Geek Habitat

I visited my OB this morning for our 32 week check-up, and all is well. We chatted about the contractions I had Monday, and so far it’s par for the course (although not everyone has painful Braxton-Hicks contractions.) If I have more frequent painful ones (eg. six or more in an hour/every ten minutes or less) I should definitely call the OB’s office, which I assumed as much. I’d have been calling her on Monday if the contractions hadn’t stopped after two contrax over thirty-five minutes or so. As for the overall, generalized crampy feeling I have more often than not now? Welcome to mid-late pregnancy!

The only surprise? Somehow, I gained five pounds in the past two weeks. My OB is not concerned, in part because I didn’t gain any weight between 26 and 28 weeks, but I was flabbergasted. I’ve had some weeks where I feel like an absolute whale, but the past month or so I haven’t felt any heavier — just bigger-bellied. The recent weight gain does explain one thing, I think… I’ve been having a lot of pain in the arch of my left foot, such that I now limp in addition to my pregnancy waddle. My feet weren’t built to carry this much weight, at least not with it getting packed on this quickly!

Other stats? I checked my blood pressure at home before I left for the OB appointment, and thankfully our home BP cuff is miscalibrated because I was starting to wonder if my heart might blow up (not really, but the difference between its reading and the OB’s calibrated blood pressure cuff was staggering!) So, my blood pressure’s been hanging around 116/74 the past month or so, up from the steady 110/60 I’ve run for most of the pregnancy; both are just fine, per my OB. A woman’s blood pressure typically runs a little lower when pregnant, so my OB’s only remarked about my blood pressure once, when it was 126/80 back at 15.5 weeks.

Next OB checkup? February 22 at 34.5 weeks… time is flying by!