36 Weeks

I cannot believe that I only have 4 weeks left. This pregnancy has not felt fast by any means but now that I only have a month to go I can't believe I've made it this far either!! :] It's so exciting.

I know this is usually the longest time for pregnancy but I think it'll will feel faster for me for two reasons...

1) I'm in San Diego every week Tues-Fri for doctors apptointments. It's hard to drive down (and be away from my hubby :[ ) but it helps break the week up and things feel like they are going a lot faster.

2) I'm actually feeling normal (well pregnancy normal.) I've come to realize that if I didn't have CF I would carry this baby fantastically (Or maybe Heavenly Father is just helping me carry a baby well so that I'll be able to handle the whole C.F side). I still am lugging around a little human being and no matter how well you handle pregnancy there are just certain side effects you're going to have no matter what that aren't fun.

I'm a little hesitant to say I'm feeling normal again because every time I do something pops up but I think over all I'm past the worst (knock on wood!) Last Saturday I had another weird "pleurisy" bought (where the lining/tissue of my lungs become inflamed). I put pleurisy in quotations because I'm not totally sure it's what it was because the pain was shooting into my abdomen. It came on very suddenly and was extremely painful and because it was all over my stomach (and I mean ALL over) I was worried something was wrong with the baby. I waited for about 30 min until I just sat holding onto the couch shaking and crying from the sharp pains that were all over my torso area. I could hardly breathe and I kept trying to relax but every time I let go of my stomach muscles the pain became 100 times worse. It "calmed down" for about 5 min which gave me just enough time to hop in the car and head over to labor and delivery. I got there, they monitored the baby and everything looked fine and the pain started subsiding. So after a while we left and it got worse again when we were driving home but at this point I just wanted to be home. The baby looked good so I knew the abdomen pain was just some weird coincidence and the ER can't really do anything for pleurisy anyway except give you pain killers (which I had at home) so I wasn't going to pay to go back in so they could run tons of tests with no answers. I popped a vicodin, ate some food, and have been fine ever since.

This one may be a little bit of a TMI so just skip this paragraph if you want. Monday I had some bad constipation. Everything was backing up and I was have some sharp pains from that as well which was causing some pretty intense nausea. Constipation is common with CF patients and with pregnancy so it's only normal that with these 2 things combined this is something I'd really struggle with. Usually when I'm not pregnant I'd jump straight to mineral oil but that's not good for pregnancy so I was trying Colace but that was a joke (that stuff is for people who don't have bowl issues and are a little backed up... pitiful.) Luckily after Monday the pain went away but I'm still dealing with it. Things are getting a little better but I'm starting Miralax so hopefully that will make everything "normal" again. :]

The last little bit is I've had some super intense itching.... everywhere!!! Toes, feet, heels, ankles, calves, thighs, stomach, chest, back, shoulders, arms, elbows, wrists, hands, fingers, neck, chin, jawline, nose, face, eyes, forehead, head, etc. I'm not joking! It doesn't all itch at once but multiple parts of my body will itch (right now my left ankle, right calf, left cheek, chin, and head are) and if I unintentionally start scratching then the race to see how many body parts can itch at once begins and I have to suffer through and get my mind off it until it passes. I know your  belly itching is common so I just figured this was also. Well the nurse had noticed that I'd been scratching at my appt. yesterday and told me I needed to talk to the doctor about it. Apparently intense itching like this during pregnancy is signs of liver problems. I know that sounds bad and honestly I can't remember what he was saying it could be (and I'm kicking myself for not writing it down) but I remember I wasn't concerned and whatever it was would be found out with a blood test and is very treatable. I also know that it isn't horrible for the mom but can be bad for baby but like I said, is very treatable and he wasn't worried.

Have I mentioned how excited I am I only have 4 weeks left?! :] And it really is only four because my OB wont let me go past my due date. I'm really hoping I'll go into labor and not need to be induced but we'll see.