where he did acupuncture needles in the pressure points, and then massaged each pressure point going in a clockwise direction around my body. The whole time I had to keep my hand on my stomach, and he instructed me to think about the baby. Envision what he looks like, what we will do together, etc. Once he finished the treatment, he left me in there for about 20 minutes, hand on stomach thinking about the baby and with the acupuncture needles in. Afterwards I was instructed to not touch my stomach for 25 hours, and to do the homework where I massage the 10 pressure points in the right order. He said if I did all that, I should be cured, and we can move on to treating my other allergies if I wanted.

Meanwhile, I went to my OB last week for a checkup on the baby. She thought it was a good idea I was trying the acupuncture. She has never sent someone to an acupuncturist for PUPPPs, but has known patients to go for pain and have found relief. She thought it would be good to stop using the steroids for a bit to see if the acupuncture or if any of the other things I have tried are working. The goal is to not need the drugs. Hopefully SOMETHING I am doing will help!

I took my last dose Saturday, and by Sunday evening into Monday, I was MISERABLE! Oh boy, did the PUPPPs come back with great force and vengeance! Shame on me for thinking holistically!! I couldn’t touch my skin without it burning and crawling. I called my doctor immediately and begged to get back on the Prednisone. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait too long for it to build back up in my system, so today I am much more comfortable. I will probably stay on the meds for the remainder of my pregnancy. It was a bummer, because I really thought I was tough enough and smart enough to find a way around this, but it just is what it is and I need to be comfortable with my body’s limitations, and just take the damn drugs already. I could go back and try another round or two of acupuncture, but I don’t think I will. I did 2 rounds of treatment, and the doctor declared me cured and I clearly wasn’t. And, I don’t know if any of you acupuncture folks out there had this experience, but that stuff made me SUPER emotional! Both times I went, within 24 hours of the treatment, I was crying about nothing in particular, and I couldn’t stop. I would eventually get it out of my system and move on – it wasn’t lasting, but man that stuff messed me up!

As of this moment in time, I think I can safely say that I have tracked down every available alternative to taking the steroids and have had no luck. I have tried all varieties of soaps, creams, ice packs, vitamins and yes, acupuncture. None of it worked. Maybe for some women out there that don’t have it as severe as I do can get away with doing the acupuncture and have it work. For me, not so much. I did get Chris to take some pictures of my rash last night before it really started to heal up and go away (I look MUCH better today!). I can’t believe I looked like that! I don’t think I will post them publicly here on the blog, but if you want to see what it looks like, I will show you individually. Or, you can google it. It is pretty rotten!

30 Weeks - At Garden of the Gods

30 Week Update

It has been about 6 weeks since I last did a full update on where we are with the pregnancy. I am now 10 weeks out to my due date! I can not believe I am in my 3rd trimester already! I went for a 30 week checkup at the doctor today, and all is looking great. He is growing like crazy! My doctor measures my tummy each time I go in, and the rule of thumb is that the number of centimeters from the base of my pubic bone to the top of my uterus should be equal to the number of weeks along I am. Well, I am 30 weeks pregnant as of today, and my stomach is measuring 33 centimeters – 3 ahead of what I guess is “normal!” I have wondered if he would be a big baby like the way most of the babies are in both Chris’s and my family trees. He is certainly not going to disappoint there! The doctor was ok with this. She did raise her eyebrows when she saw the measurement, but didn’t mention any concern. His heartbeat is also where it should be, and everything else is good with him!

As you can see from my posts below, I have developed an allergic reaction to the pregnancy that will last until I have the baby. I won’t go into too much detail on it, since I have it pretty well covered down in my previous posts, but it is making life a bit more of a challenge getting through this last leg of the pregnancy. I have to use this nasty smelling soap, and goopy lotion, and take steroids. I think when this is all over and it goes away, I am going to treat myself to some really great smelling soaps and lotions to make up for having to do this! My quality of life this week is far better than last week after having figured out some treatment options. It is just really annoying and at times uncomfortable to be so itchy.

Since the last post, we have gotten going on our birthing classes. We chose to do the Bradley Method, and are so incredibly glad we did! It was the most thorough, detailed, intensive class I could possibly find. We have learned so much about the whole process of giving birth and are feeling a lot less apprehensive about what I have to face in two and a half months! I am on a strict diet and exercise routine. I am learning lots of relaxation techniques, different positions and tricks to help move things along, and how Chris and I can be a good advocate for me in the hospital. I am feeling really good and confident with the idea of doing natural childbirth. I don’t think it is something you can just casually decide to do. There is rigorous training involved. I like a challenge, and after all I did to get in shape and be healthy before I got pregnant, I know that I have it in me to be quite the athlete and competitor! We will see how it goes. Every pregnancy is different, and I imagine so is every child birth. We will see what God has in store for me!

We are really getting busy with classes and other appointments. I have us booked in the coming weeks for Baby Care Basics, Infant CPR, Car Seat Safety, Daddy Bootcamp (Chris groaned when I signed him up for that one!), Breastfeeding Class, and we just did our hospital tour last weekend. It was interesting. Our Bradley class training really paid for itself in spades! We had TONS of questions prepared when we went. There were about 25 people on the tour, and we and another couple were the only ones who asked any questions! Everyone else just sat there like bumps on a log. The other couple who asked questions ended up being Bradley students as well. Just goes to show how important it is to learn what all your options are, so you can come up with a detailed plan for what you really truly want. It is a major medical event, and knowing how to negotiate with hospital staff was awesome.

I was disappointed in a few things. Like, they insist on strapping 2 monitors around my belly for 20 minutes out of ever hour. One measures my contractions and the other measures the baby’s heart beat. The problem is that they keep you pretty tied to the bed, and hampers your ability to move around (walking, different positions to help gravity along, etc). Not that when I am in hard labor do I plan on moving a tremendous amount, but earlier on when I still feel ok, I want to do what I can to help my body along. Having a nurse come in at the top of the hour to strap these things on me, 20 minutes later to take them off, 40 minutes later to put them back on, 20 minutes later to take them back off might be a little distracting. They also do not let you eat. Imagine going out to run a marathon and not having anything to refuel yourself along the way as you burn calories. I am worried about what that will do to my energy level. They also insist on keeping you in the hospital for 36-48 hours after the baby comes. I would like to go home as soon as possible. I want to stay long enough for him to be circumcised, and to make sure he is eating, but then after that, in the great words of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz “there’s no place like home!” I just want to be home where I am most comfortable and get on with the business of caring for my newborn. Chris’s parents are coming to help, so we won’t be by our lonesome figuring this stuff out. We talked with the doctor about all this today. It is hospital policy to do these things. I think I may get some wiggle room on the length of stay. If I am doing well, and the baby is doing well, then we can go. She also insisted that the schedule on the monitoring isn’t so rigid that if they come in to put the monitor on me and I am in the middle of a contraction, they will wait until I am done before moving me around. As for the eating thing, I can do liquid varieties of anything that I want. We will need to get creative there.

We have a lot to figure out in the next 10 weeks before he comes. It is a little overwhelming. We still need lots of stuff. We had one baby shower in Kansas City over Easter with Chris’s family, which was awesome. I have two more coming. One with family and close friends in Colorado Springs, and one at my work. That will be a big help. And just figuring out how we want the birth part of this to go. Then there is setting things up at work so I can be gone on maternity leave. And hopefully selling our old house sometime in the not to distant future so we only have one house to worry about when the baby comes. Finishing up repairs on the new house since we won’t be able get to it for a while come July. The list goes on and on… Oh my goodness!! Prayers please!! One way or another, July will come and we will do what everyone else does when they have children and just work it out!

Hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for reading and drop us a note when you get a chance to let us know what is new.

PUPPPs Remedies

Just in case I ever run into another woman suffering from PUPPPs in her 3rd trimester like I am, I want to document what I am doing – what works for me. I have found the following remedies helpful:

• Grandpa’s Pine Tar Soap – No kidding, this stuff smells like shoe leather, but it is great for easing irritable skin. DO NOT shower in hot water. Hot things agitate the rash, so keep the water lukewarm. Soap up, and then use a shower puff to really rub this stuff in well and make a good lather. Let it sit on your skin for a minute or two, and then rinse it off. It takes about a week to get to the point that it starts making a difference. You can find it at your local natural foods store. Chris got mine at the Mountain Mama on Uintah. The hippie at the checkout counter was like “Dude…you know what this stuff smells like, right?” Awesome.
• Eucerin Calming Cream – After I get out of the shower, I lather this on all over my rash. Put it in the refrigerator to add the cooling effect. It’s awesome.
• Sarna Anti-Itch Lotion – This cools off the itching immediately. If you use it too much, it stops working. If you have a large area that is really bothering you (tummy, back, etc) this cuts down the itching immediately.
• Hydrocortisone Cream – Also works immediately.
• My doctor prescribed steroids. I take 40mg of Prednisone a day. I also have Hydroxyzine 25mg to take as needed. I pretty much just use the Prednisone though. They work great, but it is a hefty dose, and it is unclear what it does to the baby.
• I am also seeing an Acupuncturist who is doing Naet treatment on me (a variety of acupressure. Pronounced “nie-et”). Read below for more details on that. I can’t comment on if it is working or not because I am still too new at it.

Sarah's Adventures at the Witch Doctor

So for those who aren’t in-the-know, last week was a really tough week for me. I started to get really itchy irritated skin. By Tuesday I was miserable. I kept waking up at night feeling like my skin was on fire. If I scratched it, it would get 8 times worse. I called my doctor, who had me come in to take a look at it. She said that I was having an allergic reaction to the pregnancy, a condition called PUPPPs. (PUPPP stands for some ridiculously long, impossible to pronounce medical jargon). It is more common in pregnancies with boys, and there is research indicating that the allergic reaction is tied specifically to the male fetal DNA. The only way to fix it is to have the baby. Otherwise, you can use a myriad of over the counter stuff that doesn’t quite work, oatmeal baths, cold showers, etc. Because mine was so bad, my doctor put me on a pretty hefty dose of steroids. I have really been trying to do this whole pregnancy thing as natural as possible, so I was really disappointed to have to take this step. At first, when I would take the pills, my little guy would be super active, and then crash. This weekend, I have definitely noticed that he wasn’t moving as much. He did move – just not as much as normal. Being on the drugs also makes my pregnancy higher risk, because there is no clear evidence as to what it does to babies. It can stunt their growth, or make them grow too much. I will have to go to the doctor more often to check on that – if I stay on them! The steroids have made me feel significantly better however and life is miserable without them, so there is a lot to weigh out. I am 29 weeks pregnant and still have so far to go before he can come out.

In discovering that I have this, I have scoured the internet for alternative remedies. Historically, I am all for the powers of modern medicine. I have never considered trying a more holistic approach to anything. Ever. So, this was a first. I knew that chiropractors can take care of allergies, so I tried that first. I called a lady in town that is known for fixing odd issues with pregnant women. She didn’t seem to have much of a clue about PUPPPS, so I opted not to go. Meanwhile, a friend was visiting an acupuncture office that treats pregnant women, and she had asked for me if they had treated anyone with PUPPPS before. Sure enough they have and with great success, and even just finished seeing one woman through the duration of her pregnancy. She sent me a note right away letting me know what she had learned, and I made an appointment for the soonest they could get me in.

Today was the big appointment. It was a 2 hour event where the Doctor (using all my efforts not to put quotations around the word Doctor right now. Funny for me to consider an acupuncturist a doctor!) took a full look at my medical profile. He asked all the usual questions plus a few strange ones like "Any recurring nightmares?” and “Do you have any cravings?” I am perfectly healthy outside of my PUPPPS, so that didn’t take too long. I really felt at ease because he then explained to me what PUPPPS was, and everything he said was in line with what I had read about it. He really understood what was going on, and felt confident in his ability to treat it. Then he felt my pulse. They have 3 places on each wrist where they can feel for the strength/weakness of your vital organs. It wasn’t just “ok you have a pulse. You are alive!” I think he felt something on my right wrist like my lungs or spleen or something. I wish I had asked what it was!

After that, he had me get settled laying down, so he could get on with the treatment. This was the really interesting part. He started off by having me lay with my right hand open at my side. My left hand, he had me raise up in the air, and hold my hand stiff with my thumb pointing down towards my big toe. He then asked questions to my subconscious. Some questions were asked aloud, and some in his head. After he would ask each question, he would apply pressure to my hand, trying to push it down, and I had to resist. Whenever my hand would give, it meant “yes” to his question. Whenever it would stay stock still, it meant “no.” The questions were around if I was open to the treatment, if it was ok for him to treat me, what my symptoms were and what parts of the body were effected, etc. They were things that I inherently knew, but no kidding, my hand and the resistance thing answered each question perfectly!

Once we got that part overwith, he moved on to the pressure points part of it. The course of treatment he chose to do was a combination of an allergy program called “naet” (pronounced “nie-et”) plus a small amount of acupuncture. Naet focuses on pressure points, and acupuncture is the part with needles. So the naet came first. There are 10 main pressure points in the body. He basically set about applying pressure to each one in clockwise order, starting and finishing at my right wrist. A full minute is spent on each point. He had me hold a jar in my right hand while he did it that held a vial that had some of the allergen in it (or a simulation of it anyways. I am allergic to my baby boy. Doubt he has that in a jar handy!). He also touched on some additional pressure points that connect to my vital organs. From what I understood, it kind of re-set my main body systems with an extra dose of the allergen around to try to tell it it’s ok to have that substance around. After the pressure points part, he did 2 needles in each hand, and 2 needles in each foot. He dimmed the lights, and left me in there with the needles for about 20 minutes. They had soothing music, and it was super relaxing. I couldn’t help but fall asleep for a bit!

After that, it was all over! I have homework to do now that I am done. For the first 25 hours, I can not touch my belly. The reason why is that when they do this allergy treatment on most people, they can avoid the allergen (like don’t eat peanuts for 25 hours if that is what you are allergic to). The baby is a part of me, so the best I can do is to not touch my belly. Apparently, your palms absorb a lot of information, energy, whatever, so don’t exacerbate things by touching my belly. After tomorrow afternoon, I can touch it all I want, so it isn’t forever thank God! I also have to repeat the applying pressure to the 10 pressure points every hour, on the hour (except for when I am sleeping). Then, once the 25 hours is up, I leave things alone and see how I feel the rest of this week. I go back in for a follow up appointment on Saturday.

I am interested to see how this all turns out. I have read from numerous accounts of women who have done this therapy with success, that when you are in this initial 25 hour period, your symptoms can get worse before they get better. The side effects aren’t really clear. It depends on the person. It is doing weird stuff to your body, really! Every time I have done the pressure points exercise, the baby is moving around like crazy! It was such a relief after having a few quiet days when he didn’t do so much. Clearly, this is doing something. I also felt really high and good this afternoon. Then as it got to be early evening, suddenly life got dramatic, and I have been super emotional for no good reason at all! Chris is hiding out in his man cave in the basement and I so don’t blame him!! I am starting to feel itchy and am wondering what kind of a night I am in for.

Well, I have 3 minutes until I have to do my next round of pressure points, so I had better sign off. I will post the progress. Thanks for reading!