18 Weeks

This morning in the shower I looked down at my hand and saw that my wedding ring wasn't there. I usually only take it off for specific reasons and with moving, everything is sort of out of place still. This was the first time I couldn't remember taking it off. I kept thinking where I would have put it, and even glanced out the curtain to see if it was on the bathroom counter. "I'll find it somewhere, I'm sure it has to be in the house, so don't stress." I thought to myself. When I got out of the shower I started making a mental list of places I would check. Then I realized I should double check my hands. It was on my finger the whole time. I had looked at my right hand in the shower. This made me feel stupid.

My chiropractor gave me a huge support belt to wear around my hips. It takes the weight of the baby off of my lower back. What amuses me about it is that is makes my hips look tiny and gives me a giant belly muffin top. It's very attractive.

I've decided my good luck must have worn off after the first trimester. They say that the second trimester is the joyride of pregnancy. For me it's been a fairly painful experience in my back and abdominal muscles, and it's worse when the baby is shifting or I have bad gas in my intenstines. It's getting more difficult to stand up after lying down for more than ten minutes or so and I get wrenching pains when I do. The belt really helps but I can't wear it constantly.

I tried to do the one prenatal yoga workout that was available on Netflix stream this evening. I want to try to find a workout both to keep me from losing all the shape I worked so hard on before I got pregnant, but also to try to build strength to alleviate some of the pain I'm in. I wanted to punch the lady leading the video. Perhaps I'm oversensitive at the moment, but when I hurt, the last thing I want to hear is how "at one with the earth" I should be. This is something that always annoys me about yoga. What if I don't care about my spiritual connectedness to my workout and I just want to stretch and feel better? I tried really hard to buy into all of this when I did bikram yoga but I ended up being more frustrated than anything. I think the "spiritual" aspect doesn't come into play unless you can be alone in your head while you exercise. I spend lots of time focusing on my breathing when I'm paddling in the dragon boat or walking a trail by myself. When someone's talking me into it I get annoyed.

I ordered a different video off of amazon. Hopefully I will find it less annoying. I need to do something to build up my strength and stamina for labor and delivery anyway. I'll report on my findings with this video when I have something to report. Has anyone else found a class or a video that they liked? I'm curious for ideas.

I remembered yesterday that your uterus is more efficient with labor and contractions if it's toned, and that the best way to tone your uterus is to drink pregnancy tea. You're not supposed to drink it in the first trimester so I forgot about it, but I remembered I could drink it now and I've been on my A game having a cup a day so far. I got a tea kettle and everything! It's good tea weather anyway with the constant rain and all!

13 days until my ultrasound!